A Woman With A Big Heart

It is early morning on the river in the trout park. The sun is beginning to peek through the forested hills. Annie is at the river’s edge with a fishing rod in her hand. She is visiting with the men on both sides of her. It’s a cool morning. Annie is the only woman to brave the chill. The fishermen and one fisherwoman talk about the early spring weather and how they are glad winter is over.

The rising sun reveals a beautiful fog rising from the water. The siren sounds that tells  them they can start fishing. Annie’s lure is the first one to hit the water. In a few minutes, she brings a trout to her dip net. She puts it on a stringer and makes another cast. A few turns of the reel handle and another trout takes her lure. This one is bigger and pulling the line from her reel. It leaps from the water. Annie shrieks with joy. After a few more jumps, she scooped it up with her net. It goes on the stringer. She makes another cast. An hour later, she has her daily limit.

Several other fishermen, who had not been quite as successful, came over to congratulate her. One of them asked what lure she was using. She smiled, and said, “Honey, it’s not the lure catching the fish. It’s this old woman using it.” She laughed, wished them luck, and headed for her car. After she put her fish in the cooler, she looked up to the sky and thanked God for this time in the outdoors that He created. She also thanked Him for watching over her all these years.

Looking back at the river, she saw an eagle perched in a tree across from where she had been fishing. She remembered her favorite bible verse – “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” She looked back at the eagle, smiled again, and thought, “God sent an eagle to watch over me today!”

When she got home, she couldn’t get the eagle out of her mind so, she sat down to read about eagles. One of the things it said was that Native American Indians believe an eagle delivers their prayers to the Great Spirit. They hold an eagle feather aloft as a custom while saying a prayer. To them, the eagle meant strength, wisdom, and courage. Annie needed all those things throughout her life. A tear flowed down her cheek. 

Annie was raised in church and grew up loving the great outdoors. She was born in San Mateo, California where her dad worked for United Airlines. He was also an avid hunter and fisherman. Her mom liked to fish too and taught Annie that if you catch them, you clean them.

She loved it when they would travel north to see her grandparents in Ahwahnee, California. Her grandfather was a friend of the famous photographer Ansel Adams. He rose to prominence as a photographer of the American West. Particularly Yosemite National Park, using his iconic black-and-white images to promote the conservation of wilderness areas.

Her grandfather won awards for his photography. She remembers having a dark room in their house where he developed the pictures he took while enjoying nature. Yosemite National Park was just 5 miles from Ahwahnee. The waterfalls, towering granite monoliths, deep valleys, and ancient giant sequoias were a big part of her young life. Annie gives all the credit to her parents and grandparents for her love of the outdoors.

Annie was nine years old when her dad, was transferred by United Airlines to Kansas City, Missouri. Later, they bought a home at Lake Waukomis, a town with a great fishing lake. That continued to fuel her love for fishing. One night Ammie set some baited lines off a dock for catfish. The next morning, she found she had caught three nice catfish. She knew how to scale and clean other fish but had no idea how to clean a slimy ole’ catfish. So she took them into the bedroom where her dad was still asleep to ask him to help. “He sure wasn’t happy about it,” said Annie.

In summers, they would travel to Lebanon, Missouri, to visit her Grandma Effie on her Mom’s side. Like most of her family, Grandma Effie was an outdoorsy person too. She took care of a 4-acre garden and still fished. Back during the depression, she did it to survive. Now, it was for fun and food.

Her Uncle Dale lived next to her grandma. He loved fly fishing and would take Annie along with him. When he hooked a fish he would hand Annie the rod and let her reel it in. “I never got into fly fishing like Uncle Dale,” says Annie. “I just thought, why would I want to cast five times to a fish when I could cast one time and catch it with a regular fishing rod and reel?”

When Annie graduated high school, her dad took her on a Canadian fishing trip with six other men. For seven days, they caught and ate walleye. A few years later her Dad was transferred back to California with United Airlines. Her mom got sick, and her dad couldn’t take off work, so it was up to 18-year-old Annie to find a place to live in San Mateo. She did.

Not long after that, Annie married her husband, Bob. They lived in the state of Washington. She traveled with him to Australia and other places. He passed away, but Annie won’t talk about that. After all those years, it still hurts too much. Annie says, “I had a strong father and a strong husband who said I could do anything and through God I can.”

Annie eventually re-married another man named Bob who loved to fish. They lived in Warsaw, Missouri, and had a lakefront home on Lake of the Ozarks for 28 years. He had a bass boat and got Annie an aluminum fishing boat with a bright yellow life jacket, so if he or their neighbors came out looking for her when she stayed out fishing too long, they could find her a lot easier. She still remembers the elk hunt he took her on in the beautiful Colorado mountains.

One day, she went fishing with him and caught a 13-pound hybrid bass. When she got the fish into the boat she started crying. He asked her why she was crying. Through sniffles and tears, she said, “I always had this idea in my head that if I ever caught a bass bigger than 5 or 6 pounds, God was going to take me home to heaven, so I am sitting here waiting to go.” Her husband said, “I guess God’s not done with you yet because you’re still here.”

