Majestic Living Fall 2016

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contributors MarGareT CheaSebro has been a freelance writer for over 30 years. her articles have appeared in many magazines across the country.

She was a correspondent for the albuquerque Journal and worked for several local newspapers. She has four published books of children’s puppet scripts. a former elementary school counselor, she is a reiki Master and practices several alternative healing techniques.

She enjoys playing table tennis.

DoroThy NobiS has been a writer and editor for more than 25 years. She authored a travel guide, The insiders Guide to the Four Corners, published by Globe Pequot Press, and has been a frequent contributor to New Mexico Magazine.

Debra Mayeux, of Farmington, is an awardwinning journalist with recognitions from the associated Press of New Mexico and Colorado and the New Mexico Press association and the Colorado broadcast association. She has covered stories throughout the Southwest and in Mexico and Jordan, where she interviewed diplomats and the royal family. after nearly 20 years in the business, she recently opened her own freelance writing and media business. Mayeux enjoys the outdoors, reading and spending time with her family. She is the coordinator of Farmington Walk and roll, a Safe routes to School organization. She is married to David Mayeux and they have three children: Nick, alexander and Peter.

beN braShear has called the Southern San Juans home for most of his life. he holds a b.a. in Creative Writing from Fort Lewis College and has worked for Cutthroat: a Journal of The arts, as assistant poetry editor. he is currently working as a freelance writer and photographer based out of Durango, Colorado.

JoSh biShoP is a graduate of San Juan College with an associate degree in Digital Media arts and Design. he currently works at Majestic Media as a video producer and photographer.

WhiTNey hoWLe was born and raised in Farmington and is proud to call San Juan County home. The richness of the landscape and the diverse people, culture and traditions are a photographer’s dream. Whitney has his ba in Visual Communication from Collins College in Tempe, ariz. he is a co-owner of howle Design and Photography—a family owned studio offering graphic design, photography, market research and consulting.

publisher Don Vaughan

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editor Cindy Cowan Thiele

Clint Alexander Tonya Daniell

designer Suzanne Thurman

administration

Lacey Waite

writers Dorothy Nobis, Margaret Cheasebro,

MAGAZINE Celebrating the Lifestyle, Community and Culture of the Four Corners Vol. 8, No. 4 ©2016 by Majestic Media.

Majestic Living is a quarterly publication.

Material herein may not be reprinted without expressed written consent of the publisher. If you receive a copy that is torn or damaged call 505.516.1230.

6 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

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fallfeatures: 10

Making Gone are the Days

Two men, pursuing very different paths, somehow collided in Farmington and found a common goal — to tell a “really cool story and have fun doing it.”

By Debra Mayeux

18

Veterans Homestead Project

Greg Hopkins, co-founder of the Veterans Homestead Project with his partner Edit Aquarian, stands on the front porch of his modern adobe home near Breen, Colo.

By Ben Brashear

24

Making a house your home

When Greg Gomez was a child growing up in Aztec, he often rearranged the house. “ My mom let me do it,” he said. “ I moved everything around. Sometimes she would walk in the kichen and say, ‘The silverware’s not here anymore!’”

By Margaret Cheasebro

30

Finding a better way

Farmington resident Lawrence Guillen likes to think outside the box. No matter what he’s doing, if he can find a better, easier, less painful way to do it, that’s his goal.

By Margaret Cheasebro

36

Small but mighty

At just (barely) over four feet, ten inches, Rosemarie Mestas is a fighter, and she has been a David, and cancer her Goliath, for more than 25 years.

By Dorothy Nobis

8 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

42

Never a dull moment

Keeping up with Janet Mackey is like trying to catch a football with a butterfly net. You think you can, but it’s not that easy.

By Dorothy Nobis

48 Where everybody knows your name Kaleb Larkins loves to try new restaurants. He enjoys food and food service, which is a good thing, because he works in his father’s business — Hometown Hamburgers in Farmington.

By Debra Mayeux

54

He talks the talk and walks the Walk-A-Thon

Steve Calkins walks around town with a Cancer Walk-A-Thon sponsor envelope sticking out of his shirt pocket. He just waits for someone to ask what he has there, so he can tell them this, “In the famous words of Jerry Maguire, ‘Show me the money.’ ”

By Debra Mayeux

58 We’re all here to love each other On Oct. 9, 1991, Higinio Martinez checked oil and gas wells in Largo Canyon as part of his job with Amoco Production. He focused on his work even though he grieved over the death two weeks before of his 52-year-old mother.

By Margaret Cheasebro FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 9

g n i k a M

Gone are the Days Farmington natives Greg Tucker and Mark Gould collaborate on Hollywood western Story by Debra Mayeux Courtesy photos

Two men, pursuing very different paths, somehow collided in Farmington and found a common goal – to tell a “really cool story and have fun doing it.”

This collision brought one man home and took the other to Hollywood, where they collaborated on a raw and sometimes brutal tale of a cowboy outlaw with a heart for redemption.

Farmington Businessman Greg Tucker wrote Gone are the Days, and former Farmington resident Mark Gould directed the movie, which stars Tom Berenger, Lance Henriksen and Danny Trejo, among other Hollywood actors.

Both Farmington High graduates The process for these two Farmington High School graduates was a long and arduous journey with a big payoff.

Gould graduated in 1988. He was the senior class president, active in Drama and Speech and Debate.

Master’s of fine arts degree in directing When he left Farmington, he headed for Los Angeles, where he graduated with a master’s of fine arts degree in directing from the California Institute of the Arts. He began a directing career, producing music videos for DORO Productions, a European

video production company. He was working with youth in the streets of Los Angeles when he directed the documentary, Banging for the Calle.

This led Gould to work on a six-year project with Latin rap artists, inspiring him to write Street Stories, a theatrical film exploring the gang lives of troubled Los Angeles youth and the Los Angeles Police

Department. Gould also has directed and produced more than 100 episodes of the television show, Education: A Higher Calling, for Trinity Broadcast Network.

“I’ve done the gamut of it all,” Gould said of his film career.

Gould and Tucker meet Gould actually met Tucker while scouting a possible film location in Farmington, where he wanted to make a movie based on The Broken Circle, the true story of a 1975 murder of three Navajo men who were mutilated by three Farmington High School students. The killings left the city broken as cries of racial intolerance infiltrated the community.

Gould sought out Tucker, because he was the district attorney in Farmington.

Tucker had not known Gould in high school, because Tucker graduated in 1991, but they had some common interests. Tucker was his senior class president and was active in speech and debate. He also played football.

The Ancients Six years ago, Tucker approached Gould about a book he was writing, titled The Ancients. The two decided to collaborate on a possible film adaptation of the book.

“After 20 different screenplays, and working on it for years, we couldn’t get it going,” Tucker said.

Tucker always had an interest in writing. “I took a lot of creative writing classes in college, even the graduate level ones,” Tucker said.

He wrote The Ancients and a few children’s books, but it was a story he wrote in college that sealed the deal.

Gone are the Days Gone are the Days is a western based loosely on Dante’s Inferno. Tucker had submitted it to Project Greenlight in 2000 and didn’t think he owned the rights to the screenplay. After speaking to a copyright attorney, he realized the story still belonged to him, so he shared with Gould.

From Bishop to Taylon For Lance Henriksen each role is a new adventure Story by Debra Mayeux Courtesy photos Lance Henriksen will say he’s done a few movies – more than 250 to be exact – and one of his latest roles is in a film written by one Farmington native and directed by another.

Henriksen, in a telephone interview from California, said he agreed to play the character of Taylon in Greg Tucker’s Gone are the Days, because “it is so original.”

“I haven’t seen a western that allows what this writer has written,” Henriksen said. “Hollywood would never risk doing

what we did. The first 20 pages of the film – the character I’m playing is by himself in a rundown ramshackle ranch on its last leg, just like he is.”

Role was a challenge The film, loosely based on Dante’s Inferno, was completed on a moderate budget in 15 days at the Paramount Ranch in Santa Clarita, California.

It was directed by Mark Gould, a 1988 Farmington

* Henriksen 15

“It was really good – something we could develop,” Gould said. “Once we said this was what we were going to do, it came together fast.”

The team worked with Casting Director Mary Jo Slater. “She’s Christian Slater’s mom, and she was just awesome,” Tucker said.

“We thought ‘this is actually going to happen,’” Tucker said.

The film came together pretty quickly once it was cast. Oculi Entertainment came on board to produce it, and even though it was set in Durango, Colorado, it was filmed at the Paramount Ranch in Santa Clarita, California.

“We shot it in 15 days,” Gould said.

“People look at me like I’m nuts, and I am. I shot a western in 15 days, working 14 hours a day … with five to six hours of sleep.”

The film had a moderate budget, which Tucker said is called a Screen Actor’s Guild, or SAG 2, budget for smaller production companies. He was impressed, because “it wasn’t just guys out there with their cameras,” he said.

“People got real excited about it, and so many people put way more effort and time into this.”

Tom Berenger Slater managed to sign Academy Award nominee Tom Berenger to the role of Will.

“When he signed up it was really exciting,” Tucker said. “It was surreal.”

Having an A-list actor such as Berenger on board, Gould said, “We were able to talk to other people. Most of the actors will jump aboard because another actor is on – they are more apt to read the script.”

Lance Henriksen Small budget, great team

Lance Henriksen, of Aliens and Millennium, took the lead role of Taylon, and then Danny Trejo signed on.

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Gould’s perspective on the budget was a bit different. “We were shooting on a shoestring

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with some named actors who were very gracious,” he said. “I had a great team with great spirits, and the cinematography is beautiful.”

The experience led Gould to develop a friendship with Henriksen, who, after acting in more than 250 movies, grew quite fond of Gould.

“As a director, he really took on the adventure,” Henriksen said. “This was not an easy movie to do. We had time restraints and money restraints. We had a lot to do in a very short time.”

Henriksen does some of his own stunts Gould said he warned Henriksen about the role. “I told him, I’m going to put you through hell, and he said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

A week after they wrapped Henriksen told Gould that he was still recuperating.

Tucker was surprised that the 76-year-old actor did his own stunts. “He was awesome. He was such a good guy,” Tucker said. “Actors are amazing. It’s crazy how talented they are and what they can do.”

Tucker even got a taste of the acting bug, with a cameo appearance in the film. His wife

14 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

Stacie and their five children also acted in it.

“We were really close with the actors; we stayed at the same hotel, had dinner with them every night. Mark and Rich Cook (producer) did a good job of making it a family atmosphere,” Tucker said.

Gould added that they were lucky to complete the filming in three days. “Everybody worked really hard and had a great attitude.”

Keeping it real Gould’s objective was to “tell a really cool story and have fun doing it.” Tucker said his objective was met, because he didn’t want just to make a movie. He told Gould, “If it looks like an independent movie, I don’t want to do it. … It was important to me with Mark; I wanted to make it look good.”

His career in film has been like the “biggest roller coaster ride,” with ups and downs and struggles, but he is doing what he enjoys and taking care of his family while keeping ties to his hometown.

“I look back at Farmington on those days as some of my favorite times in my life,” Gould said. I try to keep my Farmington roots. I shake everyone’s hand, and I try to keep it real.”

Gould and Tucker would like for Gone are the Days to be shown in Farmington, but as it is in post-production with investors and buyers looking at it, the film’s future is up to the powers that be in that big glossy world of entertainment.

Henriksen continued from 11 High School graduate who has his degree from the California Institute of the Arts.

