Memories can’t be erased by fire
Posted: Thursday, Oct 16, 2008 - 02:40:45 pm PDT
By TERRI IVIE
Managing Editor
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PRIEST LAKE — Even after 32 years, memories can come flooding back at a moment’s notice. Even through a devastating fire, flashbacks to an earlier time, can bring thoughts to the forefront and the mind racing at the turn of events.
Such was the case last week as the main cabin at Granite Creek at Priest Lake burned to the ground and Pecky Cox received the horrific news that her favorite spot with ties to her past was gone. A fairly new resident to Priest Lake, Cox became a “local” four years ago when she married Fred Cox and began to operated AS THE LAKE CHURNS.
The love she has for Priest Lake dates back to the late seventies when her brother Tony Gomez was a PRLHS student visiting from Mexico City. He lived with the Deinhardt’s in town but during the summer he lived at Priest Lake with Dean Stevens and family. Cox came to visit the Stevens in 1977 for several months and then again in 1978. She always knew she’d be back to the place she held so dear in her heart. She still considers Matt and Melissa Stevens as her brother and sister in heart and Dean as her “Dad.”
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As Cox received the news of the fire last Wednesday she rushed to the place she has cherished for decades. While in Mexico, all she could dream of was Priest Lake. She wanted to come back here no matter how or when. She kept traveling the long roads leading to the house at Granite Creek.
The Priest Lake firemen had moved some of the stuff out of the house that had been burnt and set them aside. Cox took pictures without knowing fully what she had seen until she downloaded them on her computer.
There was a Priest River Times from 1976 that had a front page picture of her brother, Tony Gomez and Melissa Stevens. Of all the weekly papers published by the Times in over 94 years, here was the one that could grab at her heart strings like no other.
As she reminisced and reflected on her journey to her beloved Priest Lake, the irony of finding this treasure among the ruins of Granite Creek sent chills in her very being.
Amidst tears, Cox shared the journey that brought her full circle, from a place she visited many years ago, to her current “home.”
A love for Priest Lake that many share but maybe not fully appreciate as she does. Check out AS THE LAKE CHURNS at www.priestlaker.com
