'Til We Meet Again

Grant County Journal

‘Til We Meet Again
July 11, 2011
Written by Janet Fullenwider Warren
I watched my father die last Tuesday. Actually, I went out in the hall as I was giving my sister a progress report on the phone. When I came back in the room, I knew immediately he was gone. It was an agonizingly slow process, but the last hour was filled with peace. He was in pain, heavily medicated, breathing rapidly. It was a difficult thing to watch—until the last hour. Then it became surprisingly sweet and peaceful. The caregiver came in to give him his last dose of medicine. “Do you feel the change in the room?” she asked. It went from anxiously waiting to a feeling of heaven being near. He started to breathe very slowly, sometimes stopping altogether, only to resume with a small gasp. And then one time he didn’t start breathing again.
I was chosen by my family to write my dad’s obituary. You know me, I get long-winded sometimes. I kept the obituary to a little over 500 words (my columns are usually 1,000 words). When you’re paying by the line, however, 500 words can add up to $511. Can you imagine? (Check out Reno Gazette Journal, rgj.com/obituaries). But 500 words wasn’t enough to tell people what I wanted to tell them about my dad. Lucky for me, I have a captive audience in my hometown, so I will tell you some of the stories about my dad that I didn’t put in his obituary. For example, the time in high school when my 110 instamatic camera didn’t work. My dad could fix anything and I figured he could fix the camera too. “Well, I can try, but don’t be upset if I break it.” He unscrewed it and springs went flying all around the kitchen. My father uttered a very rare sentence in our home—“I think it would be cheaper to buy a new one.”
Frugal was my father’s middle name; in fact, he would die again if he knew how much we spent on his obituary. Yet when it came to helping his family he was very generous. When Dad lived in Spokane, Washington, my sister Diane lived in Reno, Nevada. Diane had just gone through a divorce (you might think this is a common theme in our family, but Diane and I are the only ones who were ever divorced. My parents were married for 68 years). She was feeling overwhelmed with taking care of herself and her young son. My dad called her up and said, “Diane, I have a couple of airline tickets from Reno to Spokane sitting around with your name on it. Would you and Jeffrey like to come for a visit?”
My father was very handsome. Diane remembers when she was 11 years old, dad took her on a daddy-daughter date at our church. My mom made Diane a corsage and my dad a boutonniere. Diane remembers looking up at my father and thinking he was the most handsome man in the world. She was so proud to be with him that night.
My sister Sara remembers riding in the hills of Sparks, Nevada with my father on motorbikes. I tried once, but I didn’t like it. Sara was also the only daughter Dad ever let drive his motorhome.
For many years, my father was the only man in my life I could trust. After my divorce, he was a rock for me. I knew he loved me when I felt my life was falling apart. Because of my father’s example of loyalty, truthfulness, and integrity, I didn’t lose faith in marrying again. I knew there were men like my father out there and I was able to recognize those traits in Mike when I met him. I really did marry my father in some ways. My sorrow is that Mike and my dad didn’t have thirty years together. Both my dad and Mike think work is fun—they would have had so much fun together!
My nephew, Jeff Neuweiler spoke at my father’s funeral. Jeff is the oldest grandchild, and he had a very special relationship with my father. I had held it together pretty well up to this point, but Jeff’s words about his grandpa touched me deeply. When Jeff moved away from home, my father told him that in any given situation if he would “do the right thing” he couldn’t go wrong. Four words changed my nephew’s life. This was the same advice dad gave to all of us and it is my father’s legacy. My dad always tried to do the right thing.
My dad sang a song over the generations to us and to our children. Two months before his death, trying to get a reaction out of my uncommunicative father, Diane and I sang this song to him. He began to wave his arms to lead us. The day before dad’s funeral my niece Jill found herself singing his song all day. Before my father’s casket was closed for the final time, the family and some close friends had some private time. I asked my brother and sisters to join me in singing dad’s song. My sisters knew I was going to do this, but my brother, Dave, was surprised. But you know, he remembered all the words and he was the best at doing the hand motions.
Up in the air, Junior Birdman,
Up in the air, upside down.
Up in the air Junior Birdman,
Keep your nose right to the ground.
If you hear the great commandment
That the planes are made of tin
Then you’ll know that Junior Birdman
Has turned his boxtops in.

