Category: Newspaper Columns

Newspaper columns that I have written for the Fern Ridge Review in Veneta, Oregon and the Creswell Chronicle in Creswell, Oregon. I began writing them for the Fern Ridge Review on August 4, 2010; on December 6, 2012, the Creswell Chronicle began printing them, as well. I am still the Lorane columnist for both papers.

Sweet Lorane Community News, March 5, 2020

March 5, 2020Newspaper Columns, , , , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
March 5, 2020
By Pat Edwards

What a wonderful week of my favorite kind of spring-time weather—sunny days and what can actually be described as a warming trend. Unfortunately, our schedules of doctors’ appointments and errands for the store haven’t allowed for much time to enjoy it, but just being able to be “out and about” in shirt-sleeves helps to raise the spirits.

We have some upcoming events that I need to share with you this week.

The co-sponsored Rural Art Center and Lorane Grange’s last Lorane Movie Night of the season will be taking place on Saturday, March 14 at the Lorane Grange. Because of their licensing agreement, RAC is not allowed to advertise the title of the movie, so they’ve made a game of it each time by providing a scrambled version. The March scrambled movie title is “Vincisut.” It’s PG-13 and was released in 2009. It’s set in South Africa where a newly-elected president (and later Nobel laureate) builds peace in unlikely ways, including working with the Springbok rugby team to help unite the country after apartheid. It stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

The evening begins with dinner at 6:00 p.m., games and doorprizes at 6:45 p.m., and the movie begins at 7:30 p.m.

The Creswell Grange is hosting a mini-pie making class for children on Wednesday, March 25 at 2:00 p.m. They will provide the ingredients for apple, cherry, peach and chocolate cream pies, and the kids can make them and take some home afterwards.
The program is free and open to the public, but children must be accompanied by an adult and they ask you to pre-register so they can have enough supplies and ingredients on hand. If you’re interested, contact Dottie at 541-895-2155.

So many people have been coming into our store lately, looking for hand sanitizer, face masks, disinfectant wipes, etc. Of course, what we did have is gone and there is no one in town that we’ve been able to find who has it, so our shelves in those areas will have to remain empty. With all of the news about the coronavirus and the fact that it is beginning to make itself known on the West Coast, none of us can be too careful. Those who have other health issues, especially, are susceptible and we must all do our part to try not to take any chances on spreading possible flu symptoms.

We received word a few days ago that the King family and administration have decided to close down the public rooms at King Estate for at least a week. The business office, wine-making and bottling departments, and the vineyard will remain open, but the restaurant, tasting room, etc. are temporarily closing for that time period. Because King Estate hosts many visitors from all over the world, they have decided to take extra safeguards and precautions to prevent the coronavirus from infecting their employees and customers in Lane County.

When I contacted Ed King, he said, “We have also urged staff to prepare their homes and families for possible contagion—to learn the proper protocols to avoid infection and self-observation for flu symptoms and to guard against the possible spread of the coronavirus.”

It is this type of concern and foresight by the King family that has earned Jim’s and my respect over the years. Thank you for taking these precautions.

Sweet Lorane Community News, February 27, 2020

February 27, 2020Newspaper Columns, , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
February 27, 2020
By Pat Edwards

I’m needing to play “catch-up” this week since I skipped out on last week’s column.

Jim had his much-needed and long-awaited back surgery on February 19 and he was in the McKenzie-Willamette Hospital for three nights before I was able to bring him home on Saturday morning.

Our house definitely had an empty feeling those three nights, but I didn’t realize how much our pets had missed Jim. When he came home, his doctors had instructed him to take frequent short walks through the house with his walker. Even though he’s been using his walker in the house for months now without the animals seeming to notice, the day I brought him home and on the first walk he took, our cat, Jo-Jo, jumped up on the seat of his walker. When I picked up Jo-Jo and put him back on the floor so Jim could begin his walk, Jo-Jo immediately jumped back on and majestically rode the full route with Jim. He caught multiple other rides for the first two days that Jim was home. Our two dogs, Toby and BB, were also in attendance and obviously were glad that he was home safe and sound.

Jim has a long road to travel to regain the strength in his affected leg and the balance he needs to wean himself away from his walker, but most importantly, the terrible leg pain is gone. There is only minor pain from the surgery site which is getting better each day. So, once again we are counting our blessings.

Huge thanks to Tracie DeBoer, our store manager, and our wonderful ladies – Cynthia, Shelby, Kat and Janis – who have been running the store in Jim’s absence. I don’t know what we would have done without them!

The Lane County Territorial Project team has set up the next public meeting to share the design and construction plans of the project taking place in the Lorane area. Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, May 19, 2020, at 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Lorane Grange. The first phase of the project will officially begin on June 15 and is supposed to be finished by November 20, 2020 at Stony Point, north of Lorane.

I have been asked to remind everyone about the upcoming Celebration of Life for a lady I have had much respect for over the years. Twinkle Morton (April 3, 1948 – October 20, 2019) was a long-time member of the Fern Ridge School Board and she was involved in many other community activities and events. I got to know Twinkle several years ago when I began working on developing a Community Calendar with Twinkle, her partner Joan Mariner, and other local ladies. We never finished the project because another calendar was published before ours was done, but the time I spent was well-rewarded by the experience of working with these ladies who have given so much to their communities.

Twinkle’s Celebration of Life will be held on March 7, 2020 at the Fern Ridge Middle School in Elmira, Oregon at 1:00 p.m. The family requests no flowers, but if anyone wishes to honor her memory, a gift to the Greenhill Humane Society or “Yellowstone Forever,” the Yellowstone Foundation, would be appropriate.

Just a quick follow-up on the column I wrote recently about the helicopter crash in California that took nine precious lives, including Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna… I watched the delayed broadcast of the celebration of life for this father and daughter that followed the Oregon Women’s Basketball game against Stanford. UO’s Sabrina Ionescu’s eulogy was amazing, but I was absolutely blown away by the 20 minute talk given by Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s wife and GiGi’s mother. This beautiful, strong woman shared personal insights and memories of the loved ones that she and her other three daughters lost that day, and she did it with love, grace and respect. The sorrow and pain were there, but she was able to talk about them without breaking down totally… something that I couldn’t have done.

The event itself was tasteful and respectful towards all whose lives were lost that Sunday. Though the time was late, I couldn’t break away from watching it until it was over. The many eulogies presented were heart-warming, but the two musical presentations out of several that took my breath away and brought me to tears were Alicia Keys’ rendition of the beautiful “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven and Christina Aguilera’s emotion-packed “Ave Maria,” sung in Italian. If you did not get a chance to see it, you might want to stream it or watch the various features on You-Tube. It’s well worth the time.