She Excelled In Simple Living, Generous Giving

Emma Elizabeth VanLaken died last January at age 89, just a few hundred feet from the Fernan Hill log home in which she was born. She surely didn’t want mourners or a funeral or weeping relatives. She hated to impose on anyone.

She’d probably howl in protest to see her name in print outside the obituaries. She lived as simply and quietly as she died. But she shouldn’t be forgotten.

“She lived like a poor church mouse. She never surrounded herself with valuables,” says Cecilia Nolthenius, Emma’s neighbor and friend. “She had it in her mind to leave it all for causes that were worthy.”

Emma was no ragamuffin. She didn’t deny herself pleasures - fresh vegetables from her garden, brisk walks into town, deer grazing on her family land, an age-old joke with a friend. She valued independence, solitude, good conversation.

Such comforts cost nothing. So Emma gave away her money and land to organizations that improve the world. She’d taught school and loved children. Some of her money went to Children’s Village, Shriners Hospital and North Idaho College.

Emma gave land to Coeur d’Alene Homes and to the city for a veteran’s park. The park will sit behind Emma’s spartan home, near the top of Fernan Hill on unspoiled land that was in Emma’s family for a century. It may only be used for a park.

“She was concerned about the character of the neighborhood with all the construction,” says Peter Erbland, who bought Emma’s birth home and became her neighbor in 1989. “She wanted nature preserved.”

She’d hiked down steep Fernan Hill to the library every week to read and have tea with librarian Julie Meier. Emma willed money to the library.

“I loved her dearly,” Julie says. “If there wasn’t a penny from her, I would have put something in the library in her name.”

No one knows exactly how much money Emma had. Six figures worth, says her attorney. Her husband, Peter, who died in 1959, was the mason who built Coeur d’Alene’s old City Hall and the Masonic Temple.

“She didn’t want much,” says Mary Ann Dunnigan, Emma’s friend for 60 years. “She shared everything.”

Emma wanted results, not gratitude. She took care of her own cremation in her will. On the 90th anniversary of her birth April 20, her friends will sprinkle her ashes under the apple tree on the land she gave to Coeur d’Alene.

So Emma can continue to watch over her town.

Safety sale

CPR is one of those skills you hope you never have to use. Still, it’s nice to know someone in your house knows what to do in an emergency, especially if your kids hang out at home unsupervised all summer.

The American Red Cross in Coeur d’Alene is offering discount classes to teens and their parents all month in infant and child CPR and first aid. The class covers everything from bandaging boo-boos to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Call 664-5414 to sign up.

Mess makers

My complaint about a rude dog owner on Tubbs Hill inspired Post Falls’ Kimberly Rodriguez to share her complaint about the unleashed dogs that mess in her yard in Harmony Place.

Any solutions to offer?

Tune up

Coeur d’Alene’s Spring Dash reminds me every year how much I let myself slip out of shape over winter. Still, I can’t seem to let a year go by without sweating with 5,000 other runners through Coeur d’Alene’s downtown. Maybe it’s the free food and gossip at the finish line I can’t resist.

How do you celebrate spring? By hauling the boat down to the lake? Report your rituals to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814; send a fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo