The life and times of us all, and Bickleton

Lou Marzeles
News Editor

     I'm going to say a few words about my delightful experience in Bickleton last week, but before those words must come a few others.
     I am unable to write an editorial presently as if all is as it was just a few weeks ago. Though I consider myself a professional, I can't find the place within me to write immediately as if nothing happened, to write as if unaccompanied by a human heart occupied at the moment with something so momentous I cannot still fully grasp it. So if this editorial is going to be written, you'll just have to bear with me as I acknowledge the death of my beloved wife, Shelley, on June 11. When we got here, we had no clue there was anything seriously wrong. Now, within just two months of our arriving here in Goldendale, she's gone.
     I am a professional, and now I'll go on, as all life does in the face of all apparent loss. I see obituaries come in to this paper every week, and I now have a fuller appreciation of how many lives indeed must go on. We all do, one way or another. And if you're going to go on, I conclude ever more firmly that this area is a good place to do it.
     I saw that especially last week in Bickleton, when I went over to visit and attend the Bickleton Community Council, reported on in these pages. I was struck by the ingenuity and ingenuousness of the Bickletonians (is that what they're called?) and the determination with which they intend to mold their own future. They are good, smart people, and it struck me that good people are, at least around Klickitat County, not quite as rare as we might think them to be.
     I told the Council that if something is important to Bickleton, it's important to The Sentinel. We're trying to represent the best interests, in the best possible way, of this entire county, and I take that seriously. If something is important to any part of this county-no matter which extreme, or in between, of this far-flung region-it's important to us, and to everyone in the county.
     Life does indeed go on, and life is exactly what we choose to make of it. To my sense, that is a sound point of view for all, both personally and professionally. Clearly Bickleton has chosen a high road of responsibility and integrity, personability and progress. We look forward to supporting the area in that cause, for all citizens of the county.