Over and out Junior Birdman. You will always be my hero.

Our gift to the wet side

Grant County Journal
Our Gift to the Wet Side
June 20, 2011
Written by Janet Warren
Bob and Shannon Criss have always worked as a team. Both of them moved quite often as children, and they wanted their own children to have the opportunity of being raised in a single community. Shannon was born in Ephrata, moved away, and then returned the last two years of high school. Bob ended up in Ephrata when he was in high school. So when they married and had their first child, Steven, they decided Ephrata was a good, safe community in which to raise their children. The Criss family—Bob, Shannon, and 6-month-old Steven—moved to Ephrata 22 years ago. Shannon had recently begun her teaching career and taught for a year in Puyallup. She was hired at Grant Elementary School by Dan Martell, who was the principal of Grant. She taught 5th grade for seven years before moving to Ephrata Middle School. While she was there, the District purchased Parkway and Shannon moved there to teach 6th graders. She then moved on to the District Office where she was in charge of curriculum and federal programs. The chance to become a principal came in October of 2005. Shannon had come full circle, landing in the place she had begun but now as principal of Grant.
Shannon has a philosophy that every five to seven years you need to shake things up a bit, which is very sound reasoning. Not only do people benefit from change, but the programs they are involved in benefit from new ideas and new perspectives. As Shannon explained, “There’s something out there calling for me.” She and Bob have finished raising their children; their son Steven is in his last year at Eastern and daughter Megan was a 2011 graduate from Ephrata High School. “We did what we set out to do,” explained Shannon, “which was to raise our children in this small community. We feel we did a good job. We lived our lives for our children—you do the softball, you do the 4H. You do what your kids do. Now what do we do? We’ve got a honeymoon, a new beginning.”
There are exciting changes in store for the Criss family. Shannon was hired as the superintendent for Winlock School District, a district of about 750 students. They have never aspired to live in a big city, but Bob and Shannon will live an hour away from Portland, an hour away from Seattle, an hour from the ocean, and an hour from skiing. But best of all, they will live 92 miles away from their daughter who will attend University of Washington in the fall. Bob has his own business as a real estate appraiser so he can work anywhere, and being an allergy sufferer, the thought of no sage and no dust is particularly appealing. In preparation for Winlock, Shannon bought a raincoat and she was given an umbrella and boots as gifts. Apparently Winlock is very proud of the fact that they are the highest elevation (500 feet) in Lewis County so they don’t get quite as much rain as other places in the county. Shannon will miss her five-day-a-week walk up Beezley Hill. “It clears my head,” she said. On clear days, however, Shannon will be able to walk out of Winlock High School and see Mount St. Helens in front of her and Mount Rainier over to the side. With terrain like that, I believe she will find another hill to climb.
Good educators are always reading and the top of Shannon’s reading list right now is “The Six Secrets of Change—What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive.” It must feel good to read a book like this and realize you already know some of those secrets. Number one is “Love Your Employees,” and it is clear that Shannon has done just that. Lisa Wiersma, Nancy Hustad and Eli Garcia work in the front office and as Lisa said, “You don’t often find an office that can run as cohesively as ours. It is more like a family. Shannon has been an example of compassion, kindness and going above and beyond.” Shannon hopes to take a little bit of Ephrata with her. For sure, she and Bob will join the Lions Club which has been a big part of her life here in Ephrata.
The Criss family is gearing up to become part of the Winlock “Home of the World’s Largest Egg” community. She and Bob will attend Egg Days next week. A fiberglass egg 12 feet long, weighing 1200 pounds is the town’s calling card and has had a version of the egg displayed since 1923. Winlock was the second largest egg producing town until the 1950’s, but the egg theme stuck. A new Egg Queen will be crowned during Egg Days. The Egg Day Committee is trying to contact past Egg Day Queens to attend this year’s Egg Day Celebration. Winlock is honored to have Egg Day Queen of 1938, Joyce Wise Senechal, attending this year. Mrs. Senechal celebrated her 97th birthday on February 23, 2011. These are the things that keep small towns alive.
Shannon is looking forward to learning new things like clam digging and kayaking, although she will miss Ephrata and the friends she has made here. “How do you thank people who have been so instrumental in your life?” Shannon asked. As long as Shannon has Bob by her side, however, she and the rest of the family will be fine. “Bob is my advocate and my strong support system. I couldn’t do what I do without my best friend along.”
Lisa Wiersma summed up Shannon’s leaving best: “Anybody can be replaced in a job, but you can’t replace a person in your heart…she’ll leave a hole, and she will be missed.”

