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Huckleberries: Strangers reward woman’s effort to turn life around

Kendra Martinez has kept herself out of trouble since the days of yore when she was the object of a tug-of-war between the Kootenai County prosecutor and the public defender.

Remember her? The prosecutor wanted to throw her in the slammer again after a loophole freed Kendra in a drug case, despite her over-the-top efforts to go straight.

Kendra’s been free for a while. But her family has struggled to make ends meet. She now delivers newspapers in Coeur d’Alene. Among her customers are an older couple. The Seasoned Citizens have left cookies, snacks and recycled newspaper bags for Kendra, along with generous tips for her service.

Recently, they invited her for coffee. Kendra suspected that they might give her son Jameson a nice gift for his 4th birthday. After the three had chatted, eaten cookies and exchanged hugs, the couple gave Kendra a “goodie bag.” Kendra tells Huckleberries, “When I opened it, I was stunned, overcome, ecstatic.”

In the bag she found a card and a gift for her 4-year-old – along with two banded stacks of money totaling $1,000.

Sometimes strangers you encounter in life are angels you’re not aware of.

Some of the best reading in Coeur d’Alene is the Downtown Coeur d’Alene Bar Report. Among the jewels in the March report: A 23-year-old man who was stopped driving the wrong way on one-way Fourth Street told officers that he’d only had a few brewskis at Taps. But then he remembered that Taps Lounge in the Lakeview Lodge is on Schweitzer Mountain. That admission, and a 0.187 blood-alcohol content, got the drunk one of those “go directly to jail” cards … A man who peed in the kitchen area of the Icon got off with a warning because he returned to the bar and cleaned up the mess … Then there was the drunk cowboy who tried to get into the driver’s side of a limo in the 300 block of Sherman Avenue. But he was caught by the limo owner. Mamas, don’t let your sons grow up to be limousine cowboys.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: They appear in the springtime/like flowers in the vale;/they appear in the springtime/and they all say, “For Sale” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“The First Signs of Spring”) … Quotable Quote: Melissa Luck/KXLY tweeted Tuesday: “Wrote what feels like my 1,000th story about child serial killer Joseph Duncan. Feel like I’ll be writing about him for the rest of my life.” (Unless the feds put Duncan out of his misery, as they should) … Huckleberries Poll: President Barack Obama shouldn’t expect bright-red North Idaho to be more receptive to him the second time around. Fifty-seven percent of my blog readers say they’re going to vote for the other guy in 2012. Or gal … Scanner Traffic: Huckleberries wonders if that Kellogg woman looked good for her mug shot – you know, the one who swiped cosmetics from the Hayden Walmart on Monday and then was seen by store security applying purloined items to her face in her vehicle mirror.

Parting shot

ConocoPhillips, Big Sky Economic Development and public officials from Billings had maple bars and other doughnut types waiting for the megaload entourage to finally arrive from the Port of Lewiston last week. Do you suppose the load would have gotten to Billings faster than two-plus months if the greeters had ordered yummy Krispy Kremes from that Spokane Valley store?

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