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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 2021
Miracle-Ear
Hearing Aid Sale
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The cover of Bend author Richard Potvin’s new book.
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Bend father pens children’s
book that focuses on grief
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By DAVID JASPER
The Bulletin
Inspiration struck Rich-
ard Potvin after midnight in
August 2018.
“I just woke up and
went, ‘There’s a story I
need to write down,’” he
said. “Sometimes, you
free
know, if you go back to
services!
bed, you never get them
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back.” Rather than let his
*
Attention
hearing
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ear canal
FREE
hearing
tests
idea go unrealized, Potvin,
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Reveals if and where you need hearing
now 62, got up at 1 a.m. and
aid
wearers:
inspections
assistance and is recommended for
5.
1SP
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If you already wear a hearing aid (any
Sometimes
it’s nothing more than
sat down to write. In just
everyone over 50 years old.
make or model), we can help you, too!
excessive earwax. We use our state-of-
the one session, he penned
Our FREE computerized analysis and
the art Video
Otoscope
to
look
inside
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tune-up help keep your hearing aid
your ear canal. You can watch on a
“Empty,” a self-published
working its best.
video monitor as it happens.
children’s book in which a
young girl comes to terms
with the death of her neigh-
bor, “Mr. Wick.”
It debuted in April, and
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Potvin believes it’s timely A page from Potvin’s book where a young girl comes to terms
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given the ongoing corona- with her neighbor’s death.
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virus pandemic.
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The following morn- years of experience in sions and interests are wed-
ing, he said, “My wife said, Saudi Arabia, but nobody ded together via the con-
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‘You got out of bed last cares about that in Canada sulting business Science
night. What did you do?’ I because it’s ‘Who do you in Vision, which provides
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said, ‘I wrote a book,’” Pot- know?’” Potvin said.
scientifi c support for the
5.
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vin recalled.
So he decided a new eye care community. Pot-
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“I don’t think I changed career was in order, per- vin explained the “strange
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Many Styles
any of the words. I mean, it haps one involving med- niche” of his work via a
Available!
was just there,” he said.
icine, like so many other hypothetical scenario in
The simple, straight- family members.
which an eye surgeon might
forward tale begins, “Mr.
“My twin brother was use a company’s lenses in
H
Wick was my friend. He an M.D., my little brother cataract surgeries.
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lived next door to me, my was a pharmacist, my wife
“I can work with a sur-
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sister and my mom.”
was a nurse, and I said, geon and prepare a pro-
The longest part of the ‘OK, what medicine needs posal to a company and
project was fi nding an artist the most math?’ They said, say, ‘We’re going to put 30
5P3FDFJWFUIF0GGFS.FOUJPO$PEF
to illustrate “Empty.”
‘Oh, probably optometry,’” of these lenses in people’s
+BO
“I had a few false starts he said, laughing.
eyes, measure them and
with artists,” Potvin said.
Rather than go into write a paper about how
2 Hearing Aids
He eventually chose Steph- practice seeing patients, they did,’” Potvin said. “So
for as low as
Trusted for Over 70 Years
anie Drake, a children’s he ended up in research at I can do the math, I can do
book designer in Cam- Bausch + Lomb, and later the writing and I can under-
5.
Tiny
bridgeshire, England.
at Alcon, doing medical stand the ophthalmology
“I just liked the muted aff airs, work that involves part.”
tones,” he said of Drake’s translating science so that
Potvin is at work on
work. “We collaborated doctors and patients fi nd it another book, about Alz-
per month †
well. She understood what comprehensible.
heimer’s, and has an enve-
I was looking for. She sort
“That’s not your typi- lope H of old science fi ction
5P3FDFJWFUIF0GGFS.FOUJPO$PEF
of caught my tone.”