A Perfectly Logical Idea

Grant County Journal
A Perfectly Logical Idea
June 6, 2011
Written by Janet Warren

When Logan Nelson empties out the prescription drug drop box, it’s all part of his daily duties as the evidence officer of the Ephrata Police Department. It seems perfectly logical that Ephrata would have a place where people can dispose of their unused prescription drugs, or nonprescription drugs for that matter. I once put two large bottles of expired aspirin in the box. On a day long ago, and in a city far, far away, I would have dumped them down the toilet. Isn’t that what we all did with the expired prescription drugs when we got around to cleaning out the medicine cabinet? That’s a big no-no with today’s environmental concerns. Although I wasn’t able to reach the director of public works for the scientific reason why we shouldn’t flush our drugs, my understanding is that it has something to do with the drugs interfering with the enzymes in the sewage process.
On the website takebackyourdrugs.org, listed are several reasons besides environmental why you should dispose of your unwanted medications. For example:
• Drug overdoses in Washington have surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of accidental death.
• Almost 12% of Washington state teens (one of the highest rates in the nation) use prescription pain medicines to get high.
• Medicine cabinets are the new drug dealer. More than three out of five teens say prescription pain relievers are easy to get from parent's or grandparent's medicine cabinets.
Which brings me back to my comment. If we can’t dump our drugs down the toilet, doesn’t it seem perfectly logical there would be a drop box where we can take them? That’s what Kathy Schultheis thought when she suggested it to her daughter, Heidi Schultheis. Heidi serves on the city council and told her mother about a suggestion form available to the citizens of Ephrata at the police department. Kathy immediately filled out the form and turned it in.
Police Chief, Mike Warren, thought Kathy’s idea was brilliant. Immediately, Chief Warren began the process of implementing Kathy’s perfectly logical idea. Anyone who has ever worked for the government can guess how long the idea took to come to fruition. No matter what agency, be it city, state, or federal, there are piles of paperwork and rolls of red tape to cut through. Luckily for Ephrata, Jefferson Ketch, an administrator for the Health District helped Mike cut through the Drug Enforcement Agency red tape and approval for the drop box was obtained within a couple of months. Next, the drop box had to be implemented into the conversion of a garage into corporal’s office space at the police department. That part took longer because of budget cuts. Logan and Mike designed the box where drugs can be dropped in, but not taken out from the outside. Bill Cox, a carpenter with the City, built the box and finally, about a year after Kathy submitted her form, Ephrata had a place to drop unwanted prescription medications.
As the evidence officer, Logan empties the locked box and disposes of the drugs in Spokane on a quarterly basis. Logan said the box has been “quite a popular service.” Sometimes people have too many drugs to put in the drop box and bring boxes of drugs into the police department, where they are accepted during office hours. Even though this seems like such a logical service to provide, Ephrata is the only 24-hour drop box in eastern Washington. It is listed on takebackyourmeds.org, and Logan has had people from other counties call to find out information about the drop box. Police Departments in other cities have contacted Chief Warren and are following his lead in getting prescription drug boxes in their cities. Who knew Ephrata was such a trendsetter? And it all started with a form that Kathy Schultheis filled out.
In recognition of Kathy’s community service, Chief Warren presented her with a Chief’s Coin at a city council meeting. What’s a Chief’s Coin, you ask? Aha, here’s the rest of the story.
The first coin, eventually earning the name of a challenge coin, is attributed to a pilot in World War I who wanted to celebrate the bond of brotherhood developed among his crew. Special forces in the armed services began making their own challenge coins and the tradition eventually moved into other areas of service, such as fire fighters and law enforcement. These coins are used to reward special acts of service. A tradition that reportedly started during the Vietnam war required coin recipients to carry their coins with them at all times. If at any time a challenge was made, and the person was not carrying his coin, he was required to buy a round of drinks.
The Washington State Patrol, where Mike put in 25 years of service, began issuing coins which they called “Chief’s Coins” (because they were given out by the Chief of the State Patrol) in 2001. From 2001 to 2009 when Mike retired, he earned five Chief’s Coins. He can tell you the story behind each one; getting one of these is a big deal.
Wal-Mart awarded the Ephrata Police Department $2,000 last year and Mike decided to start the Chief’s Coin tradition here using that money. He and Loretta Mayer, his administrative assistant who regularly makes Mike look good, designed the coin with the Ephrata police shield on one side and the county court house on the other. Loretta is a recipient of one of only five Coins that have been given out so far, so she and Kathy Schultheis are in elite company. I must warn Kathy and Loretta, however, that the “coin challenge” isn’t part of the Ephrata tradition, so if anybody approaches you and asks to see your coins, do not be alarmed. No round of drinks is necessary. Donuts…perhaps.

