Editorial: June 4, 2021

A Memorial Day Realized

Memorial Day seemed different somehow this year. Driving past a local small-town parade to honor the men and women who gave their lives to defend our country and freedom seemed more important than in years past. We are reminded that freedom does not come cheap or easy. But then thoughts of those closer to home whom we have lost come to mind. Friends and family who were so instrumental in our lives. We are drawn to the loss of more than half a million people to the Covid-19 virus. Sadly, that number includes people we knew and cared about. We don’t have a national day of mourning for those we lost, but those memories of the recently departed keep coming back in our thoughts. Here at Dog News, the irreplaceable loss of Matt Stander, the magazine’s co-founder, is still as painful as the day he passed away, and it is compounded by the loss of our dear friends Lesley Boyes and Sue Vroom. Life seems different, but it continues, as it should. It’s said that when life serves you lemons, make lemonade. So as our thoughts wander to others we have lost, we hold onto the good memories, real and imagined. We imagine a perfect person and see only the good.

A Memorial Day Imagined 

So this is how we would like to remember our dear departed friends … Imagine a warm, fuzzy and smiling George Ward, exhibitors vying to park next the Jane and Bob Forsyth’s Bluebird, Ric Chashoudian getting through a whole weekend without screaming at someone, Dee Hutchinson and Peggy Westphal agreeing (on anything), Frank Sabella telling Vin Perry that he “wasn’t” going to work for the AKC, Luc Boileau inviting Ann Rapport to join him for an elevator ride, Ed Jenner being messy, Bill Trainor staying at the Ritz Hotel, Maxine Beam without a roll of tape, Gerda Kennedy with messy hair, Porter Washington thanking Bill Fettner for his Keeshond judging, the list of Lang Skarda’s conquests, Sunny Shay in a Citroen commercial, Walter Goodman asking Billy Kendrick’s advice about Skye Terriers, Ceil Ruggles in an ATV driving on a Greek island, Ruthie Cooper filling miniature booze bottles, Ramona Van Court Jones telling Clint Harris that “I’m Mrs. Van Court to you, in and out of the ring,” Bobby Barlow as booster for the Me Too movement, Bob Hetherington mistaking a bull calf for a calf at the start of his dairy farming career, Nigel Aubrey-Jones intentionally spilling a drink on Anna Katherine Nicholas, enjoying the unpublishable comments made by Chuck Winslow. Living in our memories, these friends are never really gone.