Locals in the Limelight; Sam and Donna Mullins and granddaughter Ivory Rose

Sam Mullins was born in 1961, the son of Ruby Music and Toby Mullins. He grew up in Packwood and Randall in southwest Washington. His father was a logging truck driver. We laughed about a caption I once saw on a photo in the newspaper of a logging truck that had spilled logs on the highway. "How much wood can a wood truck chuck?" it read. Even though his father was 15 years older than his mother, they died within two weeks of one another about 25 years ago. He was not surprised that his mother, who was already ailing, went quickly after his father's funeral. Sam was the second oldest and had four sisters. He was the self proclaimed dishwasher in the family.

He said he flew under the radar in school, mostly hanging out with his one best friend and enjoying dirt bikes and hunting with his Dad. After school, he spent 10 years in the construction business and as a tree trimmer which is the job he started out doing for Washington Water Power (WWP) years later. He moved to Odessa in 2009 to replace Doug Plinski as the local representative for Avista where he has worked for 25 years.

Donna Mullins was born in 1963 and grew up in Noonan, North Dakota as the youngest of 10 children (six boys, four girls). When she was about four years old, her father who worked on the oil rigs left the family and her mother raised the children on her own. Donna remembers her mother survived with the aid of public assistance and she still remembers they would give them suckers when they were waiting for appointments. Donna laughed and said, "We even had hand-me -down socks." Her mother, Rose Greaves, was able to get a job at the Good Samaritan Center where her own mother and father were residents. Donna described her as a very tiny Christian woman of faith who usually only needed a dirty, wet dishrag to keep her kids in line. "She would snap that thing and wave it in our face," which was usually all it took. Rose passed away two years ago.

Donna graduated from Noonan High School in 1981, the last class ever to graduate there because the coal mine in town closed down. In high school, she was touted as the most likely to "open a beauty shop on the West coast," she told me. She married her high school sweetheart and they had three daughters, Lacy (now 30 living in North Dakota), Ashley (27 living in Coeur d'Alene) and Brittany (26 living in North Dakota).

Donna and her husband divorced after seven years, and six months later he died unexpectedly in a car accident. At 25 years old, and knowing she had to raise her daughters on her own, it was a life-changing experience for her. She immediately enrolled in college, took computer classes and got her associates degree.She eventually landed in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, because she knew friends living there, and there were job opportunities. She had hoped to take some time off, but immediately found a job for a rental agency which she said barely covered her daycare. She was staying with friends, which helped, and soon after landed a temporary position with WWP which has turned into a 21.5-year career with Avista.

For a family that grew up in the [public assistance] system, Donna is proud that she and all her brothers and sisters work. Her twin brothers in Iowa are both ordained ministers and married two sisters. Both couples had two sons and wanted a daughter so the one brother decided to wait and see if his brother's third child would be a daughter. When they did indeed have a girl, the other twin and his wife decided to have their third, which was also a daughter. Donna has remained particularly close to her sister Roxanne from North Carolina who has been here for Deutschesfest the past two years and really loved it. She also mentioned her brother Jeff who is quite the entrepreneur. With Sam nodding in agreement, she explained that he has really capitalized on the oil boom in North Dakota with several sideline businesses such as fresh-water services and septic hauling. "I hope we are in his will," Sam joked.

Sam and Donna met while employed at WWP/Avista and said they knew each other for many years before they began dating. They started dating in 1999 and married in 2002 after some prodding from Sam. Apparently, Donna never wanted to remarry, concerned that her sole motivation would be to find the girls a father since she had grown up without hers. Sam smiled and said "she really drug her feet."

Donna joked that they loved to go boating with the kids and that Sam having a boat was a big plus for her. They would meet at Seven Bays (in between CDA and Davenport, where Sam lived), and she talked about how much she needed that element of fun in her life. One weekend, they went to the Spokane Valley Mall to get Sam some work boots, and he took her into the jewelry store. She said she looked around and picked out "a BIG diamond; it sang to me...I wanted to see how serious he was," she laughed. She reiterated that he is the best thing that ever happened to her, and it didn't escape me that she got the ring and the boat to boot.

