Strate brings fond memories for former Bigfork Eagle employee
I worked as the CSR and designer for the Eagle from 2008-10, then moved to the Daily Inter Lake where I worked as the webmaster until February of this year. I just checked in on the Eagle and saw that Mrs. Strate (whom we affectionately referred to as Ms. Barb), passed away. At the suggestion of Alex Strickland, the editor of the paper at that time, I decided I would like to send the story of my friendship with Ms. Barb.
During my time in Bigfork working for the Eagle I met several grand characters who came and went in our office quite frequently, and many of them became my friends. Ms. Barb was one of the first I met, and someone who it seemed was meant to have an impact on my life that I could never forget.
As the CSR at the Eagle one of the duties I was responsible for was typing Ms. Barb’s columns. She was around 85 years old at the time I started work there and could use a computer to type and print, but wasn’t very friendly with the Internet, so emailing the document was out of the question. It was of little consequence, though. I never minded the task as it gave me an excuse to visit with her and ask questions about her life. We didn’t get much foot traffic in the office so I appreciated the company and she was a joy to have around. I came to anticipate and look forward to her weekly visits.
It wasn’t long before she was calling me up, asking if I would be busy around lunch time in her very matter-of-fact British way, and would I mind going to lunch with her? I enjoyed those lunches immensely and she came to hold a very special, grandmotherly place in my heart.
Ms. Barb was amazing in that way. She left behind a lasting legacy not only of friendships, but also her story.
It often struck me, as I typed each week, how colorful her columns could be. They told the story of her life, and were structured somewhat like a serial memoir. She wrote about short spurts of time starting when she married her husband Sherman at the end of World War II, and wrote for so many years that she ended up writing present-day anecdotes of drunken slugs in her garden and ornery little ballet students she had taught. Her columns painted a picture of the culture shock she endured leaving a life of show business in England to be a stay-at-home mother to her children in the wilds of Montana, and the stark contrast of her two lives made for some very funny situations! She had a way of telling her tales that pulled the reader in. She made me laugh and cry, shake my head in wonder, and cringe, all in a matter of a few pages.
I remember the day she told me she had been a professional dancer in England during the war. In that moment, I was a little girl and she had become my hero. I eagerly begged her to see pictures and she brought an album down to the office one day with the most gorgeous photographs of her ballet dancing days. Tucked into the album she also had a photo of herself that had appeared in Vogue Magazine in the early 40s. I poured over that album asking her questions about the girls, her teachers and her Vogue photo. She had me to her house for tea on several occasions where she brought out more photo albums and letters and told me stories of her childhood.
Her oral stories were just as enthralling as her written ones. She told me of learning how to sew ticking in order to help her mother who had been a tailoress, and the heart-breaking story of her sister and her being taken from her parents when they came down with Rickets because there wasn’t enough food to go around. She shared the joys, triumphs and sorrows of her soul with me and we became very close.
When my mother came to visit, Ms. Barb went with us to lunch and spoke to my mother about what I meant to her and I essentially fell in love with her.
Family is very important to me and living 3,000 miles from home in Montana could feel pretty lonely at times. I think Ms. Barb must have recognized in me some of the same struggles she had gone through as a young woman so far from home and family. She didn’t allow me to feel homeless for very long. She and Mr. Sherman welcomed me into their lives whole heartedly and they became my family in the Flathead.
As the years went by and my career progressed I left the Eagle. I went to train for a position as a photojournalist for the National Guard and I lost touch with Ms. Barb. Way lead on to way and regretfully I never got back to see her, but I thought of her so often and the kindness she showed me and the love she so freely gave my children and me. She was one in a million and I am so thankful to have been able to read her tales and to have gotten a glimpse into her extraordinary life. She was someone who touched many, many lives in the course of hers and will be missed by us all.
Kristin Colson Schaeffer,
Casper, Wyo.
CSR for the Bigfork Eagle 2008-10