Sister A............Missing in Action..........

Part 1

It had been a while since I'd seen anything of Sister A at Frontier Park. In fact it's been so long I was beginning to worry something had happened to her. Having seen the woman day in and day out for months, this abrupt end to her presence seemed odd to me.

The woman's intrusions on my training sessions probably should have been irritating to me. Her lack of knowledge about horses but desire to be up close and personal with them certainly carried some element of risk. I was always worried she was going to get stepped on or even knocked down because of her loud presentation and large movements around horses she didn't understand.

Instead I had saw Sister A's visits as a needed break in my routine. Working alone has never been my favorite thing to do and there's always that safety issue when working horses by oneself. At least with Sister A around I knew there was someone to call for help if I got into trouble.

There was always the comedy factor whenever Sister A happened upon us. Her visits were always worthy of a laugh or two. I just never knew for sure what she would say or when she would pop up, let alone what she'd do around the horses.

There was a wide eyed innocence about Sister A's love of horses that I've not seen in a while and I'd never seen on an adult. Her belief that horses are God's gift somehow allayed any fears. She approached the horses with the same exuberance she approached her ministry with little, if any regard, for consequences. Sister A was on a mission in more than one way.

There were those horse people riding at the park who thought that Sister A was crazy. I'd seen that "screwy" hand signal on more than one occasion as a rider rolled her horse back into the opposite direction just to avoid contact with the woman.

There were also others who looked forward to Sister A's visits just as I did. Bright smiles and warm greetings came from riders who normally looked like grumpy bears to me. Sadness fled from worn tired faces at the sound of her voice. It was clear Sister A's work had some positive results.

I hadn't seen the woman anywhere around since just before I brought the homeless people home. Once they were gone and I'd realized how long they'd stayed I really began to worry about Sister A's absence from the park.

I found myself adjusting my schedule to be sure that I was riding during those times that Sister A normally runs. I'd hoped it was just a conflict in schedules causing us not to connect. Then I thought about asking some of the other park regulars if any had seen her.

One day before I'd gotten that done, I spied Sister A running down the side of the road. I was just coming back from my second interview at Fred Meyer and there was no way I could get home, load up horses and be back before she was gone so I turned into the park and waited for her.

To be continued....................



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