Connie, this blog's for you

Connie and Thane are taking a slight detour in the next few weeks. They're heading to Post Falls where Thane's accepted a job with Knutson Chevrolet as their assistant body-shop manager. Their move will occur after the first of the year, and we, here at the Love house, are going to miss them.

That's an understatement.

I could write a novel about Connie Book Lloyd and what she's meant to our family. We've known her family for years because they've lived up the road from us for several decades. In fact, I did write part of a book about the Larry Book family when I featured them in a story called "To Assume It's a Wolf" in my Postcards from Potato Land (www.mariannelove.com)

The story explains why we have one of those yellow "wolf crossing" signs in our driveway. It kinda scares a few intruders off, I'm sure. Larry Book, Connie's dad, purchased the metal sign for me after one rainy day when he had used every motorized vehicle he owned to pull me out of the mud on the back road to the fairgrounds.

Seems I thought I'd seen a wolf out there in the field while driving by and pulled in for a closer look. It had been raining steadily for a couple of days, and the driveway, at the time, was merely a muddy cow path. While I was busy gawking and looking for that wolf, my Dodge Caravan was getting sucked into hip-deep mud. By the time the "wolf" was long gone, my car would not move forward or backward. The wheels simply spun deeper into the slop.

I walked to the Book house about half a mile away and summoned Larry to help. Along with him came his wife Ardella and their other daughter, Jolene, who were wearing brand, spanking clean clothes. By the time my van was back out on Woodland Drive, Ardella and Jolene stood there in the road, indistinguishable in their mud-spattered ensembles, while Larry lay in the middle of the road, holding his stomach, in a fit of maniacal laughter. I think he was doing that just to buy time to figure out how he was going to get all his vehicles home.

The yellow wolf-warning sign appeared at our house shortly thereafter when Connie came to clean one day. It's greeted visitors ever since. To say all the Books have been good neighbors is also an understatement, but knowing that we'll soon be saying good bye to Connie makes me sad. If ever there were a person we have grown to appreciate and love, it's been Connie.

For nearly 15 years, she's cleaned our house every week and even sorted our underwear. On occasions, she's gone grocery shopping for me. Most notable, though, is that she's truly loved all our our animals. Whenever an emergency comes, Connie's there. When we go out of town on trips, Connie and Thane see that every cat, dog and horse has all its needs met. And, when we return, she's always brimming with humorous anecdotes about this cat or that horse to share with us.

I remember one time when we were driving through Sun Valley after Willie's graduation from BSU, and the cell phone rang. It was Connie, and she was concerned about Casey, our Arabian gelding. She was worried about one of his eyes, which had been draining. We had noticed it but figured he had an allergy. Turned out he had cancer and had to have his third eyelid removed. Fortunately, the cancer has never returned, and it's probably because of Connie's alertness that we had it checked out in time to save the eye.

I can point to numerous other occasions where Connie's dependability and caring about every living being on this place has made us so thankful to consider her as part of our extended family. In short, she's one of those laid-back, easy-going gems whose presence, healthy laugh and stability wherever she happens to be bring support, sunshine and warmth to others. "Salt of the earth" comes to mind when I think of Connie.

We're gonna miss our dear, dear friend, but we're also wishing her and her wonderful husband Thane the very best as they embark on their new adventure and opportunity. Sandpoint's and the Love family's loss will be the Post Falls area's gain.

Much love and luck to you, Connie and Thane.