Darlyne Oldfather
is honored with a Brick from Mary Gwen Robinson.
A tribute to our family's unsung heroine, Darlyne Malone Valentine Oldfather:
My mother was born in a small town located in eastern Wyoming. Raised in the years of the Depression, reading was her escape. Books opened up a world far different from the bleakness of day-to-day life. She had hopes of a career in journalism. Those dreams never became a reality. She married young and did not graduate from high school. My father's work brought them to Wichita, where she worked and raised her family. After many years of unhappiness, my parents divorced. She later met and married a most wonderful person, Merle Oldfather.
Throughout her life, she never lost her love of the written word. Her ability to always express the right words for any occasion was evident in all her correspondence. Family and friends cherished her letters and notes in greeting cards. When eye disease diminished her ability to handwrite her messages, her old manual Smith-Corona allowed her to continue to communicate.
That same eye disease prohibited her from enjoying her other passion: reading. Imagine her joy when she discovered a new world of audio books! New novels and old classics provided her with hours of enjoyment each day. She soon made up for lost time! I have inherited her passion for reading, much to the dismay of my family. As I attempt to compose this tribute, I fervently wish I had inherited her talent for expressing her thoughts so eloquently.
As in most families, our heroine appeared to be an ordinary woman. We were a 90s-type of family, a mixture of his and hers. We "kids" were all grown when our parents met and married. Over time, we have become a real family. To each of us, whether we called her Mom, Darr, or Grandma, her gift was unconditional love. We will always treasure our memories. She was an extraordinary individual who made each of us feel unique.
I cannot offer a more apt definition of heroine.
Sbmitted by Mary Gwen (Valentine) Robinson
September 14, 1998