Gould said he pushed Henriksen hard in this role.

“I’ve never done a role like this. It was way out there,” Henriksen said. “It was a challenge.”

Gone are the Days is set in Durango, Colorado, in 1906, a time when “America was changing,” Henriksen said.

“We had seemingly conquered the whole continent. The modern age was coming in. There were cars and all kinds of things, yet there was still all of the lawless debris from the earlier days where the country was. Still, law and order was coming in slowly.”

A path to redemption Taylon was a bank robber whose misdeeds caught up with him. “He has to redeem himself. What ends up happening is you get onto this adventure with this guy. You never know what is going to happen and what is going on.

It’s not meant to be a comedy, but it certainly has funny things in it.”

Taylon’s wife was hanged, because of his criminal acts.

This left him with an infant daughter he was forced to give

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character from the feet up to my head.’”

He added that if he didn’t see the work he had put into the character when the movie was completed, he would consider quitting acting.

That did not happen. “Everything I wanted in that character was there. It opened a door to a career. It was such a success,” he said.

“For me it’s all an adventure. There are some movies I’ve done that are a cat leaving a cat box. It does its business and doesn’t look back.

Others have moved me deeply.”

Career spans five decades

— Lance Henriksen up. The audience meets Taylon 20 years later as he struggles with all he has lost. “All of his life had caught up with him. … He’s alone. He has a horse – that’s his only thing,” Henriksen said.

“He decides he has to redeem himself, learn about his daughter – and he does.”

Henriksen, who often is remembered for his role of Frank Black on the television show, Millennium and the character of Bishop in the Aliens franchise, wanted to be a part of Tucker’s film because it was challenging and original.

“I felt the challenge was going to be the physicality of it – which was very Buster Keaton,” he said. “It’s very intimate. It’s smart. It’s unexpected – totally. When you make a film, you don’t finish it, you abandon it. In terms of this movie, it will reveal itself while editing.”

Four Corners fan Henriksen also loves the Four Corners and wrote a graphic novel about Telluride, Colorado.

It is titled To Hell You Ride, and was published

by Dark Horse Comics. “I wrote it so it would be a movie. It’s got a story behind it,” he said.

Henriksen enjoys the poetic form of the Western movie. “In Shakespeare, it is iambic pentameter. In theater there is a western rhythm – the best use of it in the most original way,” he said.

“Mike Nichols said something – all drama is involved in three things – negotiation; the other, seduction, and the other, fighting. Those three elements become all drama when you get down to it. Make the words the flesh.”

New York native Henriksen was born in New York, where he began his acting career on stage. He was on Broadway with Al Pacino in The Basic Training of Pavlo HummelI by David Rabe, “I did nothing 16 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

but theater, and then I did my first movie, and theater was gone,” Henriksen said.

“I loved the theater. It was really painful. It was rough.”

One of his first films was Dog Day Afternoon, also starring Pacino. Henriksen also had roles in Prince of the City, Network and Close E ncounters of the Third Kind.

Then, director James Cameron put Henriksen in his first movie, Piranha Part Two: The Spawning.

“I had to get a wardrobe off a waiter, because there was no wardrobe,” Henriksen said.

“I gave a waiter $75 for the uniform. I’ve always been a survivor. I make do and I make it happen and believe in it.”

Fart catchers These roles are what Henriksen calls “fart catchers – the lead tells a joke, and I laugh.”

He was going along getting work, but not really developing a character.

“I looked at those movies I did. I was servicing the movie, but I left myself out,” he said.

Bishop in Aliens Then Cameron offered him the role of Bishop in Aliens. It was a completely different character.

“There are no androids that think and talk and feel,” Henriksen said, adding that he thought, “‘How am I going to compete? I can’t compete.’

I threw myself into it, doing the work I had been trained to do. I wasn’t pulling the trigger, doing the mark. I said ‘I’m going to construct this

Throughout a career that has spanned five decades Henriksen said a lot of his films have moved him and changed him.

“For me it’s all an adventure. There are some movies I’ve done that are a cat leaving a cat box.

It does its business and doesn’t look back.

Others have moved me deeply.”

He recently completed his first real comedy, filmed in Niagara Falls. It is about a dysfunctional family. “I played the patriarch in it,” he said. “It was probably one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve ever had. I never thought I was funny. I know the situations are funny. They offered it to me and I thought here we go, I’ll take the chance.”

After the Sun Fell is set for release September 17, while Gone are the Days remains in post-production. Henriksen said he is proud of both films, which had similar budgets.

“I don’t have a switch that says, ‘I’m going to do low-budget acting,’” he said. “If you’re going to do it, you need to go for it. You really do. You have to believe in it.” He believes in Gone are the Days and what the cast and crew accomplished.

“What it meant was Mark had to hold his own.

It didn’t come easy, because nobody had any time to make it easy,” Henriksen said.

“I had to live this character; there was no room for an intellectual exercise.”

This wasn’t his first western, but it was probably the most original.

“It’s a little bit like Don Quixote. It’s either going to be thrown up into the stars or down in the mud,” Henriksen said. “It’s so original. If it resonates with people, anything can happen.

I have a lot of faith in it. Mark went through a lot of shit with me. It’s all about life and death. I’ll always be proud of going for it, making the attempt.”

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VETERANS HOMESTEAD PROJECT Restoring lives through regenerative agriculture Story and Photos Ben Brashear Greg Hopkins, co-founder of the Veterans Homestead Project with his partner Edit Aquarian, stands on the front porch of his modern adobe home near Breen, Colo. He is recounting his first tour of five as a Pararescue Jumper in Iraq. It was 1994 during Operation Provide Comfort; he says, “Two Air Force F-15’s misidentified and shot down two of our UH-60 Black Hawks. I was supposed to be on one of those Black Hawks and instead I was there seeing friends that had died.” He was clearly sifting through the details, distilling them down into something more palatable. All 26 civilian and military passengers died in the shoot-down that day.

18 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 19

He stares outward over the railing toward the sound of the nearby Big Stick ditch flowing at high water. The small creek bisects the 265acre La Plata Conservation District land that is now flush with new growth from the recent rains. He has slowly transformed the property over the past three years after moving his family from Hawaii into what is now the Veterans Homestead Project—a regenerative agriculture project for returning veterans with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. The project maintains a holistic approach to restore not only the well-being of the veterans through a variety of workshops from horticulture to soil science to blacksmithing and cheese-making but also rebuilding the soil and grasslands. “It’s about going beyond ‘organic’ because even an ‘organic’ farm can be exploitative of the land.

I tend to call it regenerative agriculture, where the focus is on building up the soil and getting the land back to a healthy state. Your soil is your life,” he says.

Building the best compost Greg’s specialty in Hawaii was building some of the best compost around. He would work with worms, collect food waste from the local Whole Foods Market, and would even compost an entire cow carcass as a service for the two feedlots on the Big Island. “That compost was selling for

over $1,000 dollars a batch,” he says. Continuing in that same vein, he is now scheduled to work with renowned soil microbiologist Elaine Ingham, author of the USDA’s “Soil Biology Primer,” in a study of the potential effectiveness of inoculated bio-char, a type of super-compost, that will be injected into the soil up to four feet deep.

“We think that it will provide a better habitat for microbes and that’s where carbon sequestration happens,” he says.

Hopkins’ method of farming falls within the overarching paradigm of what most have come to know as permaculture. He is the conscious, environmental designer of Bill Mollison and the fervent pragmatist of Joel Salatin combined.

He relies heavily on the animals of the farm— hogs, goats, chickens, horses and cattle to till and fertilize the soil while he works with the land, its natural contours and existing resources to determine where to plant and to make his farm as efficient as possible. Minimizing waste is vital according to Hopkins. He has teamed up with Steamworks Brewing in Durango, Colo. to utilize spent grain from the brewing process and he has partnered with James Ranch in Hermosa, Colo. for whey, a by-product of cheese-making—the two ingredients combine to make a yogurtized super food for his pigs and chickens.

Shaking things up It seems that his alternative approach to farming, although nothing new he says, is 20 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

shaking things up among the traditional farmers and cattle ranchers in his neighborhood. “This ecosystem is vastly different than Hawaii and I’ve had to relearn a lot.

I basically farm by YouTube now,” he laughs. “There have been a lot of eyes watching me and what we’re trying to do here and you know that you’re doing something right when the old timers that have the family farms stop you and say ‘you know, we’ve been doing it wrong for the last hundred years’,” he smiles. “The hard part for traditional farmers that have used chemical fertilizers is that it’s going to be a very difficult transition to chemical-free farming. It takes at least three years for the soil and microbes to recover from the use of chemicals and the farmers will most likely face a loss of income and smaller crop yields and that’s a frightening thing,” he says.

Back on the porch, overhead and hanging to dry are an assortment of medicinal and

edible herbs bound with twine by his partner Aquarian. The wind begins to pick up and you can smell the scent of freshly made chèvre from the kitchen intermingling with the rain clouds descending the shoulder of the La Plata Mountains. Greg folds his arms into his chest and smiles making note of the sudden shift in weather, “It’s getting cold.”

His eyes rove like drifting cottonwood plumules and occasionally he glances toward the large black Berkshire-Tamworth pigs he’s using to clear out Russian thistle, rabbit brush

and yellow leafy spurge for several new garden plots. To describe this working homestead is beyond bucolic, arcadian, or pastoral. Here, it is an imperative, where life itself demands systematic purpose. It is essential. It is, as Hopkins likes to point out, full of microbes that lessen the affects of depression. It is a place founded upon the simple need of being able to function as a human being and to move beyond the state of survival that Greg had been dwelling in for more than a decade after active combat duty.

PTSD “You know they’ve shown how war messes with your frontal lobe and the ‘fight or flight’ instinct and you’re always in ‘fight’ mode,” he says. When he was nearly 40 years old Hopkins was diagnosed as disabled from his severe PTSD. He stops talking for a moment when his phone “dings” and he lifts it from his pants pocket. He suffers from acute short-term

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“This farm gives me a reason, and I want to be able to provide a reason to those I help, to wake up everyday” — Greg Hopkins

memory loss, another symptom of PTSD. “It’s my reminder notes for the day,” he says as he shifts his weight from one foot to the other.

His work boots and the cuffs of his black Carhartts are still wet from moving 28 head of cattle across the creek earlier this morning. He moves the cattle from one of several small 40-acre grazing paddocks made from several portable rolls of electric wire fencing. He rotates the cattle through the paddocks up to six times per day, something he calls as somewhat “management intensive grazing.” “This land was overgrazed for the past twenty years,” he says.

Overgrazing, according to Greg, is when the cattle go in for a “second bite” and prevent the grass from coming back to full-blade re-growth before being consumed again. Aquarian herself is adamant, “If enough people would start to farm in this (permaculture) style it would make a huge impact. You see the soil blowing away out here. They even had to close the elementary school down because of it,” she says in her clipped yet strong Hungarian voice.

Earlier that morning — Greg drives his borrowed ’90’s vintage Dodge truck up the winding farm road to where just three days ago cattle had been grazing for the past three and a half weeks. He is certain that the distinct 22 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

grazing patterns he had devised based on the contours of the landscape will be visible. There was too much re-growth in those three days for the pattern to be noticeable. The only demarcation is the dividing line between his property and the neighbors, lush grass giving way at the fence line to sage and weeds. “You can see where we’ve thrown hay over prairie dog holes and the bare patches of soil that were here before we started grazing,” his voice unexpectedly rises in volume as the stiff suspension of the truck refuses to absorb the water bar he’s driven across. “It should help the natural grasses and legumes come back faster,” he finishes as he settles back into the bench seat.

