(no subject)
I've just returned from saying goodbye to Rita, my longtime mentor and riding instructor. She passed away this evening at around 5 o'clock. She had been through so much over the past few years...illness after illness just taking so much away from her. It's so hard to believe she's actually gone now, after all that battling. I probably butted heads with her more than anyone else over my years at the farm, but it wasn't ever for a lack of respect. She just always expected so much better than what everyone else considered their best, and I regretfully didn't come to realize that until her presence down at the barn dwindled over the past year. Especially lately, I found myself longing for the days she would be around constantly to give us a good lecture when we deserved it. Things around the farm have been markedly less than stellar since she's been confined first to the chair, then to a bed. Catie ad I always talk lately about how we wished she had had her health again to come down and run things the way they needed to be run. It was so hard to see someone so strong lose the ability to control the things she cared about most: the care of the horses, and the care of the farm. People were not her specialty, but over the years she gradually showed a humanity I wish we'd been privileged to see all along. It's sad, really. I can't even remember the last conversation we had, or the last time I stopped in to say hello. But I do remember the last lesson she ever gave me, and I will do my best to honor her by always remembering to relax, never get mad, and everything will come along in time.
I have never been one to constantly sing her praises, so I'm sure that nobody knows how much this hurts me. All I can say is that I'll remember everything she ever taught me, every fight along the way, every lesson I (eventually) learned from those arguments, and how she pulled every string she could to make sure I would have Dixie as my very own. I will never stop telling stories from throughout the nearly 18 years I knew Rita. Getting a compliment from her was a rarity, and she never once came out and said she was proud of me, but none of that matters. I hope that every person she ever taught can appreciate that she was always proud of us in her own way.
I'll miss you, Rita. The fights, the laughs, the silly emails, the reamings, the talks during shows...all of it. Rest in peace.
I have never been one to constantly sing her praises, so I'm sure that nobody knows how much this hurts me. All I can say is that I'll remember everything she ever taught me, every fight along the way, every lesson I (eventually) learned from those arguments, and how she pulled every string she could to make sure I would have Dixie as my very own. I will never stop telling stories from throughout the nearly 18 years I knew Rita. Getting a compliment from her was a rarity, and she never once came out and said she was proud of me, but none of that matters. I hope that every person she ever taught can appreciate that she was always proud of us in her own way.
I'll miss you, Rita. The fights, the laughs, the silly emails, the reamings, the talks during shows...all of it. Rest in peace.