by Pa Rock
Old Friend
On a few occasions I have used this space to mourn the passing of friends, an occurrence that seems to become all the more common as I age. Sadly, today is one of those days when I feel compelled to share a few thoughts about a friend who has just passed on.
I first met Dianna (Hagan) Afuvai (rhymes with "apple pie") in the early 1980's when I was a high school principal twenty-five miles up the road from where I live today - and she was an eager substitute teacher who had recently moved back to Mountain Grove, Missouri, from Texas to be near family. She was a divorced mother of a four-year-old daughter and anxious to prove her classroom abilities. At the end of the year our district's senior English teacher retired and I was able to offer Dianna a position teaching high school English and speech and drama.
But her time at Liberty High School (Mountain View-Birch Tree Schools) was short-lived. At the end of her first year of teaching, I took another position as principal of an elementary-junior high in my hometown two hundred miles away - and that school had an opening for a junior high English teacher. Almost in a joking manner I offered the position to Dianna one day as I walked past her in the high school hallway, and a few minutes later she showed up in my office and said that she would take the job.
That move brought Dianna to McDonald County, Missouri, the place where she was destined to spend the rest of her life. She retired from teaching there in 2005, and tomorrow she will be buried in McDonald County.
Dianna spent most of her career teaching English, and she was known for being a tough taskmaster. Recently I ran into one of her students from Liberty High School and our discussion focused on a couple of her favorite teachers - and one was Dianna. That lady, now close to retirement herself, talked about classroom projects that she remembered from her senior English class, and she gave Dianna particular credit for helping to build her vocabulary beyond what she was exposed to daily in the rural setting of northern Howl County.
Dianna also taught Mineko, a foreign exchange student from Japan who spent a year living with my family. I know that Mineko regarded her as a wonderful teacher, and I recently learned that they had re-connected through social media. Dianna's influence as a teacher literally reached around the globe!
Toward the end of Dianna's career in education she became a school librarian, and after retirement she followed up on her love of books by becoming a board member of the county's newest library, a position that gave her direct input into charting the course of that facility.
Dianna also taught speech and drama at the high school level, and when she moved to the junior high position in McDonald County, she kept that passion alive by establishing the Elk River Little Theatre, a community organization that flourished for several seasons and held a variety of remarkably good performances that even included a few dinner theaters. She provided youngsters and oldsters in the little town of Noel, Missouri, with opportunities that the rest of the county never got to experience.
And it was all "teaching" to Dianna, an art and a craft that she loved.
Dianna Afuvai is survived by her daughter Shannon Hurley, her son-in-law Dusty, and her grandson, Bowen Hurley - as well as a host of close friends and admirers.
Rest well, Old Friend, and know that your brief time on earth brought sunshine and enlightenment to many. You will be mourned, and celebrated, and sorely missed.
Old Friend
On a few occasions I have used this space to mourn the passing of friends, an occurrence that seems to become all the more common as I age. Sadly, today is one of those days when I feel compelled to share a few thoughts about a friend who has just passed on.
I first met Dianna (Hagan) Afuvai (rhymes with "apple pie") in the early 1980's when I was a high school principal twenty-five miles up the road from where I live today - and she was an eager substitute teacher who had recently moved back to Mountain Grove, Missouri, from Texas to be near family. She was a divorced mother of a four-year-old daughter and anxious to prove her classroom abilities. At the end of the year our district's senior English teacher retired and I was able to offer Dianna a position teaching high school English and speech and drama.
But her time at Liberty High School (Mountain View-Birch Tree Schools) was short-lived. At the end of her first year of teaching, I took another position as principal of an elementary-junior high in my hometown two hundred miles away - and that school had an opening for a junior high English teacher. Almost in a joking manner I offered the position to Dianna one day as I walked past her in the high school hallway, and a few minutes later she showed up in my office and said that she would take the job.
That move brought Dianna to McDonald County, Missouri, the place where she was destined to spend the rest of her life. She retired from teaching there in 2005, and tomorrow she will be buried in McDonald County.
Dianna spent most of her career teaching English, and she was known for being a tough taskmaster. Recently I ran into one of her students from Liberty High School and our discussion focused on a couple of her favorite teachers - and one was Dianna. That lady, now close to retirement herself, talked about classroom projects that she remembered from her senior English class, and she gave Dianna particular credit for helping to build her vocabulary beyond what she was exposed to daily in the rural setting of northern Howl County.
Dianna also taught Mineko, a foreign exchange student from Japan who spent a year living with my family. I know that Mineko regarded her as a wonderful teacher, and I recently learned that they had re-connected through social media. Dianna's influence as a teacher literally reached around the globe!
Toward the end of Dianna's career in education she became a school librarian, and after retirement she followed up on her love of books by becoming a board member of the county's newest library, a position that gave her direct input into charting the course of that facility.
Dianna also taught speech and drama at the high school level, and when she moved to the junior high position in McDonald County, she kept that passion alive by establishing the Elk River Little Theatre, a community organization that flourished for several seasons and held a variety of remarkably good performances that even included a few dinner theaters. She provided youngsters and oldsters in the little town of Noel, Missouri, with opportunities that the rest of the county never got to experience.
And it was all "teaching" to Dianna, an art and a craft that she loved.
Dianna Afuvai is survived by her daughter Shannon Hurley, her son-in-law Dusty, and her grandson, Bowen Hurley - as well as a host of close friends and admirers.
Rest well, Old Friend, and know that your brief time on earth brought sunshine and enlightenment to many. You will be mourned, and celebrated, and sorely missed.
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