Current conditions unavailable
.jpg)
November is considered gratitude month, a time to take stock of blessings in our lives, and I’m always thanking God for mine.
Among those blessings are the treasured people I’ve met in many walks of life — my personal history clients, people I’ve interviewed for this column, and friends I’ve made in organizations I’ve joined.
Thinking of these precious people warms my heart, but those memories are tinged with sadness when the time comes to say goodbye.
I’m so grateful that my friend Edna Fund, a former Lewis County commissioner and Centralia City Council member, spearheaded efforts two decades ago to honor the Rosie the Riveters and the Guys who worked on the home front during World War II. It gave me the opportunity to meet and interview dozens of wonderful men and women who shared recollections of the war years for the book “Life on the Home Front: Stories of those who worked, waited, and worried during WWII.”
Men like Malcolm “Bud” Berg, Richard Larson, Dale Alexander, Ed Pemerl, Don Castle and Bob Morgan. Women like Margaret Shields, Margaret Langus, Sarah Zopolos, Helen Holloway, Dorothy Powell, Dovie Wellcome, June Deskins, Ethel Nelson, Shirley Erickson, Frances Nugent, Enid Rogerson, Pearl Miller, June O’Connell Ayers Concannon, Claudene Moller, Ruth Herren, Eva Hauck, Doris Bier, Georgie Bright Kunkel and so many others.
Slowly, over the years, we’ve said goodbye to the Rosies and the Guys as they passed away. Doris, one of the youngest Rosies, died at 97 on Valentine’s Day this year. And on Wednesday I received an email from Carolyn Lane saying that her aunt, Georgie, had died that morning.
I wrote a column about Georgie in September after she celebrated her 105th birthday on Aug. 31.
As Carolyn said, “she was quite the gal.” Carolyn’s mother, Grace Bright Eastman, wrote “The Bright Story” about the Chehalis family of George and Myrtia Bright, including how Myrtia raised their 11 children after the death of her husband at 46 and served as Lewis County School Superintendent from 1923 to 1931.
Nearly a dozen years ago, Donna Loucks invited me to join the St. Helens Club in Chehalis. All I knew about the women’s club was that, in the early 1900s, its members raised money to preserve and restore the historic Jackson Courthouse near Mary’s Corner south of Chehalis. That was good enough for me, so I joined. Today, members focus on presenting hour-long lectures on specific topics rather than fundraising for community projects. But I’ve learned so much from all the lectures and, more than that, I’ve met fantastic people and grown to cherish them. And yes, I’ve said goodbye to members, too, like Suzi Vander Stoep, Lisa Blomdahl, Janet Bluhm, Norma Zylstra, and well-known piano teacher Robin Chadwick.
Most recently, the club lost Dee Birchard, 85, who passed away on Oct. 24. She moved to Lewis County in 1978 when her husband, Dr. Carl Birchard, joined Washington Orthopedic Center in Centralia, where she worked as a nurse for 17 years. Carl was 78 when he died on Sept. 10, 2018, while on a northern European cruise of the Baltic states when an aortic aneurysm burst.
Dee mailed out newsy Christmas letters every year, which proved a tremendous resource when I interviewed her for “A Century’s Harvest of Faith at the Centralia Church of the Nazarene.” She drew from her letters to give me details about activities at the church, where she served as Missionary Society president, and the church’s mission trips to Guatemala and other third-world countries. I loved seeing Dee at the St. Helens Club meetings and always gave her a hug.
She and Carl married on March 22, 1963, in Kankakee, Illinois. They did medical work from 1968 to 1978 in the Panama Canal Zone before settling in Lewis County.
Another woman I met only briefly in the St. Helens Club, but long enough to know I wanted to share her remarkable story in a column, was Ine Marie van Dam, a native of the Netherlands. Her Dutch mother, Ada van Esso, survived imprisonment in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Poland, and her father, Hans van Dam, hiked over the Pyrenees and flew to England to fight with the British against Germany during World War II.
I received a message early last month from Yvonne MacNeely saying her good friend Ine Marie had suffered a major stroke and later sharing that she had died on Oct. 6. She was 77. I didn’t know Ine-Marie well, but I’m honored she shared her parents’ stories with me for a column published on March 13, 2023.
A couple of years ago, I joined the Lewis County chapter of the American Association of University Women. I wrote several columns about 50-year members of the chapter, and while perusing newsletters for the columns, I learned of the club’s many activities. I’m growing older, so I figured it might be nice to join organizations closer to home rather than driving to Portland, Seattle, and parts beyond.
When the AAUW decided to hold an Evening with Authors, which dovetailed well with the Southwest Washington Writers Conference, I joined. Since then, I’ve met terrific women who work together for the betterment of the community. They gather used books for the annual sale that raises money for scholarships; work with local schools to introduce young teenagers to careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and math through Expanding Your Horizons; and solicit delicious donations of food from local restaurants to serve at the Evening with Authors, which raises money for Hope Alliance, a nonprofit serving survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Among the first people I met in AAUW were Cathy Cavness and Kathy Halsan, both longtime teachers and membership vice presidents. I attended the first meet-and-greet to warm welcomes from both Cathy and Kathy. They always shared friendly greetings whenever I saw them.
I read with sadness the Facebook post from former state Sen. Stuart Halsan, saying his wife, Kathy, had died of an aggressive form of cancer on Oct. 17, only a month after exploring her family’s roots in Norway and two months after celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in August.
Kathy, who was 73, worked more than four decades as a special education teacher. I had just seen the Halsans at a Founders Day event at the Pioneer Church at Fort Borst Park. My friend Sandra Crowell spoke about her latest book, “The Ravaged Forest,” and the Daughters of the American Revolution honored her and the subject of the book, Helen Sanders, a descendent of the Chehalis, Nisqually and Quinault tribes.
So, as we enter November, I am grateful for all those who have touched my life. While the pursuit of riches and notoriety is often touted, it’s the people we meet and the love we share that matters most. Although sad to have lost so many people lately, I’m grateful for the opportunity to have known them.
•••
Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
