27
Linda Arnold and Mary Millar met at an Altrusa meeting
31 years ago in Waynesville, NC. Altrusa is an international
non-profit organization making our local communities
better through leadership, partnership, and service. Their
club offers an opportunity to make a real difference in Haywood
County. They undertake a variety of service, literacy,
fundraising and international projects each year. They are
known in Haywood County for the Soup and Cornbread
annual fundraiser and for their scholarship program. Mary
spearheaded the soup and cornbread event in Haywood
County almost 23 years ago, and it remains their top
income producing fundraiser year after year. The money
raised goes towards scholarships for Haywood County
students to continue their education.
“I’ll be honest, I came to Altrusa in the beginning to promote
my business, and to get more business, but that only
lasted about five minutes” Mary says. She immediately fell
in love with the mission and the passion behind Altrusa and
has been involved with the organization since 1985. Linda
found Altrusa for a completely different reason. “I came
to Altrusa because I was new to the area and I was looking
to meet some new people.” Linda is a former owner of the
Grandview Lodge in Waynesville. She and her late husband
were the third owners of the lodge and owned it for 20
years. To this day, they are the longest standing owners of
The Grandview Lodge. It was when Altrusa had one of their
weekly meetings at the Grandview Lodge that she realized,
“these are the movers and
shakers of this town, and I
want to be a part of them.”
Linda joined Altrusa in 1988.
Going back 31 years, both
women were business owners, wives and mothers. Although
they didn’t have a lot of time outside of Altrusa to
spend getting to know one another, Altrusa was becoming
a platform that they would later build a tremendous friendship
upon.
When both ladies retired and later became widows, they
put most of their time into Altrusa. But, over the past 6
years, their friendship has taken them around the world…
twice.
When asked about what made them different from each
other and how they balanced one another out, they both
looked quizzically at each other and chuckled. “We have so
many things in common and we don’t have a lot of sharp
contrasts. Neither of us are big on watching TV, or technology
or talking on the phone. Neither one of us drink coffee
and we are both into our health,” says Mary. “Yes, everything
that Mary said, and we are both early risers. All eyes
open before 6 am and in bed by 10,” Linda chimes in. It was
determined later in the interview that one of their biggest,
and possibly only, differences is what they prefer to drink
in the afternoon or early evenings. While Linda is a wine
drinker, Mary prefers spirits and cocktails.
They have learned these characteristics of another through
their extensive travels together. What began as a “test
drive” to The Snowbird Inn in Robbinsville to see if they
were compatible for traveling with one another has now
taken them around the world. “It was important for us
to take a quick road trip with one another, outside of any
mission trip and outside of Altrusa, to test the waters of
how well we would really work out on our own,” Linda said.
After a few days of hiking and eating and enjoying the Robbinsville
area, it was easy to sense that they would become
official travel partners.
Their most recent excursion together was a seven and half
week tour. They began their journey in Lexington, Kentucky
to experience the horse farms. From there, they went to
Niagara Falls and then to Toronto to see the Sein Tower
and then off to Montreal and other parts of Canada.
Having committed to one another to travel twice a year,
one domestic and the other international, these women
have already accomplished three tours just this year.
“We never seem to stick to that, we always seem to keep
floating away to different areas that we want to go, without
staying committed to our one domestic and one
international,” said Mary.
“But we do stick to our two
tours a year!” Mary says laughing.
Out of all the places they have
traveled, both agree that Tahiti tops the charts of the best
place yet. “It was head and shoulders above the rest. It was
peaceful, restful, beautiful,” Mary shared. Linda agreed with
saying that as soon as she got off the plane and started
walking around, she thought to herself that it was the most
beautiful place she had ever seen. “It was so lush and green
and had flowers everywhere.” Tahiti, Bermuda, both ends
of Canada, from Victoria to Vancouver to Calgary to PEI,
Nova Scotia, Alaska, China, Beijing, Thailand, Vietnam,
Bangkok, Phuket, Kenya and Italy are just some of the places
Linda and Mary have experienced together during this
incredible friendship.
Through their travels both abroad and within the Unites
States, these women are also connected through their
values of what friendship means to them. “It’s about being
there for the other person,” shares Linda. “It’s about understanding
that when a friend needs to unload, I need to be
the ears and the shoulder for her to lean on and to unload
on. It truly is about just being there.”