Widow appreciates Head Start naming new building in husband's memory
I appreciate the many community leaders for your tireless effort in making a reality the Julien Bucher Early Learning Center to house the Head Start. Especially for honoring my husband's memory by placing his name there. It is a wonderful tribute. Also to the many, many anonymous contributors to this project.
So who was Julien Bucher? If the parents or children ask you, the people here today, “Why is this building named after him?” I hope you will answer, “Because he was a person who went out of his way to help other people, friends, neighbors, strangers, anyone. In doing that, he set an example for all of us and for the children who come here.”
Julien, however, would have been too embarrassed to accept this honor. Why? Well, yes, you know him as a proud man, but he was also a humble one. For him it was routine to choose to do what's right.
It was simply the natural response. You would not know, but he often “helped out” anonymously, or at least, without acknowledgment. And that is, again, an example to follow by us and the children.
I appreciate the many anonymous contributors to this project.
I asked my daughters for help in preparing this speech about daddy's Good-Samaritan-type behavior. Janet and Joy said, “That's difficult. You want to talk about daddy's good deeds, but he did not approve of us praising him.”
Ironically, Julien did subject most of you to stories about his daughters. His buttons popped as he bragged about them. Yes, Julien was a complicated person. It is difficult to describe him, but I gave a reason why I think the center is named for him.
I will give an example for his charity and then close. On one of our annual, 20-mile cattle drives from our farm up to Beaver Creek, we humans were spread out ahead, behind, to the left and to the right of our cattle and moving at a fast clip, when the herd passed by a car that had stopped with a flat tire. The driver did not have a spare. Julien got out of his little red car and said, “I can't leave the cows, but here take my car to town.” And so the stranger did.
From Julien's perspective, that was the normal thing to do, as he was taught from his parents, from this community and from the times in which he was raised.
My hope is that the community will continue to raise each child to have a giving spirit.
To finish, I will read a verse from a sympathy card I received.
“A life well-lived is a precious gift, of hope and strength and grace, from someone who has made our world a brighter, better place. It's filled with moments sweet and sad, with smiles and sometimes tears, with friendships formed and good times shared and laughter through the years. A life well-lived is a legacy of joy and pride and pleasure, a loving, lasting memory our grateful hearts will treasure.” Author unknown.
May we, and all the children who play here, live our lives as well as Julien did, and let us also treasure our loving memories of each other.
Nancy Bucher
Bonners Ferry