Life is a Puzzle

Grant County Journal
Life is a puzzle
May 23, 2011
Written by Janet Warren

When things are meant to be, pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. At least that has been my experience looking back on my life. Of course, some of the puzzles of our lives, we’d just as soon keep in the box. Jerry Vanden Bos began working in his father’s jewelry store in Port Orchard when he was ten years old. He was brought up to take over the business and when the reins fell to him he was able to grow his father’s modest business into a million-dollar-a-year thriving jewelry business. One morning, he turned to his wife, Paula, and said, “I’m tired of retail. I want to become a crop duster.” Paula, after taking a few deep breaths, told him she had never worked a job she didn’t love, and if he didn’t love retail she would support him in his dream. The puzzle began to fall into place. They sold the jewelry business and Jerry went to Oklahoma to learn to be a crop duster. He has been flying since he was 15, and it had become a passion for him, so the crop dusting was an extension of that. They moved from their home in Port Orchard to Wenatchee where Paula continued to work as a mortgage banker while Jerry flew his airplane and dusted crops. Funny how a line in a movie can change your life. It was “City Slickers” for Paula. Billy Crystal plays Mitch Robins who is more or less happy with life, but his wife tells him that he has “lost his smile.” She sends him on a cowboy adventure to try and find it. This line struck Paula to her soul and she realized mortgage banking wasn’t making her smile anymore. She put in her notice and went to beauty school and worked as a hairstylist until Jerry got a job for the world’s largest Christmas tree farmer and they moved to Oregon. Paula worked at Safeway in Oregon and when Jerry got a job in Ephrata in 1998, Paula was able to transfer to Ephrata’s Safeway. Life moved along; the puzzle pieces fit. Then a mannequin with a broken arm wearing a wedding dress covered with vintage pins in a shop called “Little Treasures” caught Paula’s eye. The cigar-smoking, biker-woman owner of the store, Linda LaPlant, who was as different in personality to Paula as you can get, got under Paula’s skin and they became friends. One day Paula noticed a Business Closing sign in Little Treasures and she went in to talk to Linda and find out what was going on. As Paula was leaving, Linda held up the keys to her store and asked, “Do you want to buy my store?” Paula was taken by surprise, but the thought of owning a gift store began to nudge her creative urge. She went home and asked Jerry about it. “Absolutely not! I am not getting into retail again!,” newly-retired Jerry barked. So, Paula dutifully returned to Little Treasures to tell Linda she would not be buying her store. Linda and the retail gods had other plans, however, and before Paula returned home that day she had not only agreed to purchase Linda’s store, but she had given Linda her car as part of the deal. Now to tell Jerry. Paula said, “The look on Jerry’s face—I thought he was going to kill me!” Paula marched right up to him and shaking her finger to emphasize each syllable said, “I have followed you for 20 years crop dusting, it’s my turn.” To his credit, Jerry said, “You’re right, let’s do it.” Paula and Jerry worked to clean up the space vacated by Little Treasures and on November 4, 2003, Vanden Bos Gifts and Fine Jewelry was opened. Six months later in a huge surprise to the community, Ephrata Drug closed their doors after 28 years. Vanden Bos moved into their vacated space on April 1, 2004. As Paula’s line of Vera Bradley purses and accessories grew, she needed more space and so she rented the historic bank building next door. It was a little awkward because they were not able to punch a hole through to make the two spaces into one since the bank building was deemed an historic site, so it was essentially two different stores but it worked for a number of years. Paula had customers come from all over Eastern Washington because she carried the largest selection of Vera Bradley. A couple of things happened in the last year to change plans. First, on May 10, 2010, their healthy 40-year-old daughter Kristen VanAmen had an aortic dissection. If you remember actor John Ritter and how he suddenly died, that was from an aortic dissection. By all accounts Kristin should not have survived it, but miraculously she did. Stents in her heart helped for awhile, but they eventually failed. Her health has been on a downward spiral and on May 18th, her 41st birthday, Kristen re-entered the hospital too weak for open heart surgery and leaving doctors in a quandary of what to do for her. Jerry and Paula also had their rent raised in the main store space, so they decided to consolidate their store into the smaller bank space. It was actually a blessing since the headache of running both stores was gone so she and Jerry could concentrate more on how to help their daughter. Paula’s sister, Gema Powers, who lived in Tacoma, retired and moved over to Ephrata in February to help with the store in order to free Paula and Jerry up so they could travel to the Westside to help their daughter. As their lease renewal came up, however, emotionally they were too worn down to continue. “One of the things about living in this small town is that many of our customers have been praying for our daughter. Ephrata has a very spiritual heart,” Paula said. They need to concentrate on family right now. They do plan on keeping their home in Ephrata. “I’m too young to retire,” said Paula. “Give me a year and I’ll do something else after we figure out what’s going on with Kristin.” And you can bet it will be something that makes her smile. When the new puzzle gets taken off the shelf, the pieces will fall into place, because that is how life has been for Paula and Jerry.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Grant County Journal
Lights! Camera! Action!
May 16, 2011
Written by Janet Warren

