— A Gandma's promise —
Thomas completes her final walk
across Nation in honor of late husband

“Grandma” Marjorie Thomas is surrounded by triplets during the lunch break of her farewell walk for youth Friday. This was the 15th year that Thomas walked to raise funds for a youth center in Chinle. [photo by Karen Francis / Independent]

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

ST. MICHAELS — Before her husband passed away “Grandma” Marjorie Thomas made one last promise to him. She told him she would complete her annual walk again this year.

“You better do it,” Leo Thomas said to her.

On July 1-4, Thomas fulfilled her promise to her late husband Leo, who passed away in April, and thought of him nearly every mile of the way.

For the past 15 years, Grandma Thomas has been leading the annual Walk for Youth — a 66 mile four-day journey from Chinle to Window Rock — but her husband Leo was always there behind the scenes. He was there to buy water throughout the year in preparation for the summer walk, to pick up the supplies donated by various entities, and to drive his wife wherever she needed to go as she got ready for the walk.

The shirt sleeves of one of Leo’s brand new shirts that he gave to her to wear on the walk a few years ago were a constant reminder of him as she made her way to the Navajo Nation capital. She wore the blue-and-white-checked shirt sleeves under her white “Grandma Thomas Farewell Walk” T-shirt laughing as she remembered when he gave her the shirt.

“He was funny. He was a joker,” she said.

This was the first year that Leo was not physically present at the annual walk, but Thomas said she believed he was there.
“His spirit is here and he’s listening and he’s looking at these kids,” she said during the lunch break on the fourth day.

The farewell walk — the last walk that Thomas is leading — was dedicated to the memory of her late husband.

“He really supported me a lot. I don’t think another man could’ve done that. I don’t think another man could’ve lived with me the way he has with me because I’m a difficult woman and he was just the right one,” she said in an interview with the Independent on the last day of her farewell walk.

It was hard for Thomas to organize the walk this year without Leo there. The two had met at Ganado Mission School and were together 54 years.

“Leo used to just really drive me over there and we’d pick up everything. He made phone calls. He typed letters for me. He’d copy them and take them to the post office for me. I miss that. By myself, it’s a chore to do the whole thing,” she said.

Thomas had to rely on volunteers more than ever this year to hold the annual walk.

The legacy that the Thomases have worked so hard to achieve will be carried on by the people who have walked and shared the common purpose of working for the youth. As this year’s walk went on, volunteers in the group began talking and they decided that the Walk For Youth will continue.

Thomas said she will join them, though this is the last walk that she is organizing and which will bear her name.

The first walk that began 15 years ago came about because Thomas decided to take responsibility for the children in the community. When a tragedy took place in Chinle involving a youth, people began blaming the children.

But Thomas had a different view.

“It’s parents that brought the kids into the world. It’s us. We need to take care of our kids. We can’t blame the kids. We’re the ones that are responsible,” she said.

“Since I told them that we’re responsible, how do I help?” she asked herself.

Thomas remembered her grandmother telling her when she was young, “Someday all these children will be your children. You help them. You take care of them.”

Living in a community where there were few activities for youth, she put her energy into raising money for a youth center in Chinle to begin addressing youth issues — starting with a telethon and then a walk-a-thon.

“The first time I walked I didn’t plan like I do now. I had the snacks only for me. I had drinks only for me,” she said.

To her surprise, children began showing up to walk with her.
“I had to send somebody back to get more snacks.

Somebody met us with more. Thereafter I knew more so I started planning for meals,” she said.

When the Navajo government would not contribute anything in the beginning, it didn’t faze her. Instead she said, “Oh that’s OK. Us elders are going to do it.”

As the walks continued, every year she would go to where the senior citizens gathered and announce that she was walking again.

“Grandparents — they like what I do but they’re kind of shy,” she said.

She said a lot of grandparents tell her they cannot speak to their grandchildren because they don’t speak the same language.

But for Thomas — a lifelong educator — children she doesn’t even know are constantly running up to her in public and giving her hugs. She laughed recalling a young Anglo girl who kept staring at her in a restaurant and finally came up to her with a napkin and a pen asking for an autograph.

How does Thomas get the respect of the youth? “I respect them,” she said.

“I think all our kids are gifted. They’re smart. They need attention. They need somebody to love them and care for them,” she said. If they don’t get that, they will turn to somebody else who is trying to get them to do bad, Thomas said.

“We need to get their attention and turn them away from that and care for them,” she said.

She said that adults need to show children attention by giving them a responsibility and by finding something positive about them.

“Even though they do something that is not right, that you don’t agree with, you see something in them that is good. They want attention. They want to be loved. They want praise. They want to be recognized,” she said.

When she gets tired, she gets in her wheelchair but what keeps her going is the purpose. The entire walk is for the youth and that’s what gets her through the tough times on the road.

“The youth is what we’re doing it for. Nothing else matters,” she said.