Remembering Allyna

A year ago this week, I stood at one of those proverbial crossroads everybody faces in life. On the morning of October 26, 2023, I received an email that the PV Mirror was ceasing publication. The enormity of the decision is still having a ripple effect.

The first thing that crossed my mind was that I HAD to see Allyna immediately. Her sporadic but relatively recent responses to my queries about how she was feeling suddenly loomed large. There was only one reason she would stop publishing the paper, which had literally become her life, and that was because she could no longer manage it herself.

One of her caregivers let me into her house, took me to Allyna’s bedroom, and then left us alone to have what I knew would be our last conversation.

She was a one-woman show from the get-go with the PV Mirror after a dozen years as the first English-speaking (one of her languages) editor at the Vallarta Tribune newspaper. Combined, she had spent over 25 years sharing Vallarta with the world. Especially important for those who weren’t lucky like she was to live here.

I couldn’t let that stop.

Allyna and I were friends for 30 years. While I was working at the Vallarta Tribune, she teased me and asked when I was going to start writing for her. I replied the same way for years – soon, Allyna, soon.

Then, ‘soon’ became now.

I left her side an hour after I had arrived with the future of the Mirror newspaper/magazine tentatively and figuratively tucked under my arm.

I said these words to Allyna then and offer them to anyone reading today, “Thank you. I love you.”