In Memoriam: Victor L. Midyett

Missionary kid, 

storyteller, 
man of all trades

By Moristotle

Our beloved columnist Vic Midyett passed away this morning. He had recently been conversing with me and a couple of others about some differences between dogs and cats. His last email, on Wednesday, said:

Y’all know the difference between dogs and cats, right?
    The dog says, “You house me, you feed me, you love me: you must be God.”
    The cat says, “You house me, you feed me, you love me: I must be God.”

So typically to the point!
    I was told the news of Vic’s death in a reply to that email thread by his widow, fellow columnist Shirley Deane/Midyett.
    Vic was born in India, within two years of his American missionary parents’ arrival there in 1950. He called himself a missionary kid, and he delighted us with many stories of that period of his life in his “Missionary Kid Stories” column. Vic seemed to me a born storyteller, frequently sending me short, usually humorous narratives.

    He told us more about his early life in a “Tuesday Voice” column dated October 7, 2014, which includes photos of his family from that time. That column was written on the occasion of a then-upcoming book about his father by his cousin Randy Somers, published under the title JT Another Mighty Midyett.
    Vic also called himself a man of all trades, including driving trucks hauling hazardous materials. Shirley drafted a good portion of a book riding along in the cab with Vic, a book that came to be titled Brain Tangles: Unraveling the Mysteries of Communication and Human Behavior, which I edited and helped them self-publish in 2018. 

    My own favorite of Vic’s trades (after storytelling) was his trade of philosophizing. We even posted the articles he wrote under that guise under a byline including his full first name and middle initial.
    After spending eleven years in Australia with Shirley on their last extended tour Down Under, including three years among what Aussies call the “Gray Nomads,” roaming the Australian countryside adventurously, and then settling comfortably for three more years in the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia, they returned to the United States in April 2019, there settling on their own property in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation.
    “Tahlequah” means two is enough, and Vic & Shirley’s column from Australia, “Thunder Down Under,” morphed into “Two Is Enough.”

    Let’s join with Shirley in keeping that other half of Two alive in our remembrance of Vic.

_______________

And these final words: Vic left this message for friends and family:

As you walk on into a world that is increasingly aiming to move beyond the speed of thought, I hope you will each remember the importance of traveling at the speed of interconnections. That you will accept the beautiful gifts of life even when they aren’t pretty, that you will practice loving selflessly and strive to know your deepest nature.

Copyright © 2022 by Moristotle