Victoria Ann Maphis

I met Vicky where I worked and I was one of her caregivers she was an amazing woman and friend she will be missed fly high my fiend rip I will never forget our talks and the moments we shared 💔

Posted by Stephanie Paige on August 28, 2023

Vickie Maphis, my French teacher in the early 1970s in Cincinnati, Ohio changed my life -- not an ounce of hyperbole in that statement. I saw that so much last summer during my four-week trek through Europe revisiting where we had toured with the Foreign Study League 50 years before, a trip she made possible. And without Vickie Maphis, it would not have happened. Literally. She went to bat over the opposition of our senior French teacher to make sure that two ninth-graders could go on the Foreign Study League trip. I feel so much gratitude: that she was my teacher, that she saw something in me, and that she pushed a boy who had never been on a plane, a train, or to any large American city to talk to his modest-means parents about going to Europe. A year ago, I was on my four-week journey of remembrance in Europe, and I was writing Vickie and three friends from that trip every night, with a report of what I did that day and, of course, pictures. I was determined to take Vickie along, even though she kept protesting that I didn't have to do that. ("I know that, Vickie -- but without you, I have nothing to remember.") I called her something like ten more times, and I can still hear her glee at what I was seeing and how I was sharing it with her. I will be grateful for that until I draw my own, last breath. It took me years of searching to find Vickie, as part of my commitment to find the people who changed my life and tell them that. She was the last one I found: I had to pay one of those public-records search services to locate her and get a phone number. She meant that much to me. God speed, Vickie Maphis. You have earned your rest in love and power. ❤💔❤

Posted by Douglas E Duckett on August 28, 2023