Funding and resources He methodically searches each paddock where the cattle have been. It seems he is looking everywhere except where he is going as he hits a deep prairie dog hole managing what feels like the front wheels lifting off the ground. He then quickly jams the breaks overwhelmed by how quickly the grass had come back. “Look at this,” he points. “We’ve already got full blade re-growth here and look here, we’re getting legumes where the cheat grass used to be. This is better than expected,” he says letting a bit of gathered soil

pour through his fingers before getting back into the truck. “Cattle can be seen and used as tools or they can cause a lot of damage to the soil,” he says shifting the truck into gear.

Greg is in a unique position. He’s a farmer on leased land and he is a cattle rancher with borrowed cattle and a borrowed work truck from the Isgar farm located a few miles away. What he lacks in funding and resources, he makes up for with passion and community outreach. He’s hosted Savory Institute workshops, vermicomposting technique with the Southwest Colorado Garden Project and homesteading with Hasbídító on the Navajo Nation. His dream is big and he envisions being able to one-day pay three to four veterans to consistently work at the homestead, which he will hopefully will begin to provide around 80 percent of their living needs. It is also evident that it is this farm that keeps Hopkins going day to day. “I can’t speak enough to how beneficial to the soul the farm is after coming out of the horror of war,” he says.

Returning veterans The homestead is one amongst a growing trend in farming projects for returning veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as Veteran Affairs and veteran psychologists are slowly coming to recognize the mollifying potential of the structured life of farming to treat the increasing number of those suffering from and diagnosed with PTSD and TBI. That number of veterans is hit or miss, but most recent studies conducted by the Rand Corp. have it hovering right around an average of 15 to 20 percent of returning veterans suffering from this type of trauma.

In 2015, according to the USDA there have been over 12,000 start-up farms that have benefited from the new veterans farming initiative and legislation passed in 2014. Veterans Homestead Project is still waiting its two-tothree-year interim to prove their “effectiveness” and to receive any governmental funding for their program. They are struggling to make ends meet says Aquarian. “It is proven that we are successful and yet we are still struggling,” she says. “It’s humiliating. These veterans gave up

their lives for this country and yet they can’t get the help they need. We are getting veterans with severe PTSD and they are right on the edge of living, of functioning day to day. They cannot function in the production farm programs available to them but they can be homesteaders and learn self-support and slowly learn to function once again,” she says. “We have struggled to gain government, veteran, and local funding for our program because we do not fit the standard mold, we do not have a set curriculum. It is the curriculum of life. When it is time to harvest or to plant or to milk, that is what we do here on the farm, and without that standardized curriculum to put on paper we do not seem to qualify for the available funding. We are a unique program. The results are evident in Greg’s life and in the veterans who have stayed here.”

Most of the currently available veterans farming programs, however do seem to be designed around a production farm catering to a larger number of participants. This format is suitable for most veterans who have learned to cope with being in social settings. What sets Veterans Homestead Project apart from the other programs is that they are dealing with a smaller demographic of veterans that, as Aquarian describes, have given more than their lives.

“The men that we have treated so far are unable to be around even more than just a few people at one time. They respect Greg because he was a PJ, the top of the top of the top, and can trust in the way he was able to admit he has PTSD. Most men that come here seeking our help have turned to the support of alcohol and cannot maintain or have lost their relationships with their wives and families. They are half dead— it is worse than being dead,” she says.

Homestead project Though Hopkins has long traded in his maroon beret for a pearl button shirt, he still keeps his hair cropped short and it is clear that the creed of the PJ, “that others may live,” is indelible. He puts his phone back into his pants pocket and quickly moves from his first experience of the Iraq war to how the whole homestead project came about. “I had just returned to normal life,” he says. “I had bought

13- acres in Hawaii and struggled with civilian life, insomnia and alcoholism. I needed that adrenaline and routine of the service so, I worked as a firefighter on the Big Island,” he says. “I had my firefighter shirt on one day in Maui and this lady approached me who recognized the department.” He recalls that somewhere in his conversation with the woman, he mentioned that he was a veteran PJ and had served five tours in Iraq.

She said that her husband was a Marine and had just returned from active duty. She was concerned about his struggles with PTSD and alcoholism, Hopkins says – as he seems to get lost in thought— he must be there, living in that moment again. Her husband was drinking a fifth of whiskey a night— just to sleep he says.

He gave the woman his phone number and offered to help if he could. “I never really expected a phone call back, but then one day she calls me up crying. She says that her husband is sitting on his bed at home drunk with a loaded gun to his head and asks me if I can do anything to help,” Greg says. “I tried calling him and wasn’t certain he’d answer.”

Greg hands are busy. He checks his phone again. Slides it back into his pants pocket and picks up a carton of fresh eggs and crosses the length of the porch to where a deep freezer sits butted up against the house. With his free hand he opens the lid to show off how much meat a recent pig roast had provided. “We may not have much but we eat really well,” he laughs.

“That man, he answered the phone and I was able to talk to him. Let him know that I had been there and dealt with the same pain every day. I didn’t know what I was doing but we connected,” he says. “About four months later we met up and he gives me this big hug with tears in his eyes saying that I had saved his life.

That’s when I knew that I could do something to help. That’s how I justify my disability pay—I give it all to this program helping others,” Hopkins says as he shuts the freezer lid and, glancing at his watch, says he has a lot of work to do, cattle to rotate and pigs to feed. * Homestead 63

Making a house your hoMe Greg Gomez helps clients create stylish, comfortable living spaces Story by Margaret Cheasebro Photos by Whitney Howle

When Greg Gomez was a child growing up in Aztec, he often rearranged the house.

“My mom let me do it,” he said. “I moved everything around. Sometimes she would walk in the kitchen and say, ‘The silverware’s not here anymore!’ I was trying to find a way that everything would function better, so I’d move it around.”

Today Greg owns Greg Gomez Consulting and Design. He is known in several states as a creative interior designer and personal assistant 24 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

who can turn an ordinary home into a comfortable masterpiece of art. He has worked for people from New York and California to Colorado and New Mexico. He has done everything from decorating offices and installing sound systems to overseeing furniture, flower and food arrangements at businesses. He has helped to design and decorate homes for many people, and to assist with their wardrobes.

He even plans parties and designs landscaping.

He recently decorated for a baby shower

given by Anita Melloy of Farmington, and he has coordinated events at Advantage Dodge Chrysler Jeep owned by Anita’s husband, Steve Melloy. “We think Greg is the best,” Anita said.

His home showcases his talent His 4,500-square-foot Farmington house is a testament to his talents. There, he displays furniture, rugs, art work, many collections and family heirlooms in a comfortable, artistic way.

His grandfather liked to smoke cigars, and

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 25

Greg inherited his cigar boxes. Two tall stacks of them are tastefully displayed in one room.

In another room, many celebrity bears from the North American Bear Company adorn a trunk. They range from Bearilyn Monroe and Loren Bearcall to William Shakesbear and Libearachi. “When my nieces and nephews come over, they love to play with them,” Greg said.

He understands how people get emotionally attached to things they own, so he displays those items to the owner in meaningful ways.

“A lot of people ask me what my style of decorating is,” he said. “It’s not really my style.

It’s about the clients and what they want. I just make sure that when we put everything together, they like it and it looks good in the end. That’s my main goal. A lot of clients have things they have never pulled out because they don’t know how to display them. I put them all together so they can enjoy their pieces.”

Improves home arrangement He helped Dr. Richard Paul and his wife, Alta, of San Luis Obispo, California, to improve the arrangement of their new home.

The Pauls were impressed with how Greg had helped their son develop and design his Farmington home, so they asked him to spend a week in California helping with the home they had lived in for a year.

“Mr. Gomez consulted with us, arranged furniture, placed art works, and helped in the selection and acquisition of lighting fixtures,” Dr. Paul said.

During the week he spent with them, Greg also prepared a full dinner for them and provided cooking lessons. “A highlight of the dinner was the preparation of dessert, Crème Brule, which included the carmelization process done by our 10-year-old grandson.

Spectacular!” Dr. Paul exclaimed.

Word of mouth Word of mouth keeps Greg in business.

When people see what he’s done for someone else, they ask him to work for them, or they refer him to a friend. One of his most challenging jobs was redoing a houseboat at 26 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

Navajo Lake and moving antique furniture and other pieces from Farmington to the boat without damaging them.

He sometimes settles people into their new homes. A client who had just bought a house in Farmington gave Greg her credit card and told him to set up the house while the family spent two months in Europe. “We changed out flooring, we had closets cedar lined,” Greg recalled. “I took photographs of how the clients had kept everything in the bathroom drawers, and I put everything exactly as it was in their new house. When they walked through the door, it was like they’d always lived there.

Everything was in its place.”

He has designed wrought iron work for gates and railings, among other things. “I design it and find somebody to build it,” he said. “I have some really good vendors who work for me.”

Improves closet space He often helps people with their closets.

“I make sure they have good lighting so they can tell navy blues from blacks when they’re dressing,” he said. “I coordinate all the clothing so it’s easy to dress.” He also installs shelves and bins to organize things better.

“I put baking soda in old socks to keep the closet nice and fresh,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll even put coffee beans in a sock, tie it up and put it in a boot or shoe.”

For his own closets, he uses pipe tobacco to help him remember his grandfather. “I used to love the smell of cigar smoke on his clothes,” Greg said.

In one room of his house a mannequin stands with hundreds of vintage rhinestone pins covering its front. “My mom had a lot of those pins,” he said. “When she passed away, I got quite a few of them. I wanted to find a way to showcase them. When people find I collect these pins, they send me stuff to add to the mannequin. The front took me a year and a half to complete. Now I’m working on the back of it.”

atmosphere of her home. “He is determined, efficient and honest. He is goal oriented and dedicated to completing the task in a timely manner.”

When Carla Vescovi-Dial of Aztec hired Greg to redecorate her entire house, she was impressed with his ability to motivate others and his calm attitude that made projects seem effortless. “I have seen him enter a totally chaotic setting,” she said, “and in a very short time everything is back on track and running smoothly.”

Does a lot with a little

clients too. Instead of replacing furniture and other items, he uses what people already have in artistic and efficient ways. “Greg has an uncanny ability to use existing pieces of furniture and home décor to create an entirely new and appealing setting,” said Katie Hawkins of Farmington, who hired Greg to improve the

She was impressed with his ability to do a lot with a little. “I gave him an overall budget and told him that he must work within that budget,” she said. “It is totally incredible what this man can do with minimum dollars. He has such knowledge of fine antiques and where to search for them. His knowledge is priceless. He took it upon himself to utilize the space in my home in the most efficient manner. I found that

Uses existing furniture to decorate He demonstrates that kind of creativity with FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 27

A New Mexico native

I had empty spaces. Before, I was constantly looking for more space to place things. His eye for color and texture coordinating is better than any decorator I have seen.”

Custom designs bedding Greg’s goal is to help all clients achieve whatever they want in order to make their homes comfortable. Many people dislike bedding that doesn’t fit, so he designs custom made bedding and pillows that fit perfectly. “I design the bedding so it drops all the way where it’s supposed to be,” he said. “I’ll measure it with all the blankets that they use in the winter time. If they want a more polished look, we’ll make a fitted spread.”

