Wednesday, January 4, 2023
I realize that this is years late - but if by some chance this makes it to Jackie's family, that would be great.
My family lived next door to her on Empire St in Spokane from 1997-2007. She (and her other next door neighbor, Ann) were the best neighbors we could have ever hoped for. They watched out for our young growing family. We had 8 children when we moved and each one of them loved Jackie, as did my husband and I.
We would often catch her tossing small toys (an army man, a bouncy ball, etc) over the back yard fence to our children as they played. There was never a shortage of Ottor-pops or DumDum suckers. She would walk her dog a couple of times a day and would always stop for the kids to pet him if we were outside. Our lawns were shared and she often would mow ours while mowing her own. In the winter we'd usually wake in the winter to find that Jackie had shoveled our walk before we even knew it had snowed in the night.
We've been away for almost 16 years now - but we still think about the good old days with Jackie and Ann. They were in deed, the good old days. You don't find neighbors like her anymore. I wish I'd done better at staying in touch with her. I really appreciate her friendship and wisdom during my "new mom" phase of life.
- Shiela Lee
