New life of service
Steve Pratt is more than the guy who clears the snow off neighbors’ walkways hours before they step outside into winter. He’s more than the person who hauls trash, or whacks the unsightly weeds that invade everyone’s curbs. Pratt, with his wife, Teri, are good neighbors with even better stories.
Steve and Teri used to be addicted to methamphetamine.
Steve has been in prison four times, most recently in 2002.
Both have turned their lives around.
Steve is this year’s winner of the South Side Good Neighbor award.
The Pratts’ neighbors, many elderly widows, heard the stories about the drug binges and destructive behavior. What they see now is a healthy couple who never let them down and continually surprise them with their kindness.
“When I tell them I have a criminal history, they don’t believe it,” Steve said.
The Pratts moved into the neighborhood about three years ago.
Teri, 46, had been clean since April 2000. Steve, 43, had recently been released from the Airway Heights Corrections Center after serving nine months of an 18-month sentence for possession of meth. The two met years before in Wenatchee, back in the day when the behavior de jour was to act irresponsibly.
“We used to be together, and we used to get in trouble together,” Teri said. “We kind of had to go our separate ways.”
Clean and confident enough to make a go of it together, Steve and Teri moved into a modest two-bedroom home at 3154 E. 30th Ave., which sits between Ray and Fiske streets.
To Shirley Morton, looking out her front window and seeing two new people move in across the street didn’t mean much.
“No one paid much attention to the house,” said Morton, who nominated Steve for the 2004 South Side Good Neighbor award. “The house was in dire need of lots of work and some loving care.”
The Pratts, who wed on March 22, 2003, proved to be different than the other tenants. It didn’t take long before they landscaped the yard and gave the house a fresh coat of paint. They’ve also made the inside warm and tidy.
Their plan is to buy the house. Their renters’ pride has made a favorable impression with the neighbors.
When Elaine Nelms, who also lives across the street, came home one day, she found that the bushes she wanted out of her yard had been pulled by Steve.
“Steve had been dying to do it for some time,” said Nelms, 40, who considers Teri one of her closest friends. “It was all clear, and I was getting flower beds (from Steve and Teri) as well.”
When another neighbor, Dorothy Reed, recently moved into a retirement home, Steve helped organize a yard sale. He also helped Reed, a longtime resident of the street, to pack and move.
During the winter, Steve cleans the sidewalks with his snow blower. Teri shovels the neighbors’ steps.
When sidewalk cracks are uncovered during the spring thaw, Steve is there to patch them.
“How do you do your own sidewalk and not everybody else’s?” Teri asked. “You just can’t stop.”
And they don’t stop.
The Pratts, whose have five grown children between them, have made neighbors such as Morgan, Nelms, and Gladys Wolfinbarker and Floy Bula — who both are in their 90s — part of their family.
“They give unconditional love; they’re exceptional,” Teri said. “You don’t always get a life again. … and then everybody accepts you.”
At least once a month, the neighbors go out for breakfast. Anywhere between nine and 15 people show up, sometimes to celebrate a birthday, other times, just to catch up..They will be getting together again soon, for a block party catered by The Spokesman-Review, part of the Pratts’ prize for winning the Good Neighbor Contest.
With every family comes history. Neither Teri nor Steve is bashful about talking about theirs.
Steve, who’s been married two times, began using drugs when he was in his early 20s. His behavior landed him in prison time four times, all for drug-related crimes or probation violations.
Steve works at as gravedigger at Greenwood/Riverside Cemetery. He got the job after participating in a work-release program through the correctional system.
He proved to be so reliable and hard working, he was hired full time.
On an average day, Steve is out of the bed by 4:30 a.m. and at the gym by 5. If there’s snow, he’ll clean the walkways and make it to the gym before 7. Saturdays mornings are for slacking, sort of.
“He’ll wake me up and say, ‘Honey, it’s 7; do you think I can fire up the snow blower yet?’ ” Teri said.
Teri, married four times, battled with addiction from her early 20s to 42. Left to fend for herself in adolescence, she graduated to meth as an adult.
She left Wenatchee to start a new life. She went through her treatment program in Spokane.
Penniless, she found someone to take her in here, but only if she stayed straight.
She also found work, three hours a day as a dishwasher at Soulful Soups. Teri worked her way up to manager.
After four years, last Friday was her last day at the restaurant. She plans to take time off before looking for another job.
She said she wants to get out of food services but still would like to work with the public.
While Good Neighbor nominator Morgan knew about the Pratts’ past, she elected to leave it out in her letter. She said she had so much positive to write in the 250-words-or-less letter, there was no space for the past.
“Before we knew about their past, we only knew all the good stuff,” Morgan said. “All the neighbors feel the same way about them.”