Rebecca Nappi

Mark Wilson is in search of an Inland Northwest family willing to place the area’s first elder cottage in the family’s backyard. The family won’t get a monetary break for being the first, but they will pioneer a trend in senior housing that is predicted to flourish in the next decade or so.

In fall 1984, a features writer at The Spokesman-Review fell in love with a Montana grizzly bear scientist she had interviewed for a story. The day she told then-editor Chris Peck that she was leaving to get married, my application arrived on Peck’s desk. After eight years away from Spokane, working at bigger newspapers in bigger cities, including USA Today in Washington, D.C., I was preparing to return home to Spokane to get married.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul – named for a 17th century French priest – was founded in 1833 by Antoine Frederic Ozanam, a French student challenged by another student to prove his Catholic church still cared for the needy. The society has a strong presence in Spokane and North Idaho through its thrift stores, emergency shelters and helping people with utility bills, rent, clothing and food, as well as providing emotional and spiritual support.

On May 7, Stevi Allen was busy working on a quilting project and wrapping gifts for a church ladies’ luncheon. As she made her way to the lower level of her Spokane home, glass jars of gift candy in both hands, Allen, now 71, was in a hurry, as usual. She somehow missed the small, carpeted final step and crash-landed at the bottom of the stairs.

Two Holy Names sisters, Mary Ann Farley and Celine Steinberger, grew teary-eyed during a recent interview about the ways Holy Names sisters have been part of Spokane for 125 years. These are two resilient, accomplished sisters, unafraid of much or many. They didn’t apologize for their tears.

The Samaritan woman in the New Testament story was tough. Married five times, living with a man who wasn’t her husband, she wasn’t afraid of Jesus, the man who spoke with her at the well in a kind but honest manner. Jan Martinez – founder of Christ Kitchen in Spokane, a place where women in poverty earn money, dignity and respect – loves the Samaritan woman.

In 1982, I did a sabbatical year in Washington, D.C., working inside two Congressional offices as a staff member. Every night of the work week, we young staffers could eat free by dropping in on receptions put on by lobbyists. The spreads were impressive: open bars, substantial hors d’oeuvres, fancy pastries. We listened politely to the lobbyists, stuffed our faces and saved money on groceries.

Susie Leonard Weller of Liberty Lake recently emailed this note to Boomer U: “One of the big issues facing boomers like myself is that at some point in our life there is some event – a divorce, loss of job, death of a loved one or a health issue – that feels like the world we once knew is falling apart. And despite having good coping skills, they’re not enough to face this particular challenge or series of disturbing events.” Weller and Peggy Capes of Rathdrum will present a workshop Sept. 20-21 at the Unity Spiritual Center of North Idaho that will help others examine life-changing events and frame healthy responses to those events.

School revs up this week. Grandparents, take heed. When your “little students” hand you a drawing made in school, keep it. These are precious pieces of art. Irreplaceable, like the children who created them.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture is taken every five years; the census is considered the gold standard for farming facts and figures. A census was taken in 2012, but the analysis won’t be released until February. The average age of farmers was 57 in the most recent available census, taken in 2007, up from 54 in 2002.

Six years ago, Wes Hein realized he and his family would need to leave farming – 15 years before he intended. He and his wife Lori moved from the Palouse to Spokane in 2007 and settled into city life.

In early July, Princeton University researchers unveiled for reporters a human looking ear they created on a 3-D printer. Ah, human ears.