Long-time Farmington seamstress Karen Walker often works for Greg.

“It’s awesome to work with him,” she said.

“He’s very good at what he does. He will go the extra mile. I do the curtains, bedspreads, pillows, dust ruffles that go along the bottom of the bed. When he needs that kind of work done, he calls me.”

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“She’s an incredible seamstress,” Greg said.

“I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

He encourages people to decorate their home with the work of local artists, and he names several as friends, among them Rod Hubble and Karen Ellsbury.

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Though Greg has worked in several states, he is a New Mexico native. His family has lived here since the 1600s. Greg is the third of seven brothers and sisters who grew up in Aztec. When he was 5 or 6 years old, he used to cut pictures of furniture out of magazines and arrange them. He began rearranging the house when he got a little older. “I would drive my siblings crazy because everything was being moved around all the time,” he said.

When he was 12, his mother, Clara Gomez, told him, “You’re driving us all crazy. We’ve got to get you to work.” So she found a job for him at La Placita Restaurant in Farmington, where he bused tables and helped to cook. It nurtured his love for cooking. Today, almost every weekend he prepares meals with desserts for a few friends or family.

15-year Safeway tenure While attending Aztec schools, Greg took six years of horticulture and floriculture classes.

He graduated from Aztec High School in 1978.

While still in high school, he worked for several florists in the area. Greg began a 15-year tenure with Safeway after former Aztec Safeway store manager Dave Nichols asked him to start a floral department.

While he worked at Safeway, Greg also attended San Juan College. Then he told his parents he wanted to learn the household management business, so he attended Denver University and the Starkey International Institute, also in Denver. After graduating, he worked for a man in New York for over a year as a personal assistant and personal secretary. “He asked me if I would help him put one of his homes together in the Hamptons, because he was newly divorced and didn’t know what to do,” Greg said.

When he moved back to Denver, he worked as a personal assistant and personal secretary for a single dad who had just moved into a new home. “He asked me to help him get his home put together,” Greg said. “When I finished, everybody started asking me if I would help them.”

* Gomez 63

30 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

FINDING A BETTER WAY Lawrence Guillen’s determination could make knee replacement recovery less painful Story by Margaret Cheasebro Photos by Whitney Howle Farmington resident Lawrence Guillen likes to think outside the box. No matter what he’s doing, if he can find a better, easier, less painful way to do it, that’s his goal. So it isn’t surprising that, after working with physical therapy patients who had undergone knee replacements, he found a better way to help

them. In 2005 he began tinkering with ideas to help them get the bend back in their knee faster, more safely and with less pain. He refined the machine enough that in December 2015 he received a utility patent for it.

Today, his Linear Motion Therapy Device (LMTD) is in the hands of Focus Product

Design in Menlo Park, California, which is making rendering drawings of his machine.

The company will build a prototype for him

by April 2017. He plans to find a medical company that will take the machine through clinical trials and earn U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 31

LMTD has potential “The machine has potential,” said Dale Anderson, co-owner of Aztec Media, who has made two videos of the machine in use. “It’s a different approach to leg and knee therapy.

The approach is by holding the body parts in alignment while exercising. Medical devices are very difficult to get through the trial process, but compared to other devices of this type, this is a significant change in approach. The main benefit is they are putting the therapy in the hands of the patients so they can manage their own pain thresholds and set their own therapy goals. I did videos of two patients and followed them through the treatment and each significantly improved their joint movements.”

Gabe Archibeque of Farmington was one of those patients. He’d had knee replacement surgery and was in painful physical therapy. When he finished physical therapy, he had a 21-degree bend in his knee. He hoped for more. He heard about Lawrence’s machine and got permission from both his doctor and Lawrence to use it.

“The first time I used the machine, I got a 25-degree bend in my knee,” Gabe said. He used the machine two or three more times before Lawrence had to send it to Focus Product Design.

Positive results Because of the results achieved by Gabe and others, Lawrence believes passionately in his machine. “I want to see my machine out there helping people before I pass on,” he said. “That’s my ultimate goal.”

Not that Lawrence is that old. He was born in Gallup in 1958 and graduated from Gallup High School where he wrestled until he broke his nose. The sport wasn’t his first choice.

“I loved football,” he said, “but I was too tiny.”

He may have been tiny, but he was always ambitious. At the age of 14 he went to work at a fast food restaurant to make money.

Lawrence was the middle of five children.

When he was 16, he bought a 1976 Nova with

his earnings. By the age of 19, he’d become the restaurant’s general manager.

Goes to college at 40 He came to Bloomfield to work at Big Cheese Pizza, then decided to develop his lifelong love of exercise. So in 1998, when he was 40 years old, he signed up for the physical therapy assistant program at San Juan College.

He graduated in 2003 and earned his certification in fitness training.

Determined to use his skills to help others, in 2003 he went to work at Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine of Northern New Mexico in Aztec. Physical therapist Sid Mossiman let him work on patients who’d had total knee replacements.

“When they came in, I would watch the technique that physical therapy uses,” Lawrence said. “I saw patients were always in pain. It hurt when someone put their hand on their leg and pushed. People would guard against the pain.

I thought there had to be a better way.”

Builds first machine In 2005, he began building a crude device that would help patients regain the bend in their knee without so much pain. He started with a flat blue cutting board that was 12 inches wide and 40 inches long. A metal bar slid in a groove through the length of the cutting board, and a person’s foot would move on the board with the help of a drill that provided forward and backward motion.

“That was the first Frankenstein I made,” Lawrence said. “Then I made Frankenstein number two.”

It had a bigger motor with a similar metal plate. Lawrence noticed that when people’s legs moved on the machine, their hips moved too, causing pain. So he came up with a device to stabilize their hips. It worked.

Naysayers tell him to stop Naysayers tried to discourage him. “They would say, ‘Lawrence, stop this idea. This is madness,’” he recalled. “Me, with my passion, I kept going.”

32 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

Returns to patent attorney In 2012, with the improvements, he took his idea back to the patent attorney. That was a scary time for Lawrence, because the attorney said the idea had to sit in the public eye for two years to give anyone who had the same idea a chance to come forward. No one did.

At that point, well-meaning naysayers tried to talk “sense” into Lawrence. “They said, ‘Lawrence, it was a fun project, but now you have to stop,’” he recalled. “’This idea of yours is costing too much money. Patent lawyers aren’t cheap.’”

But when the patent attorney was ready to move forward in 2014, so was Lawrence. He had encouragers, among them Jim Magee, who co-owns Premiere Fitness in Aztec with his son, Chad. Lawrence is a personal trainer there.

“This is a great man,” Jim said of Lawrence.

“He cares about people. That’s how this machine came to be. Through his work he thought about what he could do to help people.”

“I want to see my machine out there helping people before I pass on. That’s my ultimate goal.”

— Lawrence Guillen

Linda Parks steps in Another supporter is Linda Parks for whom Lawrence is a personal trainer. “Without Linda, I would not have a patent today,” he said.

“With her determination and her pushing me, she said, ‘We can get this done.’”

They hit a snag in April 2015 when the

patent attorney sent Lawrence specific, precise requests for information about his machine and how it differed from six other machines already on the market. There were 33 pages of documentation to wade through. The attorney wanted the information by July.

Lawrence felt overwhelmed.

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 33

With her detail oriented mind and experience in education, Linda stepped in to help him. For 30 years she had taught dental hygiene at the University of Texas in Houston.

“He brought the LMTD and put it in my living room,” Linda recalled. “I would type and go and look at the machine and then go back and type some more because you had to say what was the composition of each item, what it was connected to, what its purpose was.

It was breaking that machine down to its most minute parts.”

Named every part “I didn’t want to do that,” Lawrence said.

“She made me put the machine on the floor. She said, ‘Lawrence, we’re going to take the wheel apart screw by screw and put it back together and give each section a name.’ And we named it.”

“He would go over what I’d written,” Linda explained. “He would correct me.”

“She learned the terminology of the machine,” Lawrence said. “In that two months she

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34 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

learned everything there was to know about the Linear Motion Therapy Device.”

The process wasn’t easy, and they sometimes clashed.

“We would snarl at each other,” Linda remembered, “but it was because we’ve known each other for five years. We could be honest with each other. I bribed him with snacks. It was a collaborative effort, and we were under deadline. This was important to do. He had invested money. The apparatus works. It’s well received. For it to just go away – that couldn’t happen.”

So they persisted. They sent off the paperwork to meet the July deadline, and in December 2015 Lawrence received a utility patent, good for 20 years. He must pay an annual fee for the patent or he will lose it.

her ACL, a ligament in the knee, while playing in an adult volleyball league. After surgery, she went to physical therapy to increase the bend in her knee.

“The physical therapist pushed down on my knee to straighten it, and it hurt,” Kendra recalled. “It was the most painful thing you could probably think of. Your knee is trying to protect itself from the pain.”

She wasn’t improving much, and the physical therapist wondered if she might need more surgery. That’s when she learned about Lawrence’s machine, and after using it for one month she was able to lay her knee almost flat on the table.

“I had more improvement with the machine than with the physical therapist,” she said. “My knee is more flexible now than it ever was before.”

Machine needs polished look Users improve their health He knows his efforts are worth it, because all the people who have used his machine have improved their knee bend. One of them is Kendra Stoll of Farmington, who was 20 when she tore

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Those kinds of results keep Lawrence motivated. Once he got the patent, he knew the machine needed a more polished look before he took it to a medical company. So he found Focus Product Design. Linda learned the company had

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an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Focus Product Design personnel wanted Lawrence to send them his machine. “I thought, ‘That’s my baby!’ But I sent the machine to them,” he said.

When company employees were halfway through with his drawings, they asked him to fly to California on July 19 to examine the drawings they’d completed. So Lawrence flew there with his two partners, Steve Owen and Morey Havens. They were all impressed with the company and its employees. They plan to bring in more investors at $5,000 per person so they’ll have the money to pay the $100,000 the company needs to complete the prototype by April.

According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the number of total knee replacement surgeries in the United States more than tripled between 1993 and 2009, and by 2030 are projected to increase 673 percent.

That means a lot of people could benefit from the LMTD.

Anticipates great success

“This machine is designed to speed up the rehabilitation process in a way that’s less painful than normal rehab,” Owen said. “It can be used with supervision or by the patient alone. It will be ergonomically easy to use, lightweight, and

“We’re going to get an enhanced working machine,” said Lawrence. He anticipates great success for the machine if it can get FDA approval.

easily maneuverable. I think it’s a good machine that can benefit a lot of people.”

Supporters invest in machine Some friends and family have already invested in the machine, and their support encourages Lawrence. Once the machine is successfully marketed, he’s convinced they’ll see a substantial increase on their investment.

His wife, Glendora Guillen, is one of his most ardent backers. She’s a kindergarten teacher and in the Navy Reserve.

“She has always encouraged me,” Lawrence said. “When I have to vent, she’s my ear. She’s my backbone. Without her, I couldn’t do anything.”

He has big plans for the LMTD. “I’m thinking way out of the box,” he said.

“I’m thinking the NFL, NBA, the pros. I’m thinking the whole world. This can be used for everybody. All I want is for my machine to be out there helping people, and I don’t want anyone to copy it.”

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 35

small mighty but

Rosemarie Mestas is a champion to her patients and a warrior in the fight against cancer Story by Dorothy Nobis Photos by Whitney Howle At just (barely) over four feet, ten inches, Rosemarie Mestas is a fighter, and she has been a David, and cancer her Goliath, for more than 25 years.

