A Tale of Two Friends

The land holds this story of two friends who were lost this past week – Gary Standley and Taoufik Agoumy. It is a tale of two very different individuals, separated by physical and cultural oceans. Unknown to each other, more than a friendship with me links them.

Taoufik and his wife Oulya came into my life about eight years ago when my husband and I had the honor of being their hosts when they came to Montana as part of a cultural exchange.

They came from Morocco, a country that has drawn me since a relative stationed there sent me a gift of an embroidered leather purse and slippers when I was a very young child. Taoufik, professor in geography at a university in the capital city of Rabat, was well-educated and open the wider world.

Through his eyes, I saw Morocco, an island surrounded by oceans, including the ocean-like Sahara. We talked about the desert, its peoples, and how Montana’s high plains elicit similar visceral responses. Although we shared differences, the commonalities ruled, like how our mountains reminded him of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains and how their presence dominates the region’s geography and has shaped its culture and history.

Gary was born and raised just down the road, maybe two miles, from my home. He and a cousin were “the two BIG kids”, the eighth graders who provided a protective shield when I started first grade as a five-year-old in a one-room schoolhouse.

The U.S. Army provided Gary his high-school diploma, and he earned his college degree from the world of work. He loved where he was born and raised and believed in what he could see and experience. However, he was always ready to discuss a wider world and how it related to his familiar landscape. In fact, as he once admitted, perhaps he was too open to the words and ideas of others. I think he found solace in the landscape, of standing in a field surrounded by the quiet, with the distant purple-blue mountains standing proud.

Taoufik and Gary…I will miss you both and I wish you could have met.