Let me take you back to the days when movies were new. You have to be in a certain age group to remember those days, and even I don’t belong to that group. So I called Mary Lee. Actually, I called her son Jack who gave me her number. Jack said Mary usually doesn’t do interviews and that I would have to use my journalistic skills to pull one out of her. I called her and told her I wanted to ask her a few questions about the early days of movies in Ephrata. That is the extent of my journalistic skills but, luckily for me, it was enough. I never would have believed Mary Lee is 97 years old by talking with her on the telephone.
Mary and John Lee moved to Ephrata around 1939. John was an entrepreneur who always wanted to be in the movie business. He started out with a traveling movie circuit. He bought the very best projection equipment for the time and travelled to the smaller towns like Moses Lake (yes, Moses Lake used to be smaller than Ephrata) and Othello. Around 1940 he bought the Marjo Theater. Mary helped out in the ticket booth in those days, but as her family grew she mainly did the office work for her husband’s ventures. Mary remembers when they bought a new contraption called a popcorn machine and that was the only concession they sold. Those were the days of ushers showing you to your seat. The Nifty Costume Company delivered nice uniforms weekly for the ushers to wear.
Mary describes John as a “very friendly fellow” and he made connections wherever he went. He bought and ran the Sunset Theater in Soap Lake for a number of years, and also bought the Kam Theater (which is now a parking lot behind the Methodist church). Mary explained that the “theater business was very competitive and you had to watch your backside very carefully to make sure someone didn’t take your territory away from you.”
In 1950, the Lees built the Lee Theater in Ephrata. John ran it for a number of years and then eventually it was managed by Sun Basin out of Wenatchee where Jeff Fairchild worked. They ran the theater until one day in the 1980’s the oil in the tank ran out and they couldn’t heat it anymore. It stayed empty, except for some companies renting out the lobby for various businesses for over ten years. In 1990, Fairchild branched out and convinced John Lee into letting him open it back up, and he eventually purchased the theater from Lee. This is when the theater was renovated and two more screens were added. About five years ago, Fairchild sold it to a group of investors which included Lanith Merchant Whetstone. Lanith was a silent partner and didn’t have anything to do with the day-to-day operations. As you can imagine with its history, the Lee Theater fell into disrepair. Lanith mentioned a couple of negative reviews she read on the internet which talked about how dirty the theater was and how things were broken. “As hard as those reviews were to read,” said Lanith, “I knew they were true.” In February of this year, Lanith decided to come out of the shadows as a silent partner and take over management of the Lee Theater. She had a ready-made workforce with her family of 13 children. Lanith’s husband, Steve Whetstone, is a handyman who was willing to help her. The four older girls, Cassidi, Mandolin, Brindy, and Bailey took over The Reel and revamped the pizza. They now make their pizza dough by hand and carefully craft their pizzas. Mandolin, who is also my hairdresser as none of them have quit their day jobs, told me the girls have discussions of whether the pizza needs one or two more pepperonis to make it perfect. She does the same thing with my hair…”hmm, I think I’ll put one more highlight right here…” Mandolin’s husband, Matt, and Cassidi’s husband, Ryan, also help out at the theater. Other family members you might run into are: Geoff, 19; Zach 16; and Mikenzie, 14. When Brad, 21, gets home from his mission in Tennessee, he’ll have a summer job waiting for him. Eli, 11; Sarah, 9; and Jaxon, 5, are waiting in the wings.
You might have 12-year-old Sadie selling you your ticket. Lanith said she used to stand in the booth with Sadie to make it look official, but stopped doing it when she realized Sadie was better at it than she was. Thirteen-year-old Tucker sold me a soda once and was very professional. There was a learning curve, however. Fifteen-year-old Bailey tells the story of a customer asking for large sodas of four different flavors. She misunderstood and started putting all four sodas in one large cup. The customer laughed and said he didn’t think he would be drinking that soda. She was trying hard to give the customer what he wanted, and I think that was pretty creative.
Mandolin has some fun memories about the Lee Theater. When she was in high school she worked there and that is where she met Matt Hope and they became good friends. Mandolin left Ephrata for Alaska for a time and when she returned she realized she and Matt were more than just friends. Matt put on the reader board outside the theater: “Mandolin, Will You Marry Me?” and dropped to one knee in front of the theater with cars honking as they drove by. They are expecting their second child in August. When her mother told her she wanted to take over the Lee Theater, Mandolin and Matt had no misgivings. They work their day jobs and then are at the theater at night.
Mike and I went to see a movie Saturday night. The 9:30 showing, no less. I know, Ephrata is bringing out our wild sides. Sadie sold us our tickets, Cassidi talked to us until the first showing let out. Tucker went in and cleaned the theater between showings. It was clean. The floor wasn’t sticky, and the projector didn’t break. Lanith said they have now fixed all the broken things and scraped years and years of dirt layers off the floor. They replaced the reel-to-reel projectors. She knows eventually they will have to go to digital projectors, but they are taking one improvement at a time. She has a lot of ideas, including nine weeks of free movies this summer. Be sure to go by and sign up for their email list. There is a drawing weekly and some other specials you don’t want to miss!