cal career path,” he said. “I JOUFSFTUGPSNPOUIT NVTURVBMJGZXJUI)FBMUIJ1MBO¥1BUJFOU'JOBODJOH
stories, and rejection let-
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The rocking chairs seen tend to be a *GZPVBSFOPUDPNQMFUFMZTBUJTGJFE UIFBJETNVTUCFSFUVSOFEXJUIJOEBZTPGUIFDPNQMFUJPOPGGJUUJOH JOTBUJTGBDUPSZDPOEJUJPOGPSBGVMMSFGVOE
little bit varied ters, that he plans to dig
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on the book’s cover are in my work.”
into after he downsizes to
depictions of chairs from
The types of books part-time consulting work
the barn at Potvin’s former he writes are also var- later this summer.
home in Akron, New York, ied. Along with “Empty,”
Interestingly,
writing
near Buff alo, where he and Potvin has written and “Empty” that night in 2018
his wife lived before mov- self-published two col- was triggered neither by a
ing to Bend last year.
lections of cryptic cross- dream nor a specifi c person
“The cat on the fence word puzzles after he broke he was grieving.
was our neighbors’ cat. his neck in a horrifi c bike
At least that’s what Pot-
And they lived next door accident.
vin believed at the time.
to us, and did have chick-
“I just fl ipped over After his initial interview
ens,” he said, referring to the front of a bike at low for this story, Potvin sent
scenes from the book. “The speed,” he said. “An animal a follow-up email with the
little girl, when we fi rst met ran in front of my wife’s subject line, “New twist.”
her, had a bit of a lisp. She bike, and I hit both brakes.
“You made me think a
called my wife ‘Miss Kim,’ The front one caught fi rst.” bit harder about my moti-
and me ‘Mr. Wick.’ So
He’s fully mobile now, vations
regarding
the
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Mr. Wick made it into the but at the time of his acci- story,” Potvin wrote. “I
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book.”
dent, he was stuck in a neck wrote it in the fi rst week
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When asked if he often halo for 90 days.
of August 2018. The fi rst
gets up and writes in the
“I was doing those puz- week of August is always
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middle of the night, he zles, but they don’t take a time where I am more in
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laughed and said, “I am a long if you’re good at them, tune with our mortality.
bit of a strange character.”
so my wife said, ‘Why don’t
“My twin brother passed
As if to back that claim, you just H make some?’”
away in an accident on
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Potvin, who is Canadian, JOUFSFTUGPSNPOUIT NVTURVBMJGZXJUI)FBMUIJ1MBO¥1BUJFOU'JOBODJOH
He ended up writing August 6, 2003, two days
brought
up his atypical two books of them, “Cryp- after our 45th birthday. So,
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career path, beginning as tic Crosswords 4U” and August 2018 would have
Suite C
a traffi c engineer in Saudi “Cryptic Crosswords 4U been the 15th anniversary
Arabia — where two of his 2.” They, like “Empty,” are of that event.
three kids, Becky, Doug available at Amazon.com.
“It is quite possible that
and Michaela were born.
Along with penning this is what woke me up
Upon his return to Can- crossword books, Potvin’s that night.”
ada, however, he found it time bedridden also led him
diffi cult to continue as an to the conclusion that he OREGON CAPITAL
engineer, as all his pro- preferred data to meetings,
5P3FDFJWFUIF0GGFS.FOUJPO$PEF
fessional contacts were after which he decided
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Trusted for Over 70 Years
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*Our hearing test and video otoscopic inspection are always free. Hearing test is an audiometric test to determine proper amplification needs only. These are not
medical exams or diagnoses nor are they intended to replace a physician’s care. If you suspect a medical problem, please seek treatment from your doctor.
**Hearing aids do not restore natural hearinH. Individual experiences vary depending on severity of hearing loss, accuracy of evaluation, proper fit and ability to
adapt to amplification. Only your Miracle-Ear ® representative can determine which model and options may be right for you.
†$28 per month. Calculated at JOUFSFTUGPSNPOUIT NVTURVBMJGZXJUI)FBMUIJ1MBO¥1BUJFOU'JOBODJOH
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