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Post by Tempest on Aug 3, 2015 20:04:41 GMT -5
I know some of you have already heard the news about Master Steve Turk. He passed away on Sunday at 55 due to a stroke. If any of you will be in the Houston, PA area, he will be laid out at McIlvaine-Speakman Funeral Home 27 Cherry Ave. Houston, PA Wednesday 2-4, 7-9. Then the funeral will be Thursday at 11. This is directly next to the school where so many wonderful (and stupid, and wonderfully stupid) adventures happened and where I met some of my favorite people to ever grace my life.
I want to tell you how much the pictures and banter on this site has meant to me personally over the many years that you documented our very very good times. It's even more precious to me now of course that there won't be any more pictures with Turk. I am heart-broken but the memories really help. I'll add my own memories of Turk as I compose myself enough to type them.
- Tempest / Jenna Derrico - gods, how I've missed you all
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Post by Tempest on Aug 3, 2015 23:09:37 GMT -5
The first time I ever met Turk he swung an axe at me and I knew I had made a friend for life. He made me a pair of nunchucks out of gophers, still one of my favorite possessions in this world. He taught me the importance of a freezer full of fudgesicles (once when I went to restock the freezer in the martial arts school, there was a dead fox in there instead. He didn't feel the need to explain). He joked that he took all his lesson plans straight from bad kung-fu movies, and he always had the best ridiculous sound effects for every martial arts move you could pull. I will never forget how he looked wearing a pope hat, doing a dainty queenly wave, officiating a wedding, or teaching an enormous group of tiny children how to wield pointy sticks. I remember how he typed - painfully slowly - but that made every email he ever sent to me all the more special because I knew it probably took him a damn hour to type the thing.
He introduced me to some of the most honorable, interesting, and unforgettable characters I've ever met and he made me feel like I belonged there with them all. He took a hurting, frustrated high-schooler who had problems with authority and anger-management and put a sword in her hand - this might not have been a good idea, but he stuck by it and made sure I didn't murder anyone too badly. At a time when it felt like everyone wanted me to be small and quiet and "nice," Turk taught me it was ok to be as loud and passionate and tempestuous as I wanted to be. When I questioned my progress in class or put myself down he told me I could try to hurt him all I wanted, but I didn't have the right to insult a single one of his students (myself included) because they were his life's work. He told me so many times that he wanted kids, that he wished he could have been a father. All I can think about is how many kids (and kids at heart) came through his school, how many of us he raised into better people, stronger and more confident, more responsible and compassionate, funnier and more loving and more respectful of ourselves and others.
Turk's nickname was Tiny but he was a big man - he had a huge laugh, he gave the biggest hugs of anyone I knew, and he had this unshakable faith in God and his loved ones. I want to think of him as simply napping somewhere (I mean, "posed and ready to strike"), lulling his enemies into complacency so he can strike when they least expect it, but I know for all his talk, he didn't really have any enemies. And he'd probably prefer I picture him in the heaven he worked so hard for, with the God he believed had blessed him so much, looking down on the people he loved more than anything. Rest in Peace, Turk. Love (always) from the Tempest.
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Post by blueguy on Aug 4, 2015 17:13:46 GMT -5
If you want to talk about leaving a Legacy, just keep in mind how many times you hear Sword School mentioned at GLMF during a season then think about how long it has been since it was present at the faire.
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Post by Sir Trevor on Aug 4, 2015 18:17:29 GMT -5
Yes.
2005 was the last year the faire hosted Sword School. But anyone who was around at that time still remembers it well.
Kim and I were just talking about it on Saturday as a matter of fact.
Steve had a way of leaving a lasting impression on people.
I have so many fond memories of Steve. And so many images that come to mind when I think of him.
But I think the one that comes to mind the most, is the look he would get when he would watch us do something stupid.
Like when Wolfe was towing Miles behind his car in an office chair. Or when Britny and I would do the feed-and-follow with long swords while standing six inches apart.
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