Joanie O’Brien quick to clear snow for others

A good way to get to know your neighbors is to do something nice for them.

Tony and Patty Fulgaro moved into their Manito neighborhood home more than a year ago. Snow fell one night soon after the move, and Tony woke up early to shovel his driveway.

He was stunned to learn that someone already had cleared the snow for him.

That someone was 76-year-old Joanie O’Brien.

When the couple visited her that night to thank her, they found an active, friendly lady willing to help them with whatever they need.

“Being a good neighbor is friendliness and helpfulness, being aware of what’s going on and trying to be there when you are needed,” O’Brien said. “I just feel good about being able to do it.”

O’Brien has lived in the same house for almost 51 years. She’s raised five children – all but one still lives in the Spokane area – and keeps an eye out for everyone in the neighborhood.

“I always felt privileged to stay at home,” she said about raising her children, who all went to Hutton Elementary, Sacajawea Junior High and Lewis and Clark High School.

She was married for almost 45 years to Dannie, who died in 1998 at age 80.

When he retired, she went to work at Scollard’s Dry Cleaning for a couple hours a day, which soon changed to eight hours a day. She stopped working at age 62.

These days, she spends time with her little dog Bandit and in her garden.

“She has the best garden in our neighborhood,” the Fulgaros said in a letter to the newspaper last summer. The two said that they don’t know the difference between a weed and a plant, and O’Brien has been there to teach them the difference.

“Our garden is struggling,” Tony Fulgaro said. “Hers is excelling.”

She will tell them if she notices a sprinkler isn’t working and lends them her garden tools when they need them.

She is also involved in a battle with many folks in the neighborhood for snow-shoveling supremacy. Everyone tries to beat the others early in the morning to clear the sidewalks.

O’Brien usually uses a snow blower, but this year she’s been using a regular shovel.

She keeps active. She walks about six miles a week with her brother, Jerry Britton, 61, and her sister, Dory Dunn, 71.

“We just chat, chat, chat the whole way,” O’Brien said. She also spends time working out.

“She’s in real good shape,” Tony Fulgaro said.

O’Brien’s 8-year-old grandson, Ian, will come by on Tuesdays and Thursdays to do his homework and play on his Xbox.

She does her best to make newcomers feel welcome.

She recently threw a brunch for all the neighbors to show off her Christmas tree and to meet the newest family on the block.

Since the Fulgaros’ relatives all live out of town, she invited them over for Christmas Day.

The Fulgaros are also in the process of adopting a child. When the time comes, O’Brien is ready to baby-sit for them.

“She’s not trying to angle to be a good neighbor – that’s just who she is,” Tony Fulgaro said.

He said this is not the first time he has had a good neighbor like O’Brien. It’s just the first time he’s owned a home and had such a good neighbor right next door.

He said a good neighbor is somebody who cares for the neighbors and the neighborhood and will knock on the door when something is askew.

“In order to find good neighbors,” he said, “you have to be one.”

In the letter to the newspaper the couple mentioned they once saw their dream home away from their neighborhood.

They have no plans to move, however, since they don’t want to leave a neighbor like O’Brien.

“We like our neighborhood,” Tony Fulgaro said.