Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 26, 2025 -- THREE
~ Letters to the Editor ~
Camarillo at 100 A life of horses, hay, and hard work
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MOM
I lost my mom when I
was 22. I wasn’t prepared
for that. She hadn’t been
feeling well for a year, but
they told her it was just
menopause, and she’d get
over it. Well, it wasn’t, and
she didn’t, at least not how
they meant it. It was an
abnormally small aorta that
was causing years of heart
damage and somehow, no-
body noticed.
I don’t remember being
angry, but I do remember
feeling cheated. She was 52.
The older I get, the young-
er that gets and I still feel
cheated, especially when
I see others who still have
their moms sitting at the
restaurant chatting about
their days, kids, and lives.
Those gals have something
I don’t. They have the per-
son who would die for them
or is supposed to at least…
no questions asked.
Had she lived, would
we be having lunch togeth-
er today? I don’t know. At
22, even though I had been
married a few years and
already had a child, I really
hadn’t been an adult long
enough to move from mom
vs daughter to woman vs
woman. I like to think we
would.
Even though her life
mainly consisted of raising
five kids, my mom was no
dummy. She had a wit that
often went unappreciated
and right over my young
head. Due to quick reflexes
and an Irish temper, there
were a few other things that
thankfully went right over
my head, too. She wasn’t
a touchy-feely person. I
didn’t hear “I