Rosemarie was diagnosed with lymphoma when she was just 5 years old. Her parents, John and Frances Velasquez, were devastated when they were told little Rosemarie had cancer. Jerry and Jane Clayton, friends of the family, read a story in Readers Digest stating that high doses of radiation therapy would kill lymphoma and they encouraged the Velasquez’s to take Rosemarie to California to the Stanford University Medical Center for treatment. The Claytons also offered to keep the Velasquez’s other daughter, Pam, so they could focus on Rosemarie’s treatment.

went through treatment. Rosemarie remembers those days and realizes how difficult it was for her parents. “They’re the ones who had to go through the fear and anger (of cancer),” she said. “I didn’t have to do that. All I knew was that I wasn’t allowed in the play area (of the hospital) with the other kids because of my IV’s and that they put penicillin in my ice cream.”

The radiation therapy she received would not only cure her cancer, however, the doctors told Rosemarie’s parents, it would also stunt her growth and it meant she could never have children.

The radiation therapy was successful and 10 years after her original diagnoses, Rosemarie was declared cancer free.

A family Months of treatment For six months, Rosemarie’s parents offered their love and support to their daughter as she 36 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

In 1983, Mestas went to a dance in Durango, Colorado, where she met a handsome soldier who was from Pagosa, Colorado.

Rosemarie and the soldier stayed in touch for more than two years while he was stationed in Japan. Letters and phone calls cemented the friendship between the two and, when Michael Mestas returned home in 1985, the friendship blossomed into love and the two were married in March of 1986.

“I never wanted to get married,” Rosemarie said, “because I couldn’t have kids.”

When Rosemarie discovered she was pregnant in 1987, “I was shocked,” she said, “because I was told I would never get pregnant.”

The couple’s daughter, Dacia, was born after Rosemarie enjoyed a normal pregnancy.

The enjoyment of having a daughter was doubled when, in 1989, she discovered she was again pregnant. Son Jon was born a month early, but still weighed in at 10 pounds.

Her husband, Michael, was equally surprised. “I was ecstatic,” Michael said of the

news. “I thought I would be OK with not being a parent, but when I had my little girl and then my son, those were the happiest days of my life.”

Michael was a firefighter, which gave him time to spend with his children. “I cannot imagine our lives without our kids,” he said.

Helping others face cancer Rosemarie’s triumph over cancer instilled a desire to help others who face the same battle.

She saw a help wanted posting for an administrative position at San Juan Regional Medical Center’s Cancer Center. “I don’t know how I got the job,” she remembered. “I told them I had no experience, but I wanted to work with cancer patients in some way.”

That was 25 years ago, and Rosemarie’s desire to work with cancer patients is as strong today as it was back then.

Her dedication to work and help cancer patients hit home again when she was 38 years old. Dr. James Neidhart discovered an enlarged lymph node in Rosemarie’s neck. Tests were

38 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

done and Rosemarie was faced with cancer once again – this time it was thyroid cancer.

Her cancerous thyroid was removed, however, and no additional treatments were needed.

Cancer patients are not alone That Rosemarie fought – and beat – cancer twice is inspirational to the cancer patients she works with. “I let them know they are not alone, that their fears are normal and that they’re going to get better,” she said. “ Rosemarie also reminds patients not to isolate themselves from their families. “Their families are going through it as well,” she said, “and I also suggest that they join a support group, where they’ll meet other people who are going through the same thing.”

Rosemarie was promoted to Research Administrator at San Juan Oncology Associates, where she guides patients through clinical trial studies. She administers study protocols, tracks test results and coordinates with other cancer centers that have study participants. Each

clinical study is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before being initiated, and once approved the study is overseen by the agency throughout the process.

An article in the San Juan Regional Medical Center’s Quarterly magazine stated that “The clinical trials conducted by San Juan Oncology Associates are contributing to better cancer care everywhere.”

“There is no risk to the patients,” Rosemarie said of the clinical trials. “It is important research that helps develop new drugs and find out about side effects, if any.”

“Most of the patients want to participate,” Rosemarie said, adding that participation is optional. “Patients come in from as far as California and Texas to participate.”

Loves working with patients Her relationship with the patients is a close and positive one. “I love the patients,” Rosemarie said. “They’re fighting every day for their life and they need somebody to care about them, to talk to, and to deal with it (cancer).

I’m very lucky to be part of their lives.”

Rosemarie’s dedication and commitment to the patients is extraordinary, her husband, Michael said. “She’s a tough cookie,” he said.

“If she were a guy, she would be Mike Tyson in lipstick.”

“She’s a fighter and a competitor,” Mike added. “She does not like the word ‘NO’, or that nothing can be done (for them). She will work hard to help her patients and exhaust all means in helping them. Her patients know that and love her for all she does for them.”

Janet and Ed Wood of Bloomfield first met Rosemarie when Ed was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2015. Janet’s first impression of Rosemarie wasn’t a positive one, however.

“She was a tiny little thing and she told us that she would take care of all of our appointments,” Janet remembered. “I told her that I’ve been taking care of this man by myself for years and I can handle it.”

It didn’t take the Woods long to discover that the “tiny little thing” would be the answer to their prayers.

“I get so much out of teaching. The kids are so lovable and will do anything I tell them. You get a lot (out of) teaching kids to dance.”

— Rosemarie Mestas

“We couldn’t have made it without her,” Janet said. “Rosemarie took care of all of it.

She made sure we were taken care of. She gave us her personal cell phone number in case we needed anything and she called and checked up on us.”

“We really did need her help,” Janet said.

“I never knew how much we would need her.

She’s a little stick of dynamite and she knows how to get things done. She takes care of the patients and makes sure their needs are met.”

Janet praised the doctors and the staff of the Cancer Center for the care and treatment they provided her husband. “We received great care here (at the Cancer Center),” Janet added. “And Rosemarie was a vital part of that. She is just a blessing and I can’t sing her praises enough.”

Ed Wood received the good news in June that tests showed he was cancer free, said Janet. “Those were tough times,” she said of Ed’s treatment. “Rosemarie has been there for us through the ordeal, and she made sure we got through it.”

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 39

You resist Rosemarie only with great peril Dr. James Neidhart and his son, Dr. Jeff Neidhart have worked with Rosemarie for years.

“She is a lot ornery,” Dr. James Neidhart said. “And you resist Rosemarie only with great peril. She is usually right. Knowing her drive arises from concerns for patients makes it a non-problem (most of the time). She is intense and demanding and that sometimes causes conflicts in priorities with other folks, but she usually works it out.”

Dr. James Neidhart’s description of Rosemarie matches that of Michael Mestas.

“I’m convinced Rosemarie is a cross between a bulldog and a Chihuahua,” Dr. Neidhart said. “She’s stubborn, loving and loyal. She’s done many jobs at San Juan Oncology – all of them with incredible energy – but her crowning glory is the clinical research program.”

“That program is her baby and I believe she understands how important it is to the community and the patients. That program would not exist without Rosemarie,” Dr. Neidhart continued. “She has built a level of trust with the national clinical research community through her humor and affability, but most importantly, her commitment to not doing anything in a less than perfect way."

“She is meticulous by nature,” Dr. Neidhart said of his friend and colleague. “Patients here have access to breakthrough treatments that won’t be widely available for years. I think that excites Rosemarie and deservedly gives her great satisfaction.”

Dr. Jeff Neidhart shares his father’s respect and admiration for Rosemarie.

“She has helped build this program from the ground up,” Dr. Jeff Neidhart said, “Every year, the program is bigger and better. Jessica Barnes (the study coordinator) and Rosemarie provide competent work for pharmaceutical companies that then have to present the data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),” Dr. Jeff Neidhart said. “Practically every pharmaceutical company representative comments on how great a job Jessica and Rosemarie are 40 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

doing and how easy our staff makes their job.”

Dr. James Neidhart added that he likes Rosemarie’s husband, Michael, very much.

However, he said, “I love Rosemarie. If Michael and I weren’t fairly good beer drinking buddies and I weren’t happily married, I might try to sweep her away. She loves everything she touches – family, Michael, patients. Rarely will you hear Rosemarie be critical of others.”

Dr. James Neidhart said Rosemarie’s accomplishments are much deserved. “When patients come here from across the country for the research programs or she initiates a program generally available only in major cancer centers, she has a huge sense of accomplishment and reward. It’s nice to have a job that makes you feel good and needed.”

“What would we do without her?” Dr. James Neidhart asked. “I’d rather not think about that for the moment.”

Her ballet kids Her tough demeanor, her demand for excellence and her “Mike Tyson attitude” don’t apply to a certain group – a group of non-cancer patients – she loves. Rosemarie teaches ballet to 3- and 4-year-olds at Mann Dance Academy from 4 to 5 p.m. every Wednesday.

Dance was suggested as an activity that would help Rosemarie when she was diagnosed with lymphoma at age 5, and was the beginning of her love affair with ballet.

Her daughter, Dacia, also took ballet lessons for years and, about a year ago, Rosemarie decided to give a gift to herself by teaching once again.

“I love ballet and I love kids,” she said.

“I get so much out of teaching. The kids are so lovable and will do anything I tell them.

You get a lot (out of) teaching kids to dance.”

Victoria Kelloff’s daughter, Kendall, is one

of Rosemarie’s ballet students. Kelloff said Kendall is always eager to attend dance classes – and while Kendall loves ballet, it is Rosemarie who keeps her excited about dance.

“Kendall loves Rosemarie,” Kelloff said.

“Rosemarie is always super happy to see the girls and she gives each one of them a hug (when they come to class). They all get special attention from her.”

“Rosemarie is a genuine person,” Kelloff added. “She adores the kids and they know it. She wants them to have fun and enjoy it – and I think they all do.”

Life makes her happy Teaching dance makes Rosemarie happy, as does her family and watching her son, Jon, play baseball. (Jon played for a minor league baseball team for a year.)

But that’s not all, her husband, Mike, said.

“Life makes her happy and helping people makes her happy,” he said. “And she is very

“She’s just a blessing.

She’s so tiny, but she’s a huge blessing.”

— Janet Wood happy when she hears her patients are in remission.”

Mike also said Rosemarie’s father is her inspiration. “Her dad is her life,” Mike said.

“He makes her cry, he makes her laugh and he is her reason to live. He taught her a work

ethic, responsibility and loyalty. He sacrificed his and his family’s life to move to Stanford, California, to seek a cure for her cancer. Her dad is her hero and one of the people I most admire.”

If he had one wish for his wife, Mike said it would have been for her not to have cancer. “But that made her the person she is today,” he said. “I wish she did not have to go through what she did as a little girl, but I am happy with who she is today – the person I love, with the biggest heart for such a small woman.”

The patients who benefit from Rosemarie’s own battle with cancer appreciate her dedication and her commitment to them and to the research she believes in.

“I didn’t have to mess with any of that stuff (making appointments, following up with doctors and scheduling treatments),” Janet Wood said of Rosemarie’s dedication to her patients. “She’s just a blessing. She’s so tiny, but she’s a huge blessing.”

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$ FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 41

Never

a dull momeNt Janet Mackey makes balancing work, community and family look easy Story by Dorothy Nobis Photos by Whitney Howle Keeping up with Janet Mackey is like trying to catch a football with a butterfly net. You think you can, but it’s not that easy.

Football is just one of the “hobbies” Janet enjoys. Janet has been part of the Bloomfield Young America Football League (BYAFL) since her grandson, Louis Munoz, was eight years old. Munoz, who is now 22, has long outgrown YAFL, but his grandmother has not.

