THE KISS OF LIFE

By Miles Patrick Yohnke

© 2021 All Rights Reserved.

Photograph by Marcel Toews

She shall not walk this earth again nor get to breathe it's fragrant air after a fresh rain, but her kiss represented far more. It was somehow deeper, inner-connecting and far more lasting. Far more so than I would realize at the time.

The year was 1981. Radio was playing "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes, "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, "Lady" by Kenny Rogers, "(Just Like) Starting Over" by John Lennon, "Kiss On My List" by Daryl Hall and John Oates. Timothy Hutton won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in the film: "Ordinary People."

I was 17 and very awkward around people like Timothy Hutton's character "Conrad Jarrett" in Ordinary People. I went and watched the film in our local theatre by myself. This was my normal. There I was peering up at the screen and wearing the very same brown winter coat with fur collar that Conrad Jarrett wore. Many of us wore corduroy, turtlenecks and itchy sweaters in 1981.

In 1981, I wrote a short piece that got traction in our school. My principal and teacher, Mr. Melnychuk asked me to read it to our class so I did.

He asked me to write another piece. I did. Again, I was asked to read it to our class.

He then asked me to write something and read it at my graduation.

I wrote something and being nervous, wrote it later on cue cards for my first public speaking performance. I was full of doubt. Filled with fear and anxiety.

After my graduation speech, all the teachers, outside of Miss Bohach, shook my hand. Miss Bohach planted a big kiss right on my lips. It was my first kiss.

Later, I asked the other males that graduated if she had kissed them as well? "No!" was the reply.

Why she kissed me that day has been something that I've carried with me and pondered upon ever since.

That was Miss Bohach's first year at this special high school for the learning impaired. She replaced "Connie" (from my article "School's Out?")

I didn't have Miss Bohach as a teacher that year and I have no real memory of us ever having a single conversation. Just the odd "hello" in the hallways, and in the cafeteria.

In 1985, I was 21, and managing a stereo store when Donna came in. I had graduated with her and this was the first time seeing her since graduation.

She said, "did you hear that Miss Bohach died?" "No," I replied. "She died of cancer just weeks before her 30th birthday."

I was crushed. I had never again seen Miss Bohach after that kiss and now I definitely never would.

When you are 17 you have no concept or real understanding of age. Or at least I didn't. She was a teacher. She was old to me at the time but now in retrospect, she was just 26 when she gave me that everlasting kiss. Just 26.

So young. I then realized that at the time of that kiss and still at the time of her death, she had her whole life ahead of her like I did. But now she was gone.

I'm sure she was filled with the many ideas and hopes of her future that we all have. She never got the chance. Gone.

Throughout the years I have often thought of her. I even was in a relationship with a woman for over a decade that was 13 years older than myself. During that relationship I often thought of Linda Bohach and why she had kissed me.

Linda is with me in my daily bicycle rides, exploring both nature and myself. She is with me in the store as I look at my grocery list. She was with me when I started over reinventing myself and my life. Each of us has these phases throughout our lives and Linda has been with me from that kiss onwards.

Forty years later, I searched out her tombstone. Her tombstone represents what my life has become. One of nature and taking care of the environment.

There is something magical at work that is far bigger than ourselves. Our Creator brings events and people into our lives for a reason. They may not be with us physically anymore, but if we allow them - they are with us. Sometimes they guide us.

Many times I have wondered what she was thinking when she received the news of her cancer. I wondered what she was thinking when battling for her life.

At her gravesite I found myself reflecting - maybe when she kissed me that day she somehow knew far more about me than I ever knew at the time. Perhaps she foresaw how my future would unfold.

She would stay 29 forever.

Did she think she'd be remembered?

Photograph by Dr. Aaron Bazylak

Linda Bohach was sweet, sexy & beautiful. I vividly remember that. I clearly remember her saying hello and me marvelling at her walk. Her curves. How her medium length dark hair fell upon her shoulder. Her grace.

I remember that lady. I remember her eyes. Her kiss somehow convinced me to start loving myself. As if an approval I had so desperately seeking was granted. Her kiss was at the top of my list. Still is.

Her endless love I shall carry forward until we meet again.

Photos by Henry Buitrago

To coincide with the 40th anniversary of my graduation and the now scheduled demolition of Sion High School, I received the Linda Bohach plate from the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Board that had been there in her memory.

It is now currently on my balcony. I am hoping to display it at a more proper place in the future in a more engaging way to respectfully remember the luminous light of Linda Bohach's life and how her life touched mine.

For Linda Karen Bohach (March 17, 1955 - February 2, 1985)