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The Mid-county Memo is your newspaper. We want to hear from you. Discuss an important issue or address a concern you want to call to the community's attention. We prefer e-mailed letters to the editor sent to Darlene Vinson at editor@midcountymemo.com. Please put “Letter to the editor” in the subject line. You may also mail your letter to 3510 N.E. 134th Ave., Portland, OR 97230 or fax it to 503-249-7672. Deadline for the August issue is Thursday, July. 15.
Editors Note: Memo readers will remember an item in last month's Memo Pad titled “Airport firefighters honored as heroes.” It told the story of a pair of firefighters who rescued a woman from the frigid waters of the Columbia River last Christmas Day. Here is the story of that woman in her own words. It has been edited for brevity.
My Christmas Miracle
To the editor:
It was Christmas Day and I was planning to spend the afternoon at my son Tim's house. I live at a moorage and am the property manager for the Boy Scouts of America in exchange for housing and utilities. At about 10:30 a.m., I decided that because it had been 25 degrees the night before I should go down on the dock and make sure there were no broken pipes before I left for the day.
I headed down to the dock and after checking all the buildings and finding no broken pipes, I began checking the exposed pipes. I was checking the last one when I turned, took a step, slipped on a frosty board and fell into the Columbia River.
When I went in I hit my back and head on the edge of the dock and my glasses flew off into the water. I immediately began trying to find a way out, but the water level was at least 3 feet below the dock. I grabbed onto a large chain that was holding two docks together, and began to scream as loud as I could, “Help me.” I prayed, “Please don't let me die in this water. If it is my time Lord, it's okay, but just don't let me die in this water.”
I kept screaming and praying, finally, a man named Jim and his wife Katherine who just happened to be walking their dog heard me. Katherine called 9-1-1; Jim jumped a 6-foot fence and stayed with me until help arrived. The strange thing about this is that Jim and Katherine live in Eastern Oregon. They were just here visiting for the holiday and decided to come out to the river to look around, otherwise there would have been no one near my place on a holiday.
In just a few minutes I heard the siren. Two firefighters ran to me. Mike Spina could not get enough leverage to pull me out by himself so his partner, Karyn Barr, jumped over a 3-foot opening to a ledge, laid down, lost her radio in the river and together they pulled me up onto the dock. I don't know how she managed to jump over on that ledge as it was covered in ice.
They say I was in the water about 30 minutes and at the hospital doctors said I had less than 10 minutes left to my life.
I was in the hospital for six hours warming up. I was so very blessed that the Lord sent Jim, Katherine, Mike and Karyn that day. I am grateful for the fire department, police and all the personnel at Emanuel hospital, but mostly grateful to the Lord for sparing me from drowning in the freezing Columbia River.
I no longer go down on the docks unless there is someone else on the property and I always wear a life jacket.
Shari Austero -
Rivercrest Community Church Secretary
Northeast Portland
English language teachers thank Memo
To the editor:
Thank you so much for including information about our English classes in a recent issue. We had a new student come to class tonight who found out about us through the Memo!
Again, thank you so much for helping us to get the word out about these classes. We really appreciate it!
Sarah Jones -
Community ESOL (English for Speakers of other Languages) Coordinator, Multnomah University
Garden club grows new members through Memo notices
To the editor:
The Flower Lane Garden Club will be having their planning meeting in July and a work party in August, so don't have any need for publicity for those events.
However, thanks for your wonderful publication, which has brought new members to our club over the past few months. We appreciate it.
Karin Irwin -
Flower Lane Garden Club
karini164@yahoo.com
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