Good Neighbors: Doing their part

Sandy Bower knows what it means to have a great neighbor.

The California native and recent addition to the Suncrest community found out immediately when she met Don and Karen Matthews who are the real thing.

In her letter to The Spokesman-Review, Bower states:

Don Matthews “has always been there for us to offer help, tools and equipment.

“He even took time to go with my husband when he went to get our boat. He dropped everything and spent the day with my husband, picking up the boat, launching it and making sure my husband learned what he needed to know to dock it.”

Don Matthews has been a resident of the Suncrest community for 15 years; his wife, Karen, has lived there for 34 years.

The couple met through a mutual friend when Karen owned and operated the Hungry Farmer restaurant in Spokane Valley; Don was a firefighter for the Valley Fire Department at the time.

Originally from Twin Falls, Idaho, Karen moved to Clarkston, and then to Spokane in 1969. In 1972, she moved to Suncrest and says she has never regretted it.

“I was house No. 8 when I moved here,” she said from inside the enormous shop she and her husband share. “Some of our neighbors have been here 20 years or more. Our whole neighborhood is a Good Neighbor neighborhood.”

Don Matthews, originally from Tampa, Fla., moved to Spokane in 1962 and was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, where he worked as a firefighter. After leaving Fairchild, Don moved to Spokane Valley and worked as a firefighter for 33 years.

Of his career, he says, “It is rewarding helping people, and along the way, you get to save some lives.”

Inside the huge white shop, Don Matthews has amassed an array of seemingly every sort of tool imaginable. He smiles as he quotes an old friend, “If Don doesn’t have it, it doesn’t exist.”

Though technically retired, the Matthewses find any number and type of things to do. When not doting on one of their 10 grandchildren, Karen Matthews makes stained-glass items that she donates to auctions or gives to special friends.

“I look at it this way,” she said of her craft, “it’s cheaper than a psychiatrist.”

Karen Matthews learned the art of stained glass in classes offered at the Corbin Arts Center, a program of city of Spokane’s Parks and Recreation Department.

“The classes are a great outlet, and the prices are reasonable. I think it is a service that we all should support,” she said.

Before learning to make stained glass and before owning her restaurant, Karen was a homemaker until her first marriage ended when she was 37. She then went to work as a stockbroker in the penny markets in downtown Spokane until they were eliminated by the larger markets in the East.

“It was a good job. I enjoyed it, but it’s like a lot of other jobs now – the liability just gets too high,” she said.

Don Matthews understands the concept of liability as well. He worked for a time as a home inspector, but the cost of his liability insurance drove him to do other things, including auctioneering.

He has a gentle voice and a quiet demeanor, but according to his wife, he is a very effective auctioneer. He specializes in charity auctions, exclusively doing those now.

As an accomplished carpenter and handyman, he also finds plenty of work remodeling office buildings as well as the lakeside home he and his wife share.

The Matthewses take great pleasure in their home and their friends and family.

They enjoy spending time with their combined family. Between them, they have six children and 10 grandchildren.

When asked how they feel about being described as great neighbors, both the Matthewses smile shyly.

“We’re simple people,” Karen Matthews said. “We have simple houses and simple lives. That’s what we have in common.

“Some of my neighbors have been here for years, and their kids are coming back to live here, too. If neighborhoods got back to helping each other, it would be much better for everyone. That’s the way we’ve always lived.”