It’s been quite a week around here!
I won’t bore you with too many details, but felt like I should update and let you all know a little about what is going on in my world, both the good and the not so good.
I did get to spend a few hours down at Mom’s house yesterday seeing an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. In fact, the last time I saw this guy, I was less than 10 years old!
Mike Zimmerman was a guy my big brother Kim was in the Air Force with (Kim is 18 years older than me). Kim and Mike were stationed in Germany together, then later in Omaha, Nebraska together. They were great friends and Mike even came in to be the best man when Kim married my sister-in-law Debbie. As a little guy, I really thought the world of Mike and although, he has kept in touch through the years, I haven’t seen him since the early 80’s. He now lives in Connecticut, has retired first from the Air Force, then from the Postal Service and he now works two days a week as an EMT and volunteers in that capacity three more days a week. It was a great visit with Mike and his wife, my brother Kim and a couple of his grand kids, my sister Jeaneace and my Mom. Oh, and of course I brought Beth and Zane along as well, but Stacey had to work.
So that was a big event this week that was good. Now, unfortunately, we have to move on to some that are not.
Greg Harris has been my best friend for many years and along the way married one of my cousins, Judy Crow. Greg and I met when we worked together at the Newton County Sheriff’s Office about 1991. We hit it off right away and have been close friends since. We were cops together for many years and, in fact, Greg still is in law enforcement. He is now the Director of the 14th Judicial District Drug Task Force based in Harrison. He and I got to spend a lot of time together late last year and earlier this year while I helped him build their new, gorgeous log house. That was some time I immensely enjoyed.
About 10:30PM Wednesday night Judy called to let us know that Greg’s mother, Liz Means was being transported by ambulance from St. Louis, where she had been living for a while, back to Springdale, where she had lived for many years before. Liz had been battling cancer for some time and had some some ups and downs lately. It sounded as if she was deteriorating rapidly this time. I told Judy to keep us posted and that we’d keep them in our prayers. I hung up with a heavy heart and a lump in my throat.
When the call came a little after 4:00 A.M. we got the news that Liz had passed away. Greg and Judy and Greg’s sister Hillary have a lot of things to take care of over the next little while and a huge ajustment to make. They will feel a void for a long time, a void that will never be filled. But, we’re going to do all we can to make the time even the least bit more bearable. We were able to visit with them in Springdale today between Beth’s softball games and will see them again on Monday at the service. Liz was a special person who will be missed sorely. And Greg and Judy are very special people to us. They could use some prayers if you are so inclined.
Speaking of losing special folks, I got another phone call from our old friend (and former part-time assistant) Angela about 10:15 AM Friday morning saying she had just heard that Martin (Marty) Roenigk had been killed in a car accident in Iowa. A lot of folks know Marty and his wonderful wife Elise as the owners of the Basin Park Hotel and the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs and of the War Eagle Mill. They have done a lot to really make those places special.
We got to know Marty and Elise several years ago when they were in search of a special piece of property of the wilderness variety. At the time I had been the caretaker of a wonderful place over in Newton County, just out of Boxley. It was a little over 1300 acres, some of it may still be in the top 10 scenic places I have ever laid eyes on, and I get to lay eyes on some great scenery. To make a long story short, Marty and Elise bought the property and asked me to stay on and help them take care of it as well. I was thrilled!
Marty set to work right away, telling me of all the great plans he had for the place. He wanted to improve the very rough road that led from the highway entrance down to the bottom near the creek. That was going to be quite a large and expensive project, but Marty let me know that he was willing to foot the bill if I could get the right folks lined up and get the job done. It was important to Marty for most anyone to be able to access the bottom part of the property, where the creek was so scenic.
The reason Marty wanted the special part of the property to be accessible by the general public is that he and Elise had planned all along to find a really special place like this, improve it as little as possible, but enough to make it available to people, then make a very generous donation to a conservation group that would conserve it for future generations! Marty and Elise had been very fortunate in their lives and were very good at giving back.
Marty and I talked on several occasions about who the land should go to. I was honored that he wanted my input on various groups and truly listened to my thoughts, not only on that, but also on how to best improve the place. After Marty and Elise had put quite a bit of thought into it and had invested a great deal of money and work, the decided the property should go to The Nature Conservancy. I was thrilled!
The Roenigks sold the property to TNC for a very small fraction of it’s worth(the tab for which was picked up by Wal-Mart’s conservation program “Acres for America”) and the property is now the Smith Creek Nature Preserve. If you have never been there, you really should do yourself a favor and go. It truly is a special place that I am truly honored to be associated with. There is a little more info at http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/arkansas/preserves/art27772.html .
Over the years, I have received a few honors and accoloades, but one that truly stands out was when Marty called me to let me know there was going to be a formal Smith Creek Preserve dedication program at the Crescent Hotel and he wanted Stacey and I to attend. It was initially going to be a fund-raising night before the Wal-Mart folks let them know that they were going to donate the funds to make the purchase. I knew nothing of the Wal-Mart announcement so ,with the fund-raiser thought in mind, I went over to Smith Creek a couple of days prior and shot several images. From those I made four prints to bring to the shin-dig as auction item donations. When Stacey and I arrived, Marty and Elise found us right away and told us the news and insisted that we join them at their head table. We tried to decline, but they would have nothing of it. The ceremony began and it was Marty’s turn to speak. He spoke briefly about what he had done and then, in his generous way, quickly turned the attention to me, citing my role in them acquiring the land (in fact insisting that he come look at it after he had been told about it by Tim Ernst), helping make the improvements and up-keep on it, the numerous photo trips I made over there and just championing for it in general. I truly was not expecting it, nor did I deserve it. I was honored and blessed to have been able to be a minor part of it. He and Elise were the true driving force that made it happen, but being the gentleman he was, he shared that with me. Something for which I will always be grateful, honored and humbled.
Elise lost a great companion, Eureka Springs lost a pillar of the community, Arkansas lost a great conservationist and the nature, wildlife and wild places in Arkansas lost a great protector and good friend. You will be missed Marty!
And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other big event from our lives this week. Sometime back an unfortunate event happened, that for many reasons, I can’t go into details about. We tried several ways on several occasions to resolve the issue but to no avail. So, last week our Copyright Attorney, Carolyn Wright -truly the authority on such matters -(www.photoattorney.com), through an attorney in Mountain Home, filed a law-suit on our behalf. It didn’t become big news until Thursday when the story came out in the Harrison Daily Times (www.harrisondaily.com).
What followed on a personal level was an absolute outpouring of support through phone calls, e-mails, Facebook messages, chat rooms, people stopping by the house to visit, folks stopping us on the streets and more! We got well wishes and support from all over the area and several states. I can’t tell you how great it is to know how many friends you have in the world when you need them. Of course there are several less-than-stellar comments on the reader’s comments section of the online version of the article and I’m sure there will be more, especially since folks tend to have a lot more courage in the anonymous world of internet comments. But we expected that going into this thing and won’t let that get us down. We intend to take the high road and refrain from that silliness, instead choosing to concentrate on what really matters. But you don’t know how blessed we feel to be getting the support we are getting. We are truly blessed to have such great friends and, although I REALLY hate to use the word, fans. We are getting notes from people we have never met nor heard of who are familiar with us and my work. They are offering some great support and sweet sentiments as well. Thanks everyone and God bless!!
Glenn
