8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
Insensitive question
leaves grieving
mother speechless
DEAR ABBY: My
started with
daughter unex-
announcing to
DEAR ABBY
pectedly died very
me that I was
recently. A “friend”
adopted and
called today asking
progressed to
how I was doing (quarantine, food, pet saying in front of me, “Let’s have a
food, etc). Then she asked me the most family reunion” and not inviting me.
unnerving question: “Do you have
When our father died, she was
‘June’ with you?” I was fl oored. So
his executor. She showed the will to
many thoughts came rushing at me at my sisters, but would not allow me
once. June was disabled since birth.
to see it. Yes, I was in the will as an
She went to live in a group home nine equal. She told the attorney I was a
years ago. The friend knew I brought granddaughter, which I caught and
her home for weekends.
corrected.
After I didn’t speak for several min-
When I told my oldest sister my feel-
utes, she asked in an annoyed tone,
ings were hurt, she accused me of be-
“Well, did you go get her ashes or not?” ing jealous and blocked me on social
(As if having her ashes with me was a media. It’s hard to disengage because
comfort? It isn’t!) Abby, I didn’t know I have no other family, but I keep busy
what to say. Her question slammed
in other social circles. I was unable to
me against the wall. I mumbled a re- have kids, and the one child I adopted
sponse, said I had to go and hung up. is busy working in another state, so it’s
I’m trying to make myself believe
just my husband and me now.
she meant nothing but concern, but I
I tried for years to be nice and to
can’t seem to make myself believe that contribute as much as possible. I know
the words she used weren’t purposely I have done nothing wrong. I have
cruel. My warm feelings for her have searched my soul to see why I deserve
changed to something ugly. I’m still
this treatment. I don’t! Should I just
gasping. Your thoughts?
let go of my family since at least two
— GRIEVING MOTHER
of my three sisters seem to want to let
go of me?
DEAR GRIEVING MOTHER:
— LEFT OUT IN FLORIDA
Let’s give the woman a perfect 10
on the insensitivity meter. She was
DEAR LEFT OUT: Yes, you should.
tactless, but she may not have meant Disengaging from the emotionally
to be unkind. My thought is that you abusive sisters who treat you cruelly
handled the situation as well as you would be healthy for you. Maintain a
could since her question left you un-
relationship with the one who is open
derstandably fl at-footed. However, I
to it.
would have answered her differently.
I have advised more than once in
I would have responded, “Why do you this column that sometimes it’s neces-
ask?” and let her explain herself.
sary to create a family of one’s own
if circumstances prevent a normal
DEAR ABBY: My older sister bul-
relationship with a person’s birth
lied me from the time our parents
family. You and your husband should
divorced. I was in elementary school, continue branching out socially. I
and she was in middle school. We
predict that once you move in that
are now adults and retired. Her form direction, you will be far happier than
of bullying now is to exclude me. It
you are today.
COFFEE BREAK
SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 2020
DETOURED
Continued from Page 2B
Fremont Powerhouse
We stopped next at the
Fremont Powerhouse, one of
the best preserved pieces of the
region’s mining legacy.
The stone structure, about 5
miles from Granite, was built
in 1908 to power the Red Boy
Mine, less than a mile to the
east. Eastern Oregon Power and
Light acquired the powerhouse in
1911 and operated it until 1940. Beaver Meadows near Granite.
California-Pacifi c Utilities Co.
then ran the Fremont until 1967,
when it spat out its fi nal kilowatt.
The company donated the prop-
erty to the U.S. Forest Service.
A heavy burden of rain-soaked
snow collapsed the Fremont’s
roof in 1993, but a crew of
National Guard members,
supervised by Joe Batty, restored
the 2,300-square-foot structure
during the summer of 1999.
The Fremont is closed due
to the coronavirus pandemic.
Normally it is open during the
summer, and four cabins on the
property are available to rent.
Beaver Meadows
Rather than drive straight
back to Granite and Sumpter —
an option that was, however, en-
thusiastically endorsed from the
back seat — I veered south onto
Forest Road 13, which follows
Clear Creek toward its headwa-
ters in the Greenhorn Mountains.
We parked at the junction with
Road 19, the Beaver Meadows
Road.
I hadn’t been here for probably
a decade and a half, and so I had
forgotten how lovely the mead-
ows are through which Beaver
Creek fl ows.
It is an unusual stream.
Meadows and streams tend to
go together, of course. But I can’t
offhand think of another creek
in that general vicinity that has
such an extent of meadows —
several miles — along its course.
We walked the road for 45 min-
utes or so before turning around.
Lisa Britton / For the EO Media Group
Lisa Britton / For the EO Media Group
Beaver dams have created a series of ponds at Sumpter Valley
Dredge State Heritage Area.
On the way back we were
halted for a couple of minutes to
let a caravan of motorcycles, four-
wheelers and side-by-sides roll
past. The group, all from Walla
Walla, Washington, one rider
told us, had started at Sumpter
and was headed to Granite.
Three people, each in a different
vehicle, posed to us a similar
version of the same query — “Is
this the way to Granite, and how
far is it?” — that suggested they
were ready to take a break from
bouncing along.
We saw them, all parked
together, in Granite on our way
back to Sumpter.
Sumpter Dredge
We procured our lunch as
planned from the Nugget and
then drove to the Sumpter Val-
ley Dredge State Heritage Area
to eat at a picnic table beneath a
towering cottonwood.
Afterward we strolled over to
the dredge, which was open for
self-guided tours.
We also hiked some of the
trails through the piles of gravel
and boulders that are the detri-
tus of the 1,250-ton dredge that
churned through the Sumpter
Valley between 1913 and 1954,
plying its deposits of placer gold.
There is perhaps no better
place in Baker County to see
the handiwork of beavers —
better, certainly, than Beaver
Creek, where I didn’t see any
evidence of the industrious
rodents.
Beaver colonies have built
dams among the dredge tailing
piles, creating a series of ponds.