We're Not in AZ anymore, Toto!

Grant County Journal
We’re Not in AZ Anymore, Toto
May 9, 2011
Written by Janet Warren

I am back after five weeks and four days of living out of a suitcase. I am tired and a little cranky. I’m upset at myself because I forgot to send in our grandson’s picture with last week’s column. To try to rectify that mistake and because I had so many requests for it, here is a picture of Ethan Michael Warren, born April 21. I was busy helping my daughter with her twins and new baby, and I lost track of a lot of things. When you’re away from home it is easy to get out of your routine. I hardly even watched the news or read a newspaper. In fact, I think the first time we turned on the news was when someone called to tell us bin Laden had been killed. Imagine my surprise a day or two later when I saw Ephrata Middle School teacher, Gary Weddle, on national news. Someone needs to teach Bill O’Reilly how to pronounce Ephrata. I substitute at the middle school sometimes, and since I’ve only lived in Ephrata less than two years, I didn’t know the story behind the beard. I didn’t think Amish people taught in public schools, but I put it in the back of my mind to research the subject. I’m glad that was cleared up. I was diligent in paying all the bills before I left, but a new set of them came. You can’t put a stop to those things. I was also gone long enough to forget my passwords in order to pay them online. I kept telling Mike to just put them in a pile and I’d take care of it when I got home, but I did miss one due date. It makes me so mad to have to pay a late fee. I’m also mad that gas got up to $4.00 a gallon while I wasn’t paying attention. No wonder I’m cranky. My vow to exercise and keep on my diet went out the window after the first week. My prescriptions ran out, and my roots grew out. Five weeks and four days is a long time to be away from home. However, I got to hold my granddaughter when she was hours old, and I got to know my twin grandsons better. Seth even began to warm up to me by the time I left Arizona for Reno after four weeks and six days. The next five days I spent in Reno where my sister Diane from New Jersey and her son Jeff (age 40) and grandson Dutch (age 4) from Denver converged to spend some time with my parents. Jeff’s back went out and he ended up in the emergency room and then bed for most of those five days. I counseled him that it’s all downhill after 40, because I felt he should know. That’s the kind of aunt I am. Those four weeks and six days spent with my grandchildren in Arizona got me through those very depressing five days of seeing life slip away from my father. I think the next time I see him will be at his funeral. I was beginning to feel like Dorothy. Although I will miss those munchkins, Seth, Noah and Ivy in the land of AZ, I clicked my heels three times as I boarded Southwest Airlines in Reno, bound for Spokane. “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” We’re going home, Toto, back to my normal life. Next week my columns will get back to normal too. I tell you, it’s difficult to write columns out of a suitcase.