“I’ve done it all,” Janet said of her involvement with the BYAFL, “and I’m still the secretary/treasurer.”

It is her love of kids and her willingness to provide them with the skills they need to enjoy the outdoors, stay healthy and active and to learn the teamwork skills that will benefit them throughout their life that keeps Janet involved.

“We have great kids who stay out of trouble because they’re focused on sports,” Mackey said.

“Parents are involved and the kids get good mentors 42 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

who encourage them in sports and to get good grades in school. “

BYAFL The BYAFL group doesn’t depend on financial support from the community, but is self-sufficient, Janet explained. “We buy our own insurance and supply the kids with their uniforms,” she said. “The kids picked up trash for Williams (Field Services) and we bought helmets and shoulder pads for them for their safety. We don’t like to hit up businesses for money.”

BYAFL offers a scholarship program for kids whose families don’t have the money for registration, Janet said, with ten kids benefitting from scholarships each year.

With an average of 300 kids participating in BYAFL, Janet has little spare time. “I don’t get much sleep during the football season,” she admitted with a laugh.

A coach for BYAFL and a longtime friend of Mackey’s, Damon Lynch said Janet’s greatest strengths are her ability to organize and keep the organizations going forward.

“She keeps the best interests of the kids and Bloomfield YAFL as one of her priorities,” Lynch said. “She ensures that we, as an organization, have what we need to be

successful. She is also very community oriented and is involved in many community activities that make Bloomfield a better place to live.”

Community minded Kids aren’t the only beneficiaries of Janet ’s commitment to her community.

She is on the Finance Committee of the Bloomfield First United Methodist Church, serves as a member of the San Juan Regional Medical Center’s Corporation, and is a member of the Bloomfield Lodgers Tax Board.

Janet’s volunteer efforts extend beyond the football field, the sanctuary and the boardroom, however. As the president of the Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, she spends about as much time at the Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce as she does at her “real job,” as Western Refining’s Procurement Manager.

“I’ve been with the chamber since 2001,” Janet said. “I have a lot of organizational skills and I wanted to get involved in the community.”

When no one stepped up to take on the presidency of the chamber’s board shortly after she joined, “I said I’d do it,” Janet said with a shake of her head. “I really like being able to promote Bloomfield,” she added.

44 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

“I love this city. I love the people and I love the chamber members. I love the school district and I love working with everybody.”

Janet’s involvement with the chamber goes far beyond calling meetings to order and presiding over those meetings. Evenings and weekends often find Mackey at the chamber office, overseeing projects and planning events.

Bloomfield’s teamwork “I’ve lived in Bloomfield since 1982, and I love this community. I have the biggest respect for the employees of the city and the school,” Janet said. “Bloomfield has great teamwork in all aspects of the community. I’ve never seen the kind of cooperation and collaboration like we have anywhere else. It makes me proud to see that little Bloomfield can do all these things.”

“These things” Mackey and the chamber are proud of include events that bring the community – and visitors – together. Mackey and the board, along with Amy Garcia, who works at the chamber, are the driving force behind events that include Bloomfield Days, the San Juan River Balloon Rally, the annual Easter Egg Hunt, Santa in the Park, the annual Christmas Parade, and the chamber’s Annual Banquet. In addition, the chamber provides meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas to families in need, has an Angel Tree, so Bloomfield residents can provide gifts for needy children at Christmas, and offers support to local businesses.

Jane is quick to add, however, that the chamber receives great support from the city.

“The Bloomfield Police Department delivers the meals for us and the Bloomfield Fire Department delivers gifts,” she said. “And last year, we had 120 names on the Caring Tree and we were blessed with caring people from the First Baptist Church, which took 25 names off the tree and bought gifts.”

“The chamber does community events more than business type events,” Mackey added. “We won’t give up the community events because they are low to no cost to us.” Donations from local businesses pay for most of the costs of those community events.

As a member of the Bloomfield Chamber of

Commerce Board of Directors, Jeanie Milton has worked side by side with Mackey for many years.

“Janet’s strengths are being a leader and inspiring others and motivating them into action,” Milton said. “She cares about her community and has been devoted in supporting many organizations. She gives a lot of her personal and professional time (to the community), especially when it comes to supporting the youth of our community.”

“Janet is a great asset to our community and always takes her civic responsibilities very seriously,” Milton added.

Family is top priority Jane also has a family that keeps her busy – and family remains a high priority for this busy lady.

“My husband, Dennis, and I have been married 43 years,” she said. “We have one son and two grandkids. We also raised two nieces, who were 8 and 10 years old when we got them.”

Dennis Mackey said Janet was a sophomore

and he was a junior when they first began dating.

“She was a brunette back then and one day, she wore a blonde wig,” Dennis said with a laugh. “I didn’t know it was her. I started chasing the chick in the blonde wig.”

Dennis caught that “chick” and the couple enjoy a close and loving relationship.

Dennis is a partner of Janet’s when it comes to football, YAFL and “some” of the chamber events. He’s also proud of all his wife does for the community.

“She loves YAFL and she loves the kids,” Dennis said. “She wants to see the community grow and she tries to do her part. She’s always there when people need something, and it doesn’t matter what time it is or who it is – she’s always there.”

Dennis, who works for the city of Aztec, will retire in December. But he knows his wife will keep him busy. “I’ll do whatever she tells me to do,” he said with a smile.

Family, work, chamber, BYAFL, church and her other community service responsibilities leave

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FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 45

Janet little time for hobbies. She enjoys reading, scrapbooking and, she added with a laugh, “I record and watch ‘Days of Our Lives’ (a television soap opera). I’ve been watching it since I was a 10 year-old living in Chicago and it’s my addiction!”

“I really like being able to promote Bloomfield. I love this city. I love the people and I love the chamber members. I love the school district and I love working with everybody.”

Friends and colleagues Nancy Roe has enjoyed a friendship with Jane for more than 30 years. The two became friends when Roe and her then husband purchased land across the street from the Mackey’s. The friendship between Roe and Mackey was strengthened when Roe had a temporary job at Western Refining. “The job turned into a working relationship as well as an ongoing friendship to this day,” Roe said. “We have cooked many meals together, traveled together for work, and vacationed with friends. Janet was there for me through thick and thin – my divorce, new marriage, kids’ weddings, their divorces, grandchildren and parents’ deaths. You name it and we have been through it together.”

“Janet is definitely a go-getter and I love her for it,” Roe added. “She is a great leader and a very hard worker and loves every minute of all she does. She loves planning and executing her plan, which is evident in all she has done for the city of Bloomfield.”

“I’ve been privileged to know Janet for over 35 years,” said Gail Williams, who hired Mackey at Western Refining. “Many from our early group at the refinery worked together for over a decade, and some far longer than that. We all feel the same way about Janet and treasure our friendships.”

“Janet is just remarkable,” Williams said.

“She’s truly focused, knowledgeable and insightful. She goes to work at the crack of dawn and is tireless in managing her work responsibilities. She’s an asset to Western, as well as to the entire community.

She is the genuine deal One shining example is that she is the key to the success of the Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce and has guided its growth and accomplishments for years.”

46 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

— Janet Mackey

“Janet is very special to many people, but may not realize it because she doesn’t do all she does for the accolades,” Williams continued. “She is the genuine deal, and Bloomfield is fortunate to have her.”

Retirement is on the horizon for Janet, although not for another four years. When retirement comes, friends and family won’t find Janet home watching daytime television or taking afternoon naps.

“I’ll still be at the chamber, getting people involved,” she said. There is little doubt that Mackey will still be at BYAFL football games, at Bloomfield High School football games, enjoying the Connie Mack World Series, working at her church, and being a cheerleader and supporter of the community she loves.

And there is little doubt that Dennis, her partner in love and life, will be right there beside her.

48 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

where everybody knows your name

Harold Larkins has been cooking up great burgers for his hometown for 15 years Story by Debra Mayeux Photos by Whitney Howle Kaleb Larkins loves to try new restaurants. He enjoys food and food service, which is a good thing, because he works in his father’s business – Hometown Hamburgers in Farmington.

Kaleb, 22, is the youngest son of Harold Larkins.

Kaleb was a “miracle baby,” according to Harold, who said his son wasn’t supposed to live more than a few months after his birth. Twenty-two years later, the youngest of the Larkins enjoys serving up hamburgers, fries and beverages to restaurant patrons.

“I like working here,” he signed to his father, who interpreted the interview. Kaleb is deaf and signs faster than Harold can translate. “The hamburgers and the French fries are good. I like to make shakes from real ice cream, and I like giving drinks to people.”

Kaleb simply “likes the people,” and restaurant patrons like him and Harold’s other employees, who make Hometown Hamburgers a family business in every sense of the phrase.

“We have a sign in the restaurant about supporting our community. That’s what we are about — supporting the business and the people.”

— Harold Larkins A family business Shirley Castillo has worked for Harold for the past 15 years. She brought in her children, Kirt and Sonya, to run the grill and fryer, and they love it too. “Harold is good to work with. He is a good boss,” Shirley said, adding she enjoys interacting with the customers.

“They talk to you and you get to know them well.”

The sign outside of Hometown Hamburgers reads, “Come in for Cool Shake.” Shirley said a customer walked through the door said hello and began to shimmy and shake. “He told me he came in for a cool shake,” she laughed and shook her head.

Where everybody knows your name The people and the food were the main reasons the Larkins bought the restaurant from Ronald McDonald nearly 15 years ago. “We build relationships with our customers,” he said “When they walk in the door, we already know what they are going to order.”

This is why Michael Webb, owner of Circle W, continues to eat at Hometown Burgers. “You have the same people in there, and they’ve gotten to know me. I walk in. They know you by name, and they know what you want to eat,” he said. “It’s in the name; it’s a great hometown place.”

And Harold has made it that way. He began his career in food service at the now defunct Mucho Taco, in a building on the corner of Main

Street and Butler Avenue.

He even worked as a cook at the old Sirloin Stockade. “I eventually ended up in the oilfield,” Harold said. He worked in the oil industry for 15 years until an accident in the field left him with a crushed back. “I spent four and a half years at home, but I needed to find something I could do.”

He was friends with McDonald, who had opened Hometown Hamburgers four years earlier. McDonald said he wanted to sell the business, and Harold decided to return to the food industry.

“I had always wanted to open a restaurant.

I like food, and I like the interaction with people,” Harold said. “I enjoy trying to always serve something that people enjoy, something other than chain food.”

Building the perfect burger Harold does this by building a fresher, bigger burger spiced with his own proprietary blend of seasoning and grilled to order.

“We make the hamburger patties every morning,” Harold said. “We make them a third pound, so when they cook up they are a true quarter-pound burger.”

Determining how many patties to make each day is a science, and the staff at Hometown has it down, pounding out between 380-500 burger patties each morning. They also make a lot of French fries. Harold goes through 60 to 70 pounds of potatoes each day.

“When you order from us, you are getting

a full-sized meal,” Harold said. “Our portions are big. We want to know when you’ve paid for the food and you’ve eaten that food, that you are satisfied.”

It is Harold’s goal to serve “exceptional food” for your dollar, and Webb said he has met that goal. “It’s phenomenal. You can get a real hamburger and a real milk shake!”

One of New Mexico’s best burgers The customers agree as well, voting Hometown Burgers as having the best burger and fries in Farmington. He also received the honor of being voted the 14th best burger in the state of New Mexico out of 15 burger restaurants.

