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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Cindy Hval

Cindy Hval

Current Position: freelancer

Cindy Hval is a freelance columnist and correspondent. Her "Front Porch" column appears on alternate Thursdays in the Voices section. Her articles appear in the Features section and throughout the newspaper. Visit her at www.cindyhval.com

Email
dchval@juno.com

All Stories

Cindy Hval
Opinion >  Column

Front Porch: Shopping small has a big local impact

By 10:15 Saturday morning, the line at the counter at Auntie’s Bookstore was several people deep. Shoppers juggled stacks of books while reaching for their wallets. A toddler clutched a board book, unwilling to part with her find even for the minute it took to ring it up. Teens milled around in small herds, jostling each other in the aisles, while parents pondered coloring books and consulted Christmas lists.
News >  Voices

Love story: 40 years later, a crush turns serious

For 10 days they messaged back and forth, catching up on 40 years, and discovering a spark of mutual attraction that quickly became a flame. Freed from the student-teacher taboo, their relationship flourished on the internet.
News >  Voices

Whatever Girls invites parents to take a journey with their daughters

Because of her own bad experiences in middle school, Erin Bishop launched Whatever Girls – a faith-based group for moms and daughters. The name comes from a Bible verse, Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”
Cindy Hval
Opinion >  Column

Front Porch: Getting old takes some adjustment

I’m old. Happy to be here, especially since there was a time I didn’t think I’d make it to here. I’m just having a little trouble recognizing that there’s a here here and that I’m actually, you know, here.
News >  Voices

New shop goes retro

Gina Campbell has turned her passion for all things vintage and retro into a new business: 1889 Salvage Co.
News >  Voices

1,000 birthday candles: Senior center honors centenarians

It’s a good thing they didn’t light all the candles on the birthday cakes at the Southside Senior and Community Center on Tuesday. After all, 1,000-plus candles is a lot of firepower. The center hosted a luncheon to honor 10 Spokane residents 100 years and older. The youngest honorees were an even century, while the oldest, Mae Fischbach, was 104.
Cindy Hval
Opinion >  Column

Front Porch: Lost-boy magnet is called into action again

I seem to collect lost boys the way other folks collect license plates or trading cards. From a tiny autistic boy who’d escaped from his house to play on a busy street on a Sunday morning, to Ricky who got confused when he got off the school bus one afternoon, I seem to be a lost boy magnet. This time there were two of them looking at me with anxious eyes.
News >  Voices

Bride-to-be seeks family rifle for her fiance

When Megan Stokke considered possible wedding gifts for her fiance Kalen Abbott, there was only one possible choice, even though that gift may prove impossible to find. She wanted to give him his grandfather’s rifle – the rifle he used during the Korean War while serving in the Marine Corps in a Force Recon company.
Cindy Hval
Opinion >  Column

Front Porch: Patriotism manifested fittingly at Crosby’s home

A few Sundays ago, it was Sept. 11 – the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – and I was at the Bing Crosby House Museum on the campus of Gonzaga University. Two things happened there that Sunday, brief moments that passed softly, but moments that revealed again the kindness, goodness and gratitude of the American people.
News >  Voices

Love Story: Couple celebrate 70, and ‘such a rewarding life’

They say the value of true love cannot be measured, but when Glenn and FloraBelle Dobbins celebrated their 70th anniversary, Sept. 15, a friend tried. He gave them a penny for every day of their marriage. That’s 25,550 pennies (not counting leap year days) and he had to go to six different banks to collect them.
Cindy Hval
Opinion >  Column

Front Porch: Sons writing their own stories now

When a new friend commented that it must be hard having my two oldest sons gone from the nest and completely independent, a book metaphor immediately sprung to mind. “Not really,” I said. “I’m blessed to have been able to write their introduction and the first few chapters, the rest of their stories are their own to tell.”
News >  Features

Spokane pastor pens YA novel with adoption theme

All books are born from an idea. A word. A picture. A dream. “The House of DunRaven” (Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock, 2016) by first-time author Steven Lympus, was birthed from a single sentence that came to him nine years ago.
News >  Voices

Woman’s 13,000 hours helping veterans leads to award

Jeannie Kyle is the person in charge of scheduling those 48 drivers and nine vans, and she’s racked up some impressive statistics, too. In August, the 62-year-old hospital service coordinator was honored with the Seal Award at the DAV National Convention in Atlanta for having amassed 14,000 volunteer hours.