Sweet Lorane Community News, February 27, 2020

February 27, 2020Newspaper ColumnsAlicia Keys, Ave Maria, Christina Aguilera, Gianna Bryant, Jim Edwards, Kobe Bryant, Moonlight Sonata, Sabrina Ionescu, Tracie DeBoer, Twinkle Morton, Vanessa Bryantpaedwards 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.

Sweet Lorane Community News, January 30, 2020

January 30, 2020Newspaper ColumnsKobe Bryantpaedwards Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
January 30, 2020
By Pat Edwards

This past week, many of us—possibly, most of us in the U.S., especially—experienced the horrific pain in the loss of multiple young lives. Fatal accidents as well as premature death of those generations younger than ourselves happen every day and much too often. Each is tragic to those who knew, loved and respected the individuals lost and we join together to mourn their loss in our own way. When that unexpected loss involves someone who is well-known and widely respected, it puts a familiar face on a senseless tragedy and brings many of us together in grief.

Kobe Bryant was a basketball legend and was one of 9 people who lost their lives suddenly in a helicopter crash in Southern California that Sunday morning. The fact that he was a legend does not make the loss of his life any more tragic than the other 8 precious lives lost. Because of his fame, however, each of us was made painfully aware that none of us are immune from disaster; each of us is vulnerable, and the loss of a human life diminishes all of us.

Kobe Bryant’s life was not gilted in gold. Like each of us, he made some bad choices as a young adult when the inevitable price of fame and fortune clouded common sense. I was not a fan of the cocky young man he was at the time, but in recent years, he seems to have turned his life around and I’ve come to respect the man he eventually became. His focus turned to family and as the father of four daughters, his attention and interests were based upon working with them and other young athletes to help develop the skills that might one day enrich their lives. He established the Mamba Sports Academy in early 2019 as a multi-sport training facility for both boys and girls, in part because his second-oldest daughter, 13-year-old Gianna “Gigi” had shown a love and talent for the game of basketball. Through her, Kobe became a champion for the sport of women’s basketball and began taking Gigi to watch some of the best women’s basketball teams and players around the nation at work. That’s how he met and became one of the biggest fans of the University of Oregon’s own all-star guard, Sabrina Ionescu. He became her friend and mentor and brought Gigi with him to watch the Ducks play at the 2019 NCAA Women’s Semi-Finals. They attended other games when the Ducks played closer to their home in California and Gigi, too, became Sabrina’s friend and fan.

The loss of Kobe Bryant was tragic and sad, but my heart aches as much, if not more, for the other individuals and pilot who were on board that star-crossed helicopter that Sunday morning. They included a father, mother and their daughter who was a friend and teammate of Gigi’s; another of her friends and teammates was also on board with that girl’s mother; a woman coach who had worked with the three girls was also lost leaving a husband and family behind. And, of course, the pilot lost his life, as well. Last, but certainly not least, the final victim whose loss seems to tug at my heartstrings the most—Gigi— was onboard that helicopter with her father that day, too.

I am writing of this horrific event this week because I want to point out the two very strong lessons that it carries.

In the face of tragedy, the majority of us tend to shed our differences and join together in our shared sorrow.

We must be willing to see beyond our first impressions of people and be willing to forgive them their poor decisions or actions if they have shown a true willingness and determination to change for the better.

As a nation, we must find a way to recognize and respect the differences that currently divide us and focus on the wonderful things that we share—accepting others for who they are without the tragedy. It can be done… we just need to want it badly enough.