Harold also designed two specialty burgers – a Philly Cheesesteak and a New Mexico Patty Melt.

“I use green chiles, grilled onions and swiss cheese,” he explained.

When Harold is not grilling burgers at Hometown, he might be found rebuilding classic cars with his sons, Kyle Larkins, Jason Larkins and Jeremy Larkins.

“We love to build cars,” he said. “We have a

pile – all together – 10 classic cars.”

He and his sons and daughter, Kymbra Potter, used to sell food at Aztec Speedway.

“They can all cook and run a restaurant,” Harold said, adding that Kymbra and Kaleb are

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the only ones who help out at Hometown, and sometimes extra help is needed, when Harold is called out to assist the police in the investigation of deaths throughout the region.

Supporting the business and the people Harold is a medical investigator and has been working for the Office of Medical Investigations for the past five years. “I was always interested in forensics,” he said. He works with all of the local police agencies, including the FBI. “I have to provide evidence to the police for why people die.”

This is another service Harold provides to his hometown, because service to his customers and community is what the Larkins family is about. He and wife, Patty, are interested in sponsoring local schools and sports teams when needed.

“We have a sign in the restaurant about supporting our community. That’s what we are about – supporting the business and the people,” he said. “This is our home. We support anything local. We support the schools, sports, Connie Mack. We live and breathe here in town.”

52 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

He talks the talk and walks the Walk-A-Thon Steve Calkins and his family have raised thousands for Connelly House, San Juan Medical Foundation Story by Debra Mayeux Photos by Whitney Howle Steve Calkins walks around town with a Cancer Walk-A-Thon sponsor envelope sticking out of this shirt pocket. He just waits for someone to ask what he has there, so he can tell them, “In the famous words of Jerry Maguire, ‘Show me the money.’”

For the past six years the Calkins family has raised tens of thousands of dollars in the annual San Juan Medical Foundation Cancer Walk-A-Thon to support the operation of the Connelly Hospitality House.

“When it comes to fundraising, he is the king,” Steve’s wife, Jolee Calkins said.

Their support of the San Juan Medical Foundation began as a competition at work. One of Calkins’ co-workers at Merrion Oil and Gas was raising money to participate in the walk, so Steve challenged him to see who could raise the most funds. He got his wife and family involved and the rest is history.

“Both sides of the family have been deeply impacted by cancer,” Jolee said. “This was his big drive, then it became our big drive. It became a mission to help fund the Connelly Hospitality House.”

Touring the Connelly House Jolee said she and Steve toured the house when they first became involved in the Cancer Walk.

It provides families of cancer patients with a home away from home, while their loved one is undergoing treatment.

“When we went there to look at it there was a family leaving who had found out their loved one was in remission, but there was another family coming in, who needed a place to stay, while their loved one received treatment,” Steve said. “We got to see both sides of the spectrum. It was cool.”

Jolee described the house as incredible. “You can cook your own meals. Do your own laundry,” she said. “They have a computer for you and a library.

I never knew about this until we started doing the walk.”

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 55

“There is nobody that does a better job of getting out and raising money than Steve and Jolee Calkins.

Steve is just amazing.”

— T Greg Merrion president of Merrion Oil and Gas

The Calkins family moved from Wyoming to Farmington 26 years ago, when Jolee took a job at Animas Elementary School, and Steve began work as a janitor at Merrion Oil and Gas. He worked his way up to the position of assistant production foreman, working in the field every day.

Merrion Foundation His work at Merrion led to the Merrion Foundation matching dollar-for-dollar the amount of funds raised by the Calkins family in the Cancer Walk-A-Thon.

“We think we are very fortunate to have San Juan Regional Medical Center and the Medical Foundation in our community. We love doing what we can to support them,” said T. Greg Merrion, president of Merrion Oil and Gas. “There is nobody that does a better job of getting out and raising money than Steve and Jolee Calkins. Steve is just amazing.”

Something he believes in Steve proudly said he would ask anyone for money, even complete strangers, so long as he is raising funds for something he in which he believes. “As long as I believe in it, I put my heart into it.”

He and Jolee even raised $12,000 one year, and they shoot for at least $10,000 56 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

each year they have walked.

“We would gang up and get it done, and we’ve always done it as a family,” Steve said.

His daughter Kalei and husband, Robert Talbert and their son and daughter Micah and Cailyn are on the team as are family friend Charlie Dean and his son, Cooper Dean.

Charlie Dean sponsored the Calkins the first year, and then he lost his wife to cancer. He and his son joined the team the next year and walked with them ever since. The team is named Team Baby Girl, for the Calkins’ dog, an Australian Shepherd/Border Collie cross that also died of cancer.

It’s a match The Merrion Foundation wanted to recognize the Calkins’ efforts while also providing for the medical foundation. “We like doing what we can to support Steve’s efforts as well. By providing that match, it makes a difference,” Merrion said. “When people make a donation and know for every dollar they give it is matched by one of our dollars. It gives them a bigger bang for their buck.”

Jolee said the couple feels “very fortunate” to have the Merrion Foundation match what they raise, and they are thrilled to help fund the Connelly Hospitality House, because of how their family has been touched by cancer.

Touched by cancer Steve’s father, Jolee’s mother and grandmother all died from cancer, and in June, Steve’s mother was diagnosed with inoperable brain tumors.

June Johnson, 81, came to San Juan Regional Medical center for surgery. “The surgery went great and then they found the tumor,” Steve said.

Doctors discovered three inoperable brain tumors and told the family to have everyone come visit June as soon as they could, because the prognosis was not a good one.

Jolee called the San Juan Regional Medical Foundation and the family was offered access to the Connelly Hospitality House for those family members coming to visit June from outside of Farmington.

The Calkins felt blessed by the offer, but their family stayed elsewhere.

“This Cancer Walk is the largest fundraising for the medical foundation. It is important that people donate so the San Juan Medical Foundation can continue to support and maintain the Connelly Hospitality House,” Jolee said.

“So give us some money,” Steve added.

The Cancer Walk-A-Thon will be Sept. 24, in Farmington. The Calkins’ Team Baby Girl will walk the weekend of Sept. 17, because one of June’s last gifts to her son was a winning raffle ticket giving Steve and Jolee and trip to Seattle to watch the Seahawks play a home game.

We’re all here to love each other

United by tragedy two families gain new perspective on life Story by Margaret Cheasebro Photos by Whitney Howle On Oct. 9, 1991, Higinio Martinez checked oil and gas wells in Largo Canyon as part of his job with Amoco Production. He focused on his work even though he grieved 58 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

over the death two weeks before of his 52year-old mother. She had been killed by a distracted driver just after she crossed Highway 516 on her way to exercise at Farmington

Lake.

Higinio was convinced life would never be the same now that his mother was gone.

He had no idea he was about to save the life

of a baby thrown the day before from a truck that had careened down a cliff after its brakes failed. And he didn’t know that saving that baby would help him heal from his own grief. Nor did he realize that the infant, now a 25-year-old man named Sheridan Haskie, with a child of his own, would become a dear friend of the family.

Checks wells on Harris Pass That October day 25 years ago he was checking a well at the bottom of Harris Pass when something caught his eye. The canyon wall looks like a cliff to people who are not familiar with it. At first he thought he was seeing an old refrigerator, washer or other trash at an illegal dump site. He didn’t think much about it until it caught his attention again.

“I just got this huge sense of urgency,” he said.

“I remember looking up again and trying to put two and two together. I spotted the trash site off to my left. Then I realized, oh, my gosh, that’s the end of the cliff. The road’s up there!”

He knew he had to reach the top of the cliff to find out what he had spotted. “I remember thinking, ‘What are you doing, just taking off?’ I didn’t even pick up my tools. I just jumped in the truck.”

He had to drive several miles to reach the top of the cliff.

“When I got all the way up there, I could see tracks pulling off the cliff, and I could see they were in distress,” he said. “They were choppy due to failed brakes or a turned tire. The tracks continued to move right off the edge of the cliff.”

Finds wreckage He parked his pickup, walked to the cliff’s edge, and noticed wreckage and the glint of a shattered windshield near the bottom. Right away he spotted a body. Then in the rocks closer to the top of the cliff he saw a second body. He ran to the truck and radioed Amoco to report what he’d found.

“Back in 1991 there were no cell phones,” he said. “All we had was radio communication to our headquarters.”

Then he started down the steep cliff. “I was already weirded out because I was dealing with my mother’s death,” he recalled.

“I was going to check bodies, and I didn’t know what I was going to find.”

On the way down, he came to a boulder and, just beyond it, a bush. That’s when he spotted a third body. “It was a grandma,” he said.

“She was in a seated position with her head laying on the rock. She had passed on. I screamed because I was scared, but I knew I had to man up and check the other bodies.

I remember yelling, ‘What are you trying to do to me, God?’ I could not believe that all this was going on.”

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 59

Sees something move Suddenly everything got very quiet, and a feeling of comfort came over Higinio. In that quietness, he saw something move.

“I didn’t know what it was,” he said. “My senses were so alive. I was looking for life. I screamed, not only at God, but to see if there was movement before I got to it so whatever it was wouldn’t scare the heck out of me.”

When he yelled again, something moved again. It could have been pieces of wreckage strewn down the mountain glinting in the sun.

He wasn’t sure. But that’s when he spotted it.

A three-month-old baby!

“His little body was in a Pamper, and he was lying on top of rocks,” Higinio said. “He’d been there since the day before. What I was seeing, because my senses were so alert, was the flash of his eyes. He would open his little eyes when I yelled.”

Infant desperate The infant was weak, sunburned and dehydrated. But when Higinio held his finger out, the baby gripped it with the strength of desperation. “He knew this was his last chance,” Higinio said. “He’d been there through a cold October night and the hot sun of the day, not to mention the vultures and coyotes and everything he survived.”

Higinio checked the baby and found no broken bones. He took off his shirt and covered the infant’s body with it. Then he ran back up the cliff toward the truck. “When I got to the truck, it felt like my lungs were bleeding because the cliff was very steep and I was so excited trying to get up there,” he said.

He grabbed a water jug and some rags.

Before he ran back down to the baby, he radioed Amoco again, asking them to put him on the air so he could ask everyone who worked for Amoco to come to Harris Pass and help him.

Then he rushed back down to the baby, poured water onto a rag, and put it into the child’s mouth. The infant began to suck on it.

Checks on three bodies He went to check the three bodies. He later learned they were the baby’s uncle, mother 60 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

and grandmother. They were all deceased.

He could tell that the baby’s mother had lived for some time as she crawled around trying to find her child.

He discovered a cradleboard in the wreckage of the truck and put the baby in it.

“I wasn’t going to leave him there,” he said.

“I tied him to me and started up the mountain.

I got him to the top, and then one of my co-workers showed up.”

Pretty soon emergency vehicles arrived.

Paramedics took the baby from Higinio and examined the child. Others waited for rescue workers with ropes before they braved the cliff that Higinio, charged with adrenaline, had climbed up and down several times.

Baby’s dad finds rescue scene That was when a man in a truck pulled up nearby and asked what was happening. He was Preston Haskie, Sheridan’s father. He’d been looking for his family members since the day before when they failed to return home.

“He was not aware he was walking up to the wreckage of his family,” Higinio said. “That was tough on Preston.”

“It was a big loss,” Preston confirmed.

