Late Breaking BAD News---Perry Dyer...

From: Pooreplace@aol.com

    Regarding the 1999 AIS and AHS Conventions Tour Garden of Perry Dyer... 

Good evening all...

I HATE to be the bearer of bad tidings, especially as it seemed we all were
really getting final things together and getting a little more on top of
everything as well as experiencing cooperating weather.  And  for Oklahoma
that does NOT happen often!  

Unfortunately though I just got off the phone with Ruth Simmons our Region 22
AIS Newsletter Editor who is in OKC tonight having just driven back from the
TBIS Board Meeting in Albuquerque.  She phoned another of the joint
iris/daylily people when she couldn't reach me & stumbled upon the following
news...  Therefore this is 3rd hand information and it's WAY too late for me
to call anyone for more info or call Perry Dyer himself who is still in the
hospital...  Thankfully it's not too late for me to post to YOU ALL so you can
keep him in your thoughts and prayers and mayhaps send him a card or letter
offering something of encouragement, etc... 

Apparently Perry Dyer was hurrying home Friday night & pulled his brand new
Honda Accord into his driveway... (many of you will recall he was in a near
fatal car wreck only 7 or 8 weeks ago totalling out his Mazda Miyata
convertible sports car as he was sandwiched between a large pickup truck & an
18 wheeler semi-trailer truck breaking his greater right-big-toe and splitting
his head open requiring quite a number of stitches...)   

As Perry was scampering around his car, heading hurridly to his front door
both his feet flew out from under him...  Trying to catch himself to keep from
landing on the back of his head and neck (#1 where the stitches were from the
wreck, & #2 where he'd had major surgery only 18 or 19 months ago to fuse 2 or
3 vertabrae together in his neck---like C3 to C4, & C5 maybe also had
something done to it) Perry apparently put his right wrist down to break his
fall and save his head & neck...

All I know is his right wrist was completely crushed and he was taken to
Norman Regional Hospital in Norman, OK about 30 to 40 miles from his new place
in Blanchard...   Surgery was performed (late I suppose) Friday night and at
least 6 pins and something else were put in to try to secure all the pieces...

Ruth said Miss Kitty (Perry's mom & lone helper on getting all his new place
and new beds built, planted, & weeded to be ready for both conventions) said
today when they took the bandages off it just looks terrible.  Perry remains
in the hospital as of late tonight (Ruth called and talked to him) but might
possibly be released to go home tomorrow (Monday).  

I had been trying to reach him myself now for about 3 weeks without luck &
have had no return phone calls (very unlike him) so I knew he was knee deep in
trying to get everything in the ground and all the convention beds to
perfection before winter hits us...  If it were ONLY his new house with 7
acres and getting all those beds ready for the conventions that would not be
so bad...  HOWEVER, Perry had taken on a FEW other duties...

Perry & I are the same age (both 43) although we both act like we have the
time and energy of a hyper 16 year old...  Now I tend to take on quite a bit,
but Perry makes me look like I am moving in slow motion, sitting around
staring out the window with my feet up looking for something to do...  

Single handedly Perry Dyer was in charge of putting BOTH National Convention
handbooks together from cover to cover (as he did with AIS Median Spree in '93
& AHS Region 11 1995 Regional Meeting convention handbooks)...  He also is the
expert at putting all the bus routes together for both conventions,
calculating who goes here first, second, third, fourth, etc., on what day and
when busses must leave points a,b,c, & d in order to all arrive at the lunch
place in time to get the hot food, & the list of his duties just goes on and
on and on...  Upon our last visit he was in process of driving all the 5 tour
days of routes (iris 3 days, daylily 2 days) for the mileage---also no easy
feat as OKC proper covers more than 660 square miles & if you add in all the
little towns & suburbs that all the convention gardens inhabit I'm sure that
figure probably doubles...  

Perry was also handling all the garden maps and locations of absolutely all
guest irises and guest daylilies for all 18 convention beds, taking meticulous
care in assuring every single solitary person and hybridizer can/will find
every guest, every plant up or available for any/all convention awards.    

When it rains it pours and this summer when RAIN didn't, Perry was also struck
by disaster when nearly all of his private stock of daylilies that had just
been moved from the old house to the new place nearly all went down to the
heat & the drought...  I'm sure he lost up into the dozens of thousands of
dollars in an enormous collection of some of the best and newest daylilies on
the market.  I think he had some losses in his private collection of Louisiana
irises also...  Luckily all his convention beds had been planted prior to this
spring & fared pretty well.  

In Perry's SPARE time, he is a high level supervisor over a highly technical
unit currently involved on a monstrous project with the FAA requiring him to
work quite a bit of overtime.  The part that scares me the most is the fact he
is RIGHT-HANDED and an accomplished pianist holding an undergraduate degree in
music which he dearly loves...  He is his church organist/pianist and performs
in a bevy of other venues when time permits especially around the Christmas
season which is fast approaching...  

NEED I SAY I am sure that all the cards and letters along with prayers from
above are needed for him after this catastrophic happening with about the
worst timing...  There is no physical address to Perry's place so I am not
worried about posting his mailing address:    Perry Dyer     Route 5, Box 800
Blanchard, OK      73010  

Do not worry about the conventions!  We Oklahoman are always the best when we
are at our absolute worst as evidenced by the '95 OKC Bombing...  Between Ruth
& I we should be able to take up the slack if needed on the books and all the
computer stuff.  Ruth has also already made plans to return to OKC later this
week to help Miss Kitty get all the other heavy garden chores done before
freeze which we are already about 12 days past due for...  We have many other
talented folks in our groups that can pick up the ball on the bus routes and
guest plants.  If push comes to shove we can yell real loud for anything else
we may need.  Not to worry, the conventions will still be great, we're just
going to have to get some additional hands on deck to cover for our poor
suffering Perry Dyer...  God help us all that nothing worse happens, let alone
no more disasters happen to him!  

Thanks for anything along the lines of "Mend Soon" and encouragement you all
may be able to send to Perry...  I know you all will come through!

Kathy L. Poore,  Oklahoma City, OK
AIS Region 22,  AHS Region 11,  USDA Zone 7

  

------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index