Andrew Atkeison sent his thoughts on our dear friend, Ruth Friend, who died recently. (See post here from the 14th). Am posting
Ruth Friend, known to most as
Ruthie, was truly a friend to all without regard to perceived social status of
wealth. I sometimes wondered what she saw in her husband, but could only
conclude that love works in strange and wonderful ways, and that he was certainly
a lucky man to have her.
One time when I was in
Sacramento helping our fledgling organization, The California Blacksmiths
association put on our first international blacksmiths conference, I visited
Sim and Ruthie. The subject of the blacksmiths conference came up and
immediately Ruthie said, “oh I want to go … can I come and check it out?” I was
kind of stunned that a lady of Ruthie’s high social status would want to check
out an event attended by mostly working class men and their wives, but she did
and needless to say, she was a hit. My blacksmithing instructor was an
extroverted wildwest actor who liked to forge hot iron wearing a bearskin vest
with no shirt underneath. He tried every move he had on her but to no avail.
When Sim and Ruthie would visit Farallones Institute in Occidental, Ruthie
would always stop by the Blacksmith shop to say “hi”. That was over 45 years
ago but I still remember her as if it were yesterday. What a beautiful and
elegant lady she was.