A great story came up about their wedding which they both wanted to be a small ceremony at the Hitching Post in CDA. Sam took Donna to the bridal shop and she tried on stuff that just didn't fit right and wasn't her style. She was touched that he wanted her to have "the dress," but was so relieved when they stopped by the mall to get her a more casual, comfortable dress and him a suit coat. It was going to be the five kids, and her daughter Brittany was going to bake a cake for them. Donna even purchased the ingredients for the cake. Unbeknownst to her, Sam had ordered a real cake and planned a wedding reception all on his own. Several family and friends showed up at the chapel to surprise Donna. "It was the best wedding/reception a girl could ask for because I didn't have all the worry and planning," Donna said.

Sam has two teenage sons from a prior marriage, Randy and Cory, who would stay on weekends. When they blended their families and married in 2002, they had girl, boy, girl, boy, girl in age order. We talked a lot about what it must have been like with five teenagers in the home. The groceries...oh my gosh. Sam mentioned that the girls could put away the food just as much as the boys. "And their friends!" Donna mentioned. "I always had to have Ritz crackers, dill pickles and Oreos on hand for certain kids."

With so many funny stories to share, they spoke of the time their daughter Brittany got her driver's license. Apparently, she got it at noon and completely disappeared the rest of the day. At midnight, they were still looking for her. She had not checked in at all and had decided to be designated driver for some other kids that evening. "I think she was the only kid who ever got her keys pulled the day after getting her driver's license," Donna laughed.

Some hilarious cooking stories emerged about their daughter Ashley. One day, Donna called from work and told her to put the casserole in at 350. When Donna arrived home, she noticed immediately that the house didn't have that wonderful baking smell when she walked in. Her daughter had put the casserole in promptly at 3:50 pm in a cold oven! Another time, Donna took out a package of frozen hamburger for dinner. She called Ashley later in the day to let her know they would be having Hamburger Helper. Ashley, in her helpful manner, put the hamburger back in the freezer and took out the box of Hamburger Helper for her mom, thinking that everything was in the box. "Believe it or not, she does actually cook for her husband now," they told me.

Sam and Donna are my next door neighbors, and people who know them will tell you that they play hard and work even harder. They both put in grueling schedules, Sam is currently the Avista electrical representative for Creston, Wilbur, Almira and Odessa and is on call 24/7. After 3:30 when he supposedly gets off work, he is the "first trouble call," which translates into lots of overtime and frequently being gone throughout the night. He told me that he has some backup but he usually takes most of the calls because "you have to take care of the customer."

Donna commutes to Othello and Davenport for her job creating job orders and field maps, putting in 10-12 hour days, five days a week. I joked with them that they probably don't have much time to spend the money they make, and they told me that having five kids and seven grandchildren, they have no problem with that.

My next door neighbors and I both have dogs named Sadie, in fact one day Sam was yelling at his Sadie (their 14-year-old Pomeranian) who is hard of hearing, and my Sadie almost took off from the field down below thinking he was calling out to her. I also found out that "When Harry Met Sally," is both my and Donna's favorite movie of all time. Like myself, Sam loves the National Geographic, Discovery and History channels. They also enjoy stays on a houseboat with friends at Lake Roosevelt. He loves boating, 4-wheeling and landscaping. In fact when I saw them looking at the house next door to purchase, I was praying they would buy it because I had seen the care they had taken of the yard at their prior residence. Donna is kind, sensible and somewhat reserved, a great balance to Sam's outgoing, social nature.

I used to drive by their place before they moved next door to me, and they were always entertaining and having a great time outside with friends. Sam and Donna are the kind of people you seek out and want to be part of their world. They don't know that just the other day someone told me a story about something they had done to help someone in need in our community. They do it without any need for recognition.

They come from simple backgrounds and they have worked extremely hard to give their families a better life. Sam and Donna wanted to give credit to the core group of friends that made them feel so welcome when they relocated to Odessa. Doug and Nancy Plinski, Keith and Becky Kolterman and Roger and Phyllis Sebesta. I am sure that those friends feel honored, as I do, to call them their friends.