“At the time I had two kids older than (baby) Sheridan, a boy and a girl.” Raising Sheridan

was more than he could handle, so Preston let Sheridan’s great-aunt and uncle, James and Juanita Jaquez, raise him. Juanita is sister to Sheridan’s grandmother, who died in the accident.

Two weeks after the rescue, Higinio was in his yard butchering a goat when then San Juan County Sheriff Jack Lasater paid him a visit.

He told Higinio that he wasn’t in trouble, but he needed to come with him. He wouldn’t tell Higinio where he was taking him.

Receives humanitarian award “I didn’t do a really good cleanup job,” Higinio said. “We took off to a new housing development on the NAPI.” TV cameras and reporters were there as well as Peterson Zah, then president of the Navajo Nation. “They even had a guy playing a piano and singing a song dedicated to me,” he said. In front of all those people, Zah presented Higinio with a humanitarian award from the Navajo Nation for what he did on Harris Pass. At an earlier date, Lasater had given Higinio a humanitarian award from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department.

A month or two after the accident, a medicine man and some of Preston’s relatives met Higinio on Harris Pass. “We all sat at the

edge of the cliff,” Higinio recalled. “The medicine man talked to me. He felt my anguish. He knew I had lost my mom. He explained to me who passed first, who passed second and who passed third in the accident.

I don’t know how he could have known that.” It was a healing moment for Higinio.

Sheridan learns about accident Sheridan first learned of the accident when he was 8 years old and his great-aunt and uncle told him about it. “It was a lot to take in,” Sheridan said. “I wanted to know how the whole thing went, just everything, how the brakes gave out, how it must have felt. I was looking for closure.”

It wasn’t until Sheridan was 21 that he felt courageous enough to go to the top of Harris Pass and see for himself where the accident occurred. James and Juanita went with him.

“At that spot they have crosses on the side of the road,” he said. “I stood right there and looked at the bottom and just yelled. It was a little like Tarzan. It felt good. It felt like a little weight off my shoulders.”

For years, Higinio tried to make contact with Sheridan, who works for a local delivery service. “Pretty much any time I was in a group of people, I’d ask, ‘Do any of you guys know Sheridan?’” One day at a funeral he found a woman who knew Sheridan. She took Higinio’s contact information to him.

Higinio finds the adult Sheridan Finally, almost two years ago, Sheridan and his companion, Sage, were able to come to Higinio’s house and meet the man who saved his life.

“I came over here with my lady, and we talked,” Sheridan said. “He shared what happened that day when he found me. To hear it from him, what he went through and how he came about finding all of us down there, it was heartfelt and amazing. It felt good.”

Sage saw a change in Sheridan after the meeting. “He was more happy about life,” she said.

“Before, he was sometimes questioning himself.

He had a longing for that connection with Higinio.”

Relationship promotes healing Today, Higinio owns Animas Well Pro, an oil field slick line business in rural Farmington. His wife, Valerie, works for him. She credits Sheridan with helping Higinio to heal after his mother’s death.

“When his mom passed away, Higinio was screaming, ‘My life will never be the same again,’” Valerie said. “I thought our life was ruined, and we’d never be able to get back to the same place. When the accident with Sheridan happened, it was like there’s hope. God sent us Sheridan for a reason. He sent Sheridan to show He’s got it all under control. Sheridan is just that little piece of hope that life is going to be okay.

We were so glad to get to know that little guy who’s now a big guy.”

Sheridan was something good Higinio agreed. “Losing my mom was a hard thing for me. Yet in the midst of all this, Sheridan was something good. It put things in perspective for me. I was able to move on and say, ‘God, I realize that I don’t have things in control the way you do. Your ways are not my ways. I don’t know why you do things the way you do, but that’s probably a good thing.’ Getting to know Sheridan was definitely a positive thing for me.”

Sheridan and Sage invited the Martinez family to the baby shower for their daughter, who will be 2 years old this September. Higinio and Valerie are anticipating the birth of Sheridan’s and Sage’s second child later this year.

We’re here to love each other Reconnecting with Higinio meant a lot to Sheridan. “Before, I was seeing things like ‘Why did this happen?’ questioning a whole bunch of stuff. Why am I here? What is my purpose here on earth?” Sheridan said. “Now I see a lot of stuff different. The main thing is family. We’re all here to love each other.”

62 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

Gomez

continued from 28

Mom gets sick He worked in Denver for two years until his mom requested that he return to Aztec because she didn’t feel well. He moved into a house he owned in Aztec and worked as an insurance agent for Prudential while spending time with Clara. She was later diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. He also took in a 9-year-old treatment foster child and raised him until he was 17.

People soon learned about Greg’s decorating abilities. “When I worked at Prudential, one of the agents had just divorced, and her husband had left,” said Greg. “She needed help putting the house together. We didn’t buy anything. We just used whatever she had and elbow grease and rearranged furniture and cut up fabric, drapery and bed skirts. We tore apart old wedding bouquets and made floral arrangements. The house sold within a week.”

Through word of mouth he began helping people with newly constructed or existing homes. “It became a lucrative business for me and something that I really enjoyed,” he said.

Greg’s reputation grows From Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Telluride, Colorado, to many other locations, Greg has gained a reputation for improving houses in a masterful way.

When his creative juices slow, he and his husband, Aaron Joplin, sometimes travel to

Homestead

“You have to make sure you’re doing things that aren’t the same from one house to the other.”

— Greg Gomez

Santa Fe for the weekend. “When you’re around creative people, it tends to get that energy flowing within your system to become creative again,” he said. “It’s a way to recharge.

Being in a small community, I don’t do the same thing for my clients because everybody knows each other. You have to make sure you’re doing things that aren’t the same from one house to the other.”

He is meticulous about details and honors his clients’ desires. “When I interview my clients, I always make sure they know that their home is not my home,” he said. “If it doesn’t function, if they bump themselves every time there is a table next to a chair, we will move it.

It’s about how they live in their space. It’s not about me. So we need to make sure that they’re comfortable.”

Works with contractors and home owners He has worked with both contractors and home owners to help a project flow more smoothly, because clients may not understand what can and can’t be done, and contractors might not understand what clients need. For Greg, it’s all about helping them reach win-win agreements and making everyone happier.

When he’s finished with a project, it looks like a work of art, but Greg isn’t always conscious of that. “When you’ve done it your whole life and it’s just who you are, you don’t see it all the time that way,” he said.

“That’s the joy I feel when people walk in, and they see it for the first time. It’s like watching them open up a package they enjoy.”

continued from 23

Nearly a week passed before Greg called and left an ecstatic voicemail. “We just finished conducting our Dart Test—an objective method for measuring the amount of bare soil— and that pasture, the one we had just grazed all the cattle on and it’s amazing,” he says sounding nearly out of breath. “We’ve managed to reduce the bare open soil from 52 percent down to 21 percent. To see the effort and farming technique pay off, it’s exciting,” he says trailing off. The program

has aided dozens of combat veterans, some of whom have gone on to start their own homesteads, in reducing their dependency on alcohol and pharmaceuticals by simply connecting them with the land and helping them to slowly heal the repercussions of war, PTSD and TBI. Hopkins is slowly transforming an entire landscape, his fellow veterans and himself. “This farm gives me a reason, and I want to be able to provide a reason to those I help, to wake up every day,” Hopkins says.

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 63

M L

Coolest Things Too Cool for School — College Edition

Of course we are celebrating fall but with that comes the end of summer and – for many – college. It is an exciting time and one that no one ever forgets. Many of us consider it the best time in their life – independence, diverse people and new ideas. You will learn as much about yourself and how to deal with others as you will in the classroom. Below are some items to make your college transition a little easier, and one extra to help you celebrate Halloween.

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GOTTA HAVE A GOOD ONE!

little America Backpack - Herschel Supply Co. www.amazon.com and www.herschelsupply.com

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DON’T GET HACKED

A laptop lock www.amazon.com

There’s nothing more terrifying as the prospect of leaving your laptop on the The last thing you need when you’re library table for a minute or two and then hurrying to class is to have your backpack return to find it has vanished. A quick and fail on you. The best backpacks for college inexpensive solution that proves invaluable have the durability to hold all of the books for students is a security cable for laptops. you need for class on any given day, yet Ruban’s $8.99 notebook lock is a cable still give you some flexibility to bring your that runs up to 6.2 feet and will keep your supplies and computer along as well. laptop firmly where it is unless someone The iconic silhouette pairs classic moun- knows your four-digit code. taineering style with modern functionality. $8.50 to $13 The multiple color schemes make these must-have items perfect for guys and gals. $99 64 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

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ENTERTAINMENT ANYTIME

Google Chromecast streaming device www.google.com/chromecast The Google Chromecast is a budgetfriendly dongle used to stream media from mobile devices to standard displays.

Once plugged into an HDMI port, the Chromecast app or extension can be used to stream media including YouTube videos, Netflix, Deezer and, naturally, Google Play content. $29.99

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TRUST US, YOU’ll NEED THIS

Olympus Dictaphone www.amazone.com or www.getolympus.com A dictaphone is one of those devices college students don’t realize they need until after the fact. A good dictaphone can be left at the front of a lecture hall and can act as a backup for note-taking across a full academic career, and so makes a useful gift before term starts. A model I’d recommend as a user myself is the Olympus VN-7200, a small but sturdy device able to put up with knocks and bumps when slung in a bag and battery life which seems to go on forever. The sound is clear and crisp. $35

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TURN NOTE-TAKING DIGITAL

Livescribe Smartpens Amazon, Best Buy and www.livescribe.com With the expansion of mobile technology, a student’s life can be made easier by pairing up note-taking with apps which help organize each lecture or seminar session. Livescribe 3 Smartpen is designed to work and write like a premium ballpoint pen. The Livescribe 3 Smartpen uses Bluetooth Smart to send everything you write to your smartphone or tablet. When paired with a tablet the app and pen can be used to record written and audio notes, as well as sync notes to multiple devices. $133

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THEY SAY THAT WAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

Clocky Alarm Clock on Wheels Amazon, Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond This is a “revenge is sweet” clock your parent will buy you and smirk all they way home after dropping you off because they spent so many mornings trying to get you out of bed. Clocky the motorized alarm clock will permit you one snooze, but after that, it leaps from your nightstand and drives away. It can endure falls of up to 3 feet (about 1 meter), runs on 4 AAA batteries, and will continue beeping and flashing as it flees. $29

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SAVED IN A FLASH

SanDisk Extreme 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive & 16GB ADATA Superior Series S102 www.amazon.com Your average cheap, crappy USB drives are just that: Cheap and crappy. There are a lot of USB drives to choose from, though, and even more to be grabbed out of “dollar bins” while you’re waiting in line at the store. You really don’t have to spend very much money to get a significant boost in power, though, and the 32GB SanDisk Extreme CZ80 is proof of that. Out of all the drives this one is at the top of all the techie lists as the best. Coming in second is the 16GB ADATA Superior Series S102. $8 - $15

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HALLOWEEN IS GOING TO THE DOGS

elope Mouth Mover Pug Mask www.Amazon or www.elope.com www.elope.com or Amazon.com There can’t be a Fall Coolest Things list without a Halloween item. Here’s a killer costume idea.

Join the long history of lovable talking dogs with the Pug Moving Mouth Mask. This realistic pug mask will win every costume contest. The opening allows you to make the mouth move as you speak. If you are not fond of pugs, wolf, bear and fox also are available. $59

FALL 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 65

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66 | MAJESTIC LIVING | FALL 2016

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