July 2011 Senior Life by Lynden Tribune

Ferndale Record

Senior Life Celebrating Whatcom County's Senior Lifestyle

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Rebecca Terry writes her life story............C3 Clara Limbacher's green thumb...............C4 Lynden hearing center expanding ..........C7

A supplement of the Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record

Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 | Ferndale Record

SENIOR LIFE

At age 83 daughter of China missionaries records story Almost blind, Rebecca Terry still wrote for 68 days straight Calvin Bratt Tribune editor CUSTER — “It’s a long story,” says Rebecca Jean Terry as she sits at the dining room table of the Birch Bay-Lynden Road family home, spreads out her diaries and papers, and decides where to jump in. She decides to start with the circumstances surrounding this whole venture. In December 2009 she was almost rendered blind by a blood condition affecting her eyes. For someone who had read and journaled all of her life, the handicap was awful. By the following August, with some eyesight regained, Rebecca felt she “had to do something.” So she did. She wrote her life story. From Aug. 29 to Nov. 5, 2010, on a big computer screen set up by daughter Grace Lukens using a large font size, the 84-year-old poured out the narrative of a life of both exciting adventure and devastating depths — and her spiritual odyssey in the process. Across 68 days she produced the 120 pages of reflection that would be titled “Help Me Be a Good Girl Amen: My Journey from Missionary Kid to Truth.”

See TERRY on C3

In her dining room on Birch Bay-Lynden Road, Rebecca Jean Terry shows some of her papers and diaries from childhood that got her started on recording her lifetime story. Opposite page: a closeup of her teen years’ diary. — Lynden Tribune | CALVIN BRATT

Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 | Ferndale Record

SENIOR LIFE

Terry: Deals honestly with life's difficult circumstances Continued from C2 The storytelling flowed out. “It just went like that. I hardly had to go back and change anything,” she said in an interview last week in the same room where the inspirational outpouring happened. She wrote each day on topics as they came to her. Those became chapter headings, and it wasn’t until later that she pulled it all together chronologically. By Thanksgiving 2010, Rebecca Terry had a self-printed bound booklet to hand out to kids and grandkids when they gathered together in California for the holiday. She felt a sense of reward about what she had done when the normal hubbub of a family reunion subsided and everyone settled down with their noses in her story. It seems — and it is — a long way from the rural peacefulness of Grace Harbor Farms today to the setting of her birth in Shanghai, China in 1926, as a child of Presbyterian missionaries. The Terry family lived through the takeover of China by the Japanese, which forced 17-year-old Rebecca to be evacuated first to India and then to travel on two scary wartime boat trips to reach the United States. In mid-ocean on the second ship’s voyage from Australia, a fire on board almost destroyed Rebecca’s cabin and her

treasured five-year diary. Instead, the diary was preserved, and entries from it during those harrowing days of the disaster are directly included in the memoirs book. She had to do her senior year in a Chicago high school. She tells that although she grew up in a missionary family, she somehow got the idea that being good is what saved her, not grace from outside herself. “I was fifty years old when I invited Jesus into my heart ... A few months later I was baptized ... That good girl now had to be washed and rewashed in the blood of Jesus,” she wrote. Many have told Rebecca that they appreciate the honesty and candor she shows in dealing with various personal and difficult topics in the book. For instance, she writes about facing and living with the development of insanity in her husband, Floyd, in the 1980s. She also experienced the death of two of their six children, one by illness and one by domestic violence. “It is a very complicated story,” she allows. Jumping far forward, after she spent most of her married and working life in California, Rebecca came to Whatcom County in 1988 — her parents had bought property at Blaine in 1944 — at the invitation of her daughter here. At age 65, by then already a great-grandmother, she

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enrolled in a Bible school in Surrey, B.C. She also made several trips back to China to help smuggle Bibles across the border from Hong Kong. That full lifetime of experience and adventure — in fact, the “Help Me” book was the clincher — has earned Rebecca Terry an appointment in Chicago next week to witness her story audio-dramatized in a segment for the “Unshackled” Christian radio program. Rebecca is told it will air in November. The program is carried on KARI Radio of Blaine. Daughter Grace Lukens, who provides a home for her mother, said she wasn’t surprised by anything written — she pretty much knew the stories. Grace is just very grateful that Rebecca sat down, especially with her vision problems, and actually did it. “I think she just did an amazing job,” the daughter said. Even through the “complicated and heart-rending” parts of the story, her mother didn’t become maudlin or underwrite or overwrite, Lukens said. The book, with a number of pictures interspersed, has been published about 100 at a time by Applied Digital Imaging of Bellingham. It is due for a third printing soon. Copies are available at the Homespun General Store in downtown Lynden. Email Calvin Bratt at editor@lyndentribune.com.

Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 | Ferndale Record

SENIOR LIFE

Ferndale seniors show stamina, enthusiasm and beauty Both volunteers and members keep Ferndale Senior Center a-hopping Gloria Dawn Irwin for the Ferndale Record FERNDALE — Clara Limbacher is one of more than 100 volunteers who are the driving force behind the Ferndale Senior Center. The time and energy of volunteers is evident in the daily attention they give to the details — such as the center’s awardwinning gardens. The floral beauty is the pride of Limbacher, who hauls and spreads mulch in the spring no matter how hard it is raining and drags out the water hoses in the warmer months. Because she is cautious about safety and does not want hoses strewn across the sidewalks during the day, Limbacher goes to the gardens early in the morning or late afternoon. “My favorite is the garden with the dry fountain by the road,” she said. Three years ago, this area was completely overgrown. Limbacher kept peeling away at the layers of overgrowth until she discovered a hidden rock garden. There are five island gardens that Limbacher takes primary responsibility for, while partner Madeline Ecalbarger looks after many single-pot flowers. This week, the gardening will be judged in the Whatcom in Bloom contest. They have taken second place two years in a row. Now that the gardens are more refined, Limbacher is excited to have the gardens in this year’s competition. “The woman is amazing. She has put in an enormous number of hours to get ready for this (Whatcom in Bloom contest),” said Barbara Fischer, center manager. Clara came to the center first four or five years ago with her husband for the socializing (he was disabled and died last year). But the gardening needs she saw appealed to her, and she dug in.

The award-winning gardens at the Ferndale Senior Center are the pride of Master Gardener volunteer Clara Limbacher. She works tirelessly to maintain the gardens at a top-notch level, giving pride to the members as well as the community. The center has won second places in the Whatcom in Bloom competition in the past and is now shooting for a first. Limbacher said she has delighted in maintaining personal gardens all her life and continues to do so at her current Correll Park community. — Courtesy photo “It’s a lot of work, but this is what I like,” she said. “I used to have a large yard, but now I live at Correll Park (retirement facility).” Beside at the center, she continues to keep her own small ecologically responsible garden and to be the landscaping liaison for residents of 68-unit Correll Park. Inside the senior center, just as much

dedication is shown. Take Karen Walker, for instance. She goes to work at McDonalds at 4 a.m. and then hurries to the senior center at 1:30 p.m. to volunteer her time there. “There are hundreds of others who have done so much and they are all awesome,” Fischer said. Even though she has only been man-

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ager since March, Fischer has already made a strong connection with the people and activities at 1998 Cherry St. She said coming to work each day is like opening the door to your home and having all your friends come in. Members come together for many rea-

See FERNDALE on C5

SENIOR LIFE

Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 | Ferndale Record

Ferndale: Flowers really a focus of center activity Continued from C4 sons. Some help with annual fundraising events and some volunteer at the monthly pancake breakfast, but the biggest draw is the variety of daily social activities. The noon meal is significant, Fischer said. It is an opportunity for seniors to eat nutritional food as well as spend time with their peers. For some who have lost a spouse, this can be extremely important to them. On Aug. 3 the center will sponsor Whatcom County Senior Day at the Park at Hovander Homestead Park of Ferndale. The Whatcom County Council of Aging will provide a noon barbecue and there will be informational vendors and booths. The annual bocce ball tournament is another countywide event for members of the Ferndale Senior Center. They not only participate in it, but spend hours practicing for it. Joyce Kamps volunteers in the mornings at the front desk, then comes back to coordinate the Tuesday night games activities. “So many like her are the lifeblood of the center,” Fischer said. During Old Settlers Days, which oc-

curs July 28-31, the center will not only have its pancake breakfast but also will be selling hot dogs and barbecue sandwiches at lunchtime. “Anna Parker is the one who gathers all of the supplies and does whatever is needed for this,” Fischer said. “It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year.” The center now owns a bus that allows for planning for more good-weather outings. Members have gone to an Everett horse show, Mystery Tours, Diablo Lake for a boat tour, and more. “This gives people an opportunity to do something special even if they don’t like to drive,” Fischer said. “We have new people every time.” The Ferndale Senior Center currently has 381 members. Although some of them may be snowbirds, a significant number are daily members who participate in everything including pool, exercising, meals, games, sports, music, fundraisers and social activities. Anyone interested in joining can call Barbara Fischer at 384-6244. Email Gloria Dawn Irwin at news@ ferndalerecord.com.

