Vol 16 No 1 - June, 2006

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WITH FOND MEMORIES AND A HEAVY HEART...

class="MsoNormal"> Verona Warkentin Simmons, former publisher of and constant art contributor to the Cargo Report has passed away. This is a time when words truly cannot express the great sadness and sense of loss that we feel. Verona became associated with Tropiflora and the Cargo Report with our first issue, sixteen years ago. Her company, Studio Graphics in Sarasota, was our first publishing company. In those days the Cargo Report was basically hand written and delivered to Verona on assorted scraps of paper and was left to her to make sense of and set to type. Many rewrites were necessary to fit all copy, and the path between Tropiflora and Studio Graphics became well worn. From issue one, Verona hand illustrated the stories and plants. Sometimes her printing studio looked like a greenhouse with dozens of plants awaiting her creative pen. Trained as a fine artist with paintings hanging in prestigious galleries around the country, this sort of illustration was certainly a step down for a person of her talent. But Verona took it in stride, sometimes creating genuine works of art to illustrate our varied plant products. Many of the persons mentioned in the Cargo Report over the years also had their likeness or caricatures done by Verona to illustrate a story. To them and to us, Verona was a part of the Tropiflora family.

Verona and Terry Simmons at Tropiflora Lua

Verona at work... a self portrait.

 In the early days Verona not only did the illustrations, typesetting and printing, but would also proof my writing and struggle to improve my grammar and spelling. Our collaboration over the many years was phenomenal at least and a life changing experience and privilege for me. When I would write an article like the “A Funny Thing Happened” series, I would provide Verona with the story and allow her creativity to take over to interpret it in her own way through her illustrations. The results were always a surprise and I rarely asked for a change. We would laugh and laugh over the often-silly situations she illustrated. In sixteen years Verona created hundreds and hundreds of illustrations, and was in fact part of every single Cargo Report issue, even after she retired from printing and we changed to color photos a few years ago. To say that she will be missed would be a feeble way to express our gratitude for her immeasurable input to the Cargo Report and would trivialize the camaraderie and friendship we had with and the love and respect we had for Verona. She will leave emptiness in the pages of the Cargo Report but will forever fill our hearts with happy memories.

Farewell Verona.