HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2023
Vol. 144 No. 47
$1.00
One man’s personal Thanksgiving Day KEESY TIMMER FOR THE SENTINEL
Community Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, noon, at Father’s House in Goldendale
LOU MARZELES
POINT AND COUNTERPOINT: Saturday’s “Election Integrity” rally brought out about 30 people to hear Luke Throop (left above) and Matt Hawkins (right) decry what they called election irregularities. Top, Klickitat County Auditor Heather Jobe (center) confronted Hawkins on some of his points.
Keesy Timmer is a Goldendale kid who made it big in Nashville, co-writing a huge No. 1 country hit. He was back in town recently and shares this story about his remarkable grandmother—just in time for Thanksgiving. We kept this narrative in his adopted Nashville drawl. It has long been known to me, and pretty much anyone who knows my grandmother, that she is one tough lady. So, this isn’t some recent development. To give ya’ll some context on this incredibly remarkable woman, I will let you in a little on her background. Having survived the Great Depression in the dust bowls of Oklahoma in the ’30s, my Granny, Joan Heming, has never had it easy. To say they were poor would be like saying Seattle gets a little rain. She always told us that they had it harder than The Grapes of Wrath, and it wasn’t until I saw that classic movie that I knew what she meant. However, times were tough, and the tougher the times can often mean the tougher the person. When she was around eight years old, her family made their way out west to Wapato, Washington, in the back of an old truck riding on an ironing board. These days, kids would consider it tough if they don’t have a DVD player to watch from the back seat, but I very highly doubt that my granny complained once. After they arrived in Wapato, they lived in what she called a campground for the first year or so, and then in a spud cellar. She and her sisters had to wear dirty dish rags over their heads because they couldn’t afford scarves. After marrying my Poppy, Pete Heming, they first lived in a one-room shack without any water or toilet and had only a hot plate to do their cooking, while he made his way through trade school at Perry Trade, where he later became a journeyman electrician. Though they went on to have a wonderful life together, that toughness remained. Fast forward to the present day: after losing the man she loved for nearly 75 years, she was adjusting to living by herself. I try and talk to my Granny as often as I can, and there is rarely a call when she doesn’t speak of the loneliness she faces at night, but as a woman of true faith, she says her prayers and asks the Lord to comfort her, and every night she finds the strength. Did I tell you she is tough? Well, at the end of this past September, I received the kind of call you never want to get. I had just finished a virtual
CONTRIBUTED: KEESY TIMMER
ONE TOUGH GRANNY: Joan Heming grew up in tough times and became a resilient matriarch. Her grandson, Keesy, tells the amazing story of just how tough she turned out to be. writing session in my home studio where I was working with a participant through the organization Operation Song that I work with. [The Sentinel will have an article on Operation Song and Keesy’s involvement with this amazing organization next week.] I had missed a call from my mom and found out that Granny had fallen very ill. Apparently, she was experiencing an internal bleed of some kind and was rushed to the local hospital in Goldendale, where she received multiple blood transfusions. They were unable to find exactly where the bleed was coming from and were planning more tests, including a potential colonoscopy. The family quickly rallied to her side—my cousins Heather Beierle and Holly Heilman, along with my Mother, Pam Jamison; and my uncle, Tim Heming, were there right away. The coming days produced no real answers, and she wasn’t showing any sign of improvements. After having already gone through a tremendous ordeal, my grandmother decided she no longer wanted any tests, or blood transfusions, or to even be hooked up to any more machines. She had made her peace and put it in the Lord’s hands and said, “Thy will be done.” One of the most inspiring things about my Grandma is her faith in the Lord, and she was ready to go be with him and the man she misses with
her whole heart. I made arrangements to get to Washington from my home in Nashville on a Thursday morning and arrived in Goldendale after midnight that Friday morning. My sister, Seagrin, had gotten there the day prior, and around 7 in the a.m., Seagrin, my cousin Brandie, and I went in to see Grandma. When we got to the hospital, she was in beyond-rough shape. She had an awful night and was very tired. Honestly, to me and to everyone in the room, we thought she was nearing the end. I was grateful I was able to be there to say my goodbyes. The nurse said it might be a good idea to let everyone know we may be approaching the end. My Aunt, Patti Jones, was there, along with Seagrin, Brandie, and me as we told her how much we loved her, what a wonderful Grandma she was, and how lucky we were to have her in our lives for so long. Having played music with her nearly my whole life, I thought I would sing to her, so we all sang “I’ll Fly Away.” As she lay there, she didn’t attempt to sing with us and was pretty unresponsive. After the song was over, a moment or two went by. All of a sudden, we heard her speak, but she wasn’t just speaking, she was singing. I quickly realized she was singing
‘All of a sudden she wasn’t just speaking, she was singing.’
See Grandma page A8
Election ‘rally’ ignites a few sparks LOU MARZELES EDITOR Saturday afternoon at the Klickitat County Fairgrounds Exhibitors Hall, some 30 people gathered to hear speeches about reputed election irregularities in the 2020 national election and concerns about election integrity in Klickitat County and what to do about it. The meeting was heralded as the Election Integrity Rally. Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” played on the sound system organizer as Luke Throop kicked off the meeting late, waiting for stragglers. With missionary fervor, he then said, “It’s great to see so many people turning out for a Joe Biden rally!” He was, of course, facetious, knowing his audience to be predominantly dyed-in-the-wool Red-state Republicans. “Seriously,” he added, “how many of you believe there were
issues with the 2020 election?” A lot of hands went up. Then he inquired how many people believed the January 6, 2021, crowd were really just concerned citizens expressing their frustration. Some hands again went up. He then introduced the main speaker for the event, Matt Hawkins, a key figure in Spokane Republican circles who weathered a vote of no confidence from his own party in Spokane County for his performance as state committeeman. For more than an hour, Hawkins detailed what he considered grave threats to election integrity in Washington State, echoing statements in literature provided at the rally. “We need to establish a process that allows citizens to see evidence from the auditor’s office about elections,” he said. “People say there is no evidence that the election was manipulated,” Hawkins acknowl-
See Rally page A8
A SENTINEL PUBLICATION
PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT: Feeling thankful for Klickitat County? Share that feeling with the new Klickitat County calendar for 2024, now available at The Sentinel office. Price is $8, which includes tax.