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 | Ferndale Record

SENIOR LIFE

Fiddling for seniors

An Old Time Fiddlers group performed twice last Thursday in Lynden, first at the Lynden Community Center (above) and then at Lynden Manor. Pictured here from right are Wade Steele, Chris Allen, Bud Duppenthaler and Ron Tidmarsh. Also performing were Terri Blanchard, Kerry Ann Edin, Chuck Page and Joyce Anderson on the piano. District 4 of Washington Old Time Fiddlers serves Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and Island counties with many appearances for their old-style country Western music. — Lynden Tribune | CALVIN BRATT

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SENIOR LIFE

Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 | Ferndale Record

Hearing Northwest Lynden branch increasing open hours Popularity exceeding owner's expectations Brent Lindquist Tribune sports reporter LYNDEN — When Patti Burns brought Hearing Northwest to Lynden, she never imagined the reaction would be quite this strong. “We are so busy in Lynden,” she said. “We had no idea how much business that we would attract. People come from Everson, Nooksack; they don’t want to drive in Bellingham, but they will drive in Lynden. I knew that I had patients in Lynden, but I didn’t realize that you drew from Ferndale, Blaine, Everson. I didn’t realize that part.” As a result, Hearing Northwest in Lynden has become somewhat of a hub for patients in need of hearing aids and hearing-related services in the north county. These include hearing tests, repairs and cleanings, and using special tools to show patients the inside of their ears. With all the services offered at the Lynden branch, the focus is on helping the customer with a process that can potentially prove difficult and complicated in the wrong hands. “Buying hearing aids isn’t like buying shoes, where you go, ‘I’ll take the black

ones.’ It’s the service afterwards,” Burns said. Due to the surprising and welcome increase in demand for the services provided by Hearing Northwest, Burns has hired on a new employee in hopes of keeping the Lynden branch open for three days a week instead of just two. The popularity isn’t exactly new for Hearing Northwest, which Burns owns. “I started up in 1998 in Bellingham, and every five years I moved to a bigger office because I grew,” she said. Burns majored in audiology and speech pathology at Western Washington University. She is a licensed hearing instrument dispenser in Washington and is board-certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences. She has worked in the hearing field in Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties for more than 15 years. The Lynden branch of Hearing Northwest is located at 1610 Grover St., Suite A2, in the former space of Sound Hearing. The Bellingham location is at 1420 Ellis St. More information can be found at hearingnorthwest.com. Email Brent Lindquist at sports@lyndentribune.com.

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Audiologist Tracey Demmon replaces a hearing aid battery for a patient at Hearing Northwest in Lynden. — Lynden Tribune | BRENT LINDQUIST

Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 | Ferndale Record

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Often, he simply hops into his Ford F-250, drives east of Hannegan Road and takes pictures of Mt. Baker with his Sony digital camera. His photos include everything from flowers and wildlife to portraits of friends and family. “I have an awful lot of pictures of a lot of different things,” Holman said. Holman noted selling photos can be difficult, but that he recently experienced a great deal of success auctioning off his work at the Bellingham Senior Center. And after recently having open-heart surgery, he wants to devote more of his time to a former hobby he now considers a job. “I’m constantly focusing more and more on my photography,” he said. “Apparently, people like my photos.” For now, though, Holman is zeroed in on developing a customer base within Whatcom County by continuing what he loves every weekend at the Lynden Farmers Market. “We haven’t sold many pictures, but we have sold a few. People have told me they’ll be back,” he said. “I’m very determined to be there every (Saturday) from 1 to 3 p.m.” Email Adam Lewis at community@ lyndentribune.com.

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Pete Holman is now selling his photos in the Saturday Lynden Farmers Market. — Lynden Tribune | ADAM LEWIS