After her second husband passed away she never re-married. She moved to Blytheville, Arkansas, and worked at a co-generation plant. When her dad passed away, she moved back to Springfield, Missouri to take care of mom. “With God, we can do anything,” says Annie. “He put us here to help one another.”

On May 11, 2011, nearby Joplin, Missouri, was hit by an F5 tornado that devastated the town. Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris started a fundraiser to benefit those affected by the disaster. They held an auction, and one of the items was a fishing trip with fishing legend Jimmy Houston on a private lake at his ranch in Oklahoma. Her bid won the trip for two, so she invited the husband of a friend who was always helping her to go along with her. He was as excited as Annie. They caught well over 100 bass. “Jimmy and Chris are wonderful people and could not have been more hospitable,” says Annie.

“It was a hot day and I got a little overheated. Chris went in and got her mom’s fishing hat and put it on my head to shade me and cool me down. Jimmy and I still text back and forth all the time.”

Like Chris Houston, Annie has a special feeling for our Native Americans. She says her Grandma Effie always said they had Cherokee blood in them but have never been able to find absolute proof. That belief has been a big part of family stories for many years. A portion of the Cherokee Trail of Tears runs through her cousin’s property near Lebanon, Missouri. She has walked in the footsteps of the Cherokee on portions of the trail. She, like me, believes this was their land and we stole it from them. They were not the savages. The white man was. They were trying to protect their land and families.

Annie loves her fishing and says she will go anytime, anywhere. But, NASCAR racing comes in a close second. She got the racing bug watching dirt track races near her lake home in Missouri.  She was at the race track when Dale Earnhardt died in a crash. She was always a fan of Rusty Wallace because he is a Missouri boy. She has met Tony Stewart several times and also met Richard Petty. She has a Martin Truex Jr. jacket that he autographed for her. She wears it often.

She also has agape or unconditional love for her dogs that have ruled her life. Sammy adopted Annie in a Walmart parking lot. Sammy passed away. Annie still misses him. Callie is someone’s throwaway dog and keeps Annie company. Her compassion is not just for her dog. She also once took a lady into her home that was also a throwaway and needed Annie. We will never know how many other people Annie has helped.

Annie is not someone to sit around unless it is by a peaceful river. She does not accept growing old. One year, Annie walked over 3,006,000 steps. Enjoying nature as she did so. Like she tells people, “You have to stay active mind and body. If not, you rot. You have to enjoy what God gives you. The fresh air in the outdoors has helped keep me well.”

At one time, she said she had completed a bucket list with all the places she had been and done.  She changed her mind and decided she wanted to go fishing in Alaska. Annie told some friends at her church one Sunday that she was leaving the next day to go to Florida for a few days. She wanted to check another thing off her bucket list and walk on the beach on her birthday looking for sea shells.

One of the men at the table stood up and walked over to Annie. He told her that was the same beach his wife loved to go to. He also told her that was where he, their kids, and grandchildren had gone to leave some of her ashes. He told Annie to say hi to her while she was there. As she stood there crying, Annie told him she would. She also told him she would bring him back a sea shell from that beach.

One of her friends texted her to check on her several times. She told her she had arrived safely and was enjoying herself but was not finding many sea shells. There was only a half day left before coming home. She was eating at a seafood restaurant. A woman came up to her, and they started talking. In their conversation, Annie told her she couldn’t find any sea shells and why she wanted to find one to take back home for her friend. The woman smiled and told her to go to a place on the beach where she would find what she was looking for.

Annie finished her lunch and headed to where the lady had told her to go. She walked and walked. There was some kelp weed on the beach, but that was it. She still couldn’t find any sea shells. She was about to give up and head home when something caught her eye in the kelp. It was a kelp seed pod shaped like a heart. Annie picked it up and stood there crying as she looked to heaven.

She talked to the man’s wife and told her he and her family had missed her and he was a good man. Then she told her that she was taking the heart-shaped seed pod back to him from her. Annie had found what she was looking for and where the woman in the restaurant told her she would. She wondered if she had been an angel sent by God.

As Annie started to leave, she looked down and saw something else in the kelp. She thought it was some kid’s ball they had lost. It was another seed pod. To Annie, it was a sign that God wanted her to keep on going in life and that she had a lot more living to do. She got into her car and started home.

The Sunday after getting back, she got to church and went directly to her table of friends. The man stood to welcome her. Annie tried to tell him her story without crying but couldn’t. Tears flowed down her cheeks. Tears were in the man’s eyes when she told him what happened. Then she put the heart-shaped seed pod in his hand. He hugged her. Tears flowed.

Those blessed to know Annie and call her a friend will tell you that Annie has a heart as big as the outdoors she loves. The Cherokee people would also tell you in their language that Annie is a woman with a big heart.