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Find out what's new and interesting in Garden Valley, with Marilyn Rich.
“Angels, we have heard
on high
|
 JoBe |
Meet a Garden Valley Jewel
In
the guest bedroom of my home, there hangs a plaque that says
“A friend is an angel on earth.”
This saying has proven to be true for me more times than I can count, and
it is especially powerful when the love and kindness extended by an angel-friend
is surrounded with a little mystery and enchantment.
After
living many years in Seattle, my brother, Tom, returned to his home state of
Idaho and bought a lot in Garden Valley from another brother, Buck.
Buck had bought the land years ago from our father who had purchased the
land in 1969. There is a lot of
family history to this piece of land, which might be a subsequent story, but for
now suffice it to say that when my parents bought it they were raising eight
kids and didn’t seem to have two nickels to rub together.
The bottom line is that they wanted a piece of land in the mountains, so
somehow they found a way. When Buck
bought the land, he was a young man starting a family with many other demands,
but he also found a way. Sometimes
the big picture drives us, even when the big picture is too large and too
distant to be conceivable.
In the spring of 2006, after purchasing an
additional adjacent lot, Tom began to build his dream.
Completed in
December 2006, there now exists a beautiful custom home,
carefully constructed with the master craftsmanship
of Garden Valley contractor
Ken Chappell and his extremely competent crew, Paul Felty, and Randy Alley.
Tom was also on the job site every day, did some beautiful rockwork, and
was an essential part of the team.
Tom’s
first night in his new home was Christmas Eve.
On Christmas day, when he let his dog, JoBe,
outside to pee, instead of coming right back in, JoBe disappeared.
Fifteen minutes later JoBe showed up at the door wearing a jingle bell with
holly and a bow. The angel who adorned Tom’s dog remains unknown.
Welcome home, Tom. Carrying on the family resolve, you followed through with
your vision. And thirty-eight years
later a delightfully kind gesture from a neighbor, a friend¾an
angel on earth¾affirms
this is just where you belong.
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