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Herald THE SUNDAY
An Edition of
It’s colder for homeless BY KIRK BOXLEITNER kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com
Sports: Arlington’s champion climber. Page 11.
Sports: Winter season under way. Page 10.
INDEX CLASSIFIED ADS 15-18 LEGAL NOTICES
9
OPINION
4
SPORTS WORSHIP
10-12 6
Vol. 124, No. 68
Winter weather hit Marysville and Arlington early this year, and those without a place to sleep found themselves seeking shelter. The journey to homelessness can be a surprisingly short one. Jacob Williams had to bed down at the Damascus Road Church in Marysville after he was no longer able to stay at the place he’d been renting. For the family in the back room, that the church reserves for women and children, a succession of medical ailments and job losses rendered them homeless. Rose Marie’s ability to work was impeded by knee surgery and treatment for a blood clot. She was already asthmatic and coping with pneumonia. Her daughters Michelle, 23, and Jasmine, 19, each tried to support the family, but wound up losing their jobs due to chronic conditions of their own. “I have a pinched nerve,
plus the anxiety from my stress has given me muscle spasms, so I have an involuntary twitch now,” Michelle said. Even Raphael, one of Rose Marie’s twin 12-yearold boys, broke his foot. “We have relatives in the area, but we can’t stay with them because they have landlords,” Rose Marie said, while her husband slept on a mattress with the other men near the church’s front entrance. “It’s hard to slow down and take care of your children when you can’t give them a roof over their heads.” Although the Damascus Road Church serves as the site for Marysville’s cold-
Kirk Boxleitner/Staff Photo
Colder-than-normal temperatures at times this month have led to the opening of homeless shelters in Marysville and Arlington. Sandy Norquist prepares dinner, above left. Daughters Michelle and Jasmine join their mother, Rose Marie, on the mattresses at the Marysville shelter at the Damascus Road Church, above. And Jacob Williams beds down for the night, left. weather shelter, several other churches contribute to its continued operation. The Mar ysville Soroptimists recently contributed nearly $200 in supplies to the shelter, for cooking, cleaning and laundering clothes.
Shelter director Zoe Wlazlak and church coordinator Doug Brown both admitted that they’d been guilty of judging homeless people for their plight in the past, but as they enter their second year of operating the shel-
ter, they expressed empathy for those who often have nowhere else to go. “For many of them, bedding down at the shelter is the first time they’ve felt safe all day,” Wlazlak said SEE COLD, PAGE 8
Oso couple helps dedicate benches as a memorial BY KIRK BOXLEITNER kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com
ARLINGTON — Gail and Ron Thompson of Oso talked about the close community that was lost in the March 22 landslide as a memorial was dedicated Nov. 15. “It wasn’t just a regular neighborhood that we lost,” Gail said. “We were a very close-knit community.” Ron added, “I look out here today
and see faces I’ve known for years. You can’t go forward if you’re not trying. It’s not easy, but we will get stronger.” Haller Park became the site of a dual memorial to the victims and those who responded to it, as the Tulalip Cabela’s dedicated two granite benches. The Thompsons, whose home SEE OSO, PAGE 2
Kirk Boxleitner/Staff Photos
Ron and Gail Thompson spoke at dedication of two benches as a memorial.
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