Look at my treasure!

Growing up on a farm near what is now Grand Coulee Dam, and later in Northport, Wash., Wes Lael was the kind of brother anyone would love to have.

His sister, WannaLee Bartol, only a year older, adored him. The two were close throughout their lives until his death last August at the age of 76.

“He was the best brother,” she says. “If I wanted something, I just had to write him and it would practically come by the next day’s mail.”

Now that he is gone, she treasures his gifts even more. Her favorites are the five “retablos” – small religious pieces – he built after visiting an exhibit at Eastern Washington University.

“He thought they were wonderful,” Bartol says. “He loved to paint spiritual pictures and he made sketches at the exhibit. Then he made the retablos and sent them to me, one by one.”

After a career in the military, and a move to Minnesota, Wes Lael worked at J.C. Penney Co.until his retirement. That’s when he discovered a long-dormant artistic talent. “I’d never thought of him as an artist,” Bartol says. “But after he retired the second time, he started carving fish decoys and painting.”

Although Bartol has a number of things that were made by her “little” brother, she especially treasures the colorful and ornamental retablos.

“Oh, I miss him so much,” she says. “He was just so special to me.”