April Showers Bring Grandbabies!

Grant County Journal
May 1, 2011
April Showers bring Grandbabies!
Written by Janet Warren

Drum roll please. Last week I told you I had an announcement, and I will hurry and tell you the exciting news now so there will be no more wild imaginings of what it might be. (I received a postcard from a reader wondering if I am pregnant…I think Loretta would have to scrape Mike off the floor if that was the announcement). Of course, now anything I announce will be anticlimactic.

The exciting news is that we have another grandson! Ethan Michael Warren was born to Jeff and Abby Warren on April 21 weighing 6 pounds 11 ounces, 19 inches long. Mike took off for Portland on the 22nd to officially welcome Ethan into the family. Abby did a great job, and last I heard Jeff was singing praises to the person who discovered that white noise quiets a crying baby.

There’s a little more to the story that I will fill you in on. When you ask Mike how many children he has, he will tell you seven with no additional explanation. When he married me, my children became his children. I, on the other hand, always feel the need to explain things, and I’ll tell you why. If you lined our children up in order, it would be like this: Jenni 32, Jodie 30, Mindi 28, Jonathan 28, Jeffrey 25, James 24, and Jeffrey 14. Who would name two of their children Jeffrey? You see what I mean…some explanation is required. Plus, when I say Jeff had a baby, I need you to know it is Mike’s Jeff, because my Jeff is only 14! Such is the blended family. And while we are on the subject, how am I supposed to explain Jodie’s stepchildren? I treat them like my grandchildren, but Meranda is 18 and Robert is 17 and I’m a little too vain to let you think I am old enough to have biological grandchildren that age. It was enough of a shock when I became a grandma at 41 with the birth of Tony, now age 12. I was thinking I might not get any more grandchildren, but after a 9-year wait, we have four more—Twins Seth and Noah, who turned 3 on April 30; Ivy, born April 5; and Ethan born April 21.

So after that big explanation, welcome to Ethan Michael! But there is more…as Paul Harvey would say, here’s the rest of the story.

For a long time now, April 21 has been a sad day in the Warren family. Mike’s brother, Chuck, took his own life on April 21, 1994. Five years, ago, on April 21, Mike’s first wife, Penni (Jeff’s mother) died unexpectedly at age 48 from a fatal reaction to a medication. Personally, I think Ethan being born on April 21 is perfect. No longer will April 21 be a day of sadness, thinking about people gone too soon. Penni loved babies. She would have been so excited about her first grandchild. In fact, I like to think of Penni as Ethan’s guardian angel. Surely she spent time with him before he was born. Perhaps she gave him some advice. I’ll bet she told him all about his daddy--that he loves the outdoors and he is such a hard worker. I imagine she told him about his mommy and how much care she took to bring a healthy baby into the world and how she thinks of Ethan as the greatest gift she has ever had. And I am very sure Penni told Ethan that he was going down to the Warrens, a family who takes care of each other, who loyally stands by each other, and that he would learn to love family the way they do. But most of all, I think Grandma Penni told Ethan to give his grandpa a big hug for her, and that he was going to be so lucky to have a grandpa who would always think he hung the moon.
By the time you read this column, I will have boarded a plane and flown from Phoenix to Reno to visit my parents, and then I’ll be back in Ephrata before my next column is due. I’ve missed y’all. Oh wait a second…I was in Arizona, not Texas. See you soon.