Co-workers step up to help

Wendy Musser knew her co-workers in the emergency department at Sacred Heart Medical Center were planning on replacing the belongings she lost in a devastating house fire three weeks ago.

But she was still overcome with emotion when she saw just how far they went.

“Oh God, you guys don’t know how much I appreciate this,” she said, choking back tears Monday night at a co-worker’s house just east of Painted Hills Golf Course.

Minutes later, two garage doors opened and revealed a room full of gifts. She walked slowly toward the furniture and accessories.

“Oh my God, oh you guys,” she said, putting the palm of her right hand on her right cheek and then switching it to her left.

Friends and co-workers, standing in a semicircle around her, moved in slowly.

Musser hunched forward and wiped her eyes with a tissue, with several already lying at her feet. She could barely talk.

Musser lost her three-bedroom home, on South Assembly Road, west of Spokane, on July 27. Fire investigators ruled the fire an accident but never determined a cause, Musser said Monday night. The fire destroyed the house while Musser was out to lunch.

The woman had insurance for $28,000 worth of her belongings, but she believes they were worth more than that, she said.

Musser, a registered nurse, was left without a home but not without support. Within days, co-workers had collected about $1,000 for her and another $1,000 from a hospital employee support fund.

The department boss delivered the money after he asked Musser out to lunch at The Elk Public House, she said.

Since the fire, Musser has been living with one of her sisters, Sandy Belsby next door, she said.

“You don’t know how much it helped, just knowing how much you all were behind me just the first four or five days,” Musser told the joyous crowd Monday night. “I thought the fire was overwhelming, but this is overwhelming in a good way.”

Inside the garage behind her were goods to fill a home: a bed with a shining olive green comforter and matching pillows, a Maytag Neptune washer and dryer, Toshiba 24-inch flat-screen TV, Jimmy Buffett live DVD, and a frame print that reads “Angels watching over you.”

The emergency room doctors also gave her a check for $1,500 on Monday, Musser said.

Debbie Markin, who first posted a “needs list” in the employee lounge and hosted the barbecue and gift presentation Monday, said Musser brings in baked goods for the department two or three times a week.

Sometimes, when it’s busy, employees don’t get lunch, and those goodies fuel them, she said.

But what really prompted employees to help was the thought that after a stressful day in the ER, Musser didn’t have her own home to return to, Markin said.

“See, there is good in the world,” 11-year ER department receptionist Cindy Quine said as she wandered through the room of gifts.

“This is really good because good comes out of bad.”