The earth lost an angel about a month ago. Her name was Audrey Griffin. When I went to a friend who'd delivered a touching eulogy at Audrey's memorial service, though, I saw that Audrey had not left us after all. The shining torch had been passed. That torch was passed to Kristen, who spoke with tenderness and honestly about what Audrey had meant to her, and gave us all a vision of what we were to do with that torch of shining light Audrey had left us.
Audrey gained her first taste of the spotlight as a roman rider. On a team, then a trio, then a quintet, and a sextet of white horses, she rode galloping patterns in rodeo arenas in the 1950s. She raised a beautiful family of daughters. She was a sailor (something I didn't know until her memorial service) and she was a horseman to the very last light. Folks would see her truck and trailer all over the Santa Ynez Valley, and say "There goes Audrey," and smile. She'd be hooking up her trailer and loading a good horse at the drop of a hat if there were cattle to gather or move, or sort or brand. She was first to raise her hand when it came time to lend a hand, because she just plain loved horses, and riding, and being a dang good hand, and that she was: a hand.
I first met Audrey about 10 years ago when I met an old friend, Art Green who's managing the Alisal Ranch cattle operation outside Solvang, CA, for lunch in Santa Ynez one day. He brought along my friend and hero Sheila Varian, and this beautiful, shining woman with the most magnificent blue eyes you ever saw. Sheila wanted to know if I could go move some cattle with them the next day. "If you can mount me, I've got my saddle in the camper," I said. True to Sheila fashion, she said "Audrey can!"
Now, I am very very sensitive to people's horses, and I turned to this woman I'd just met, laughing and said, "I'm so sorry, Audrey. You don't know me from Adam, but it was sure nice of Sheila to offer your horse." Audrey Griffin, member of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, never missed a beat.
"You can ride my bridle horse, I'll ride my filly tomorrow." And the next day, I jogged out across the morning mist with Cowgirl Hall of Famers Sheila Varian and Audrey Griffin on either side of me. Slice of heaven right there. The thing was, if Sheila said I was okay, then I was okay by Audrey too. The other thing was this: Audrey Griffin just plain loved everybody. She'd hug you and look into your eyes and you knew that if there were angels on earth, they had silver hair, a cowboy hat, sparkling blue eyes and their lipstick was the perfect shade. That was Audrey.
When she passed, she was sitting on a good horse, dressed to the nines, moving cattle. That was how she always said she wanted to go: to be on a good horse and have her lights just go out. God was listening. And when Audrey rode off into her last sunset on earth, she left some stardust on all of us. Thank you, my beautiful friend. You left plenty of stardust for everyone you ever touched.
