Retirees Find Plenty To Like About Spokane

‘Tis the season to make amends, and this is probably my last best chance to square the books with a group of readers who came through for me.

Several weeks ago, I invited contact by recent retirees from out of state who have become active in their new community. Spokane had blown an opportunity for valuable national publicity because a magazine couldn’t line up couples who met the publication’s criteria for profiles that would spotlight the area’s attractions.

But Where to Retire magazine left the door open. If others here would come up with qualified couples and do the necessary legwork, the editors might reconsider. The task entailed conducting very lengthy and detailed interviews and taking photos that showed retirees enjoying the area’s sights and sounds.

Well, I invited readers to respond, and quite a number did. But I also solicited offers of help with the project.

Time and resources do not permit me the luxury of tackling a project of this magnitude single-handed. I had hoped the retirement establishment and community development institutions which reap the rewards of retirement growth would step forward. None did. I guess that’s why Spokane didn’t score with the magazine to begin with. But Coeur d’Alene did.

Anyway, retirees came through with flying colors, and it is surprising how many of their stories had a Christmas flavor. More surprising still is how many are writers.

“This is our third Christmas in Spokane,” says Janis Petertyl from Michigan, “and there is not a second since the time we arrived that we have regretted making the big change.”

This, even though husband Peter suffered two heart attacks in Spokane. They’re thankful he did. But more about that later.

Ruth and Harvey Dixon spent Christmas before last in Spokane with their daughter and son-in-law, Pam and Eric Ovlen, and granddaughters, Amanda and Ashley.

“We enjoyed our visit so much,” she recalls, “that we decided to retire here.” But upon returning to California, where she was winding down a 30-year media career with a stint as a college writing coach, she lost her husband.

“They tell you to stay put a year after the death of a spouse,” she says. “But it had been a winter of torrential rains, and when I came home from the hospital, the whole back of the house that we lived in for 26 years was caved in by a slide.

“So, I immediately took off for Spokane, where I have put down new roots, and I love it,” says Dixon, active in half a dozen cultural projects and social causes.

Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Wells came from California to retire a few years ago. “A year later, one set of our closest friends moved here from California, too,” she said. “The next year, the other set of our closest friends moved here. Now both sets of our closest friends are with us.”

That is surely something to celebrate at Christmastime.

There’s no end to such stories out there. But it’s time to return to the Petertyls from Michigan.

He was an aerospace physicist, industry developer, photojournalist and corporate public relations consultant in Grand Rapids for 31 years. But the couple married in Hollywood where she was a child actress half a century ago.

“We met at age 12 on the Warner Bros. lot of ‘Now, Voyager,’ considered by many critics to be Bette Davis’ best film,” says Janis. “I am currently at work on a book about being a kid in Hollywood and having a very special relationship with Miss Davis.”

As to Sidney’s fortunate heart attacks. The first, in Grand Rapids, told them “it was time to return to the West.” En route to California, they stopped off in Coeur d’Alene, where he was stricken a second time. “We had to stick close to Spokane for a time, and grew to love it here,” she reflects.

When they finally got to California after an absence of 31 years, it didn’t measure up. “People said, ‘You two chatter about Spokane so much,”’ she says, “‘that you might as well move there.’ So we did. And luckily we were here, when Sidney had a third heart attack.

“They put in a pacemaker, and we have never looked back.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Wrong number: Last week’s column contained an incorrect number for the Costa Rica Residents Association. The correct number is (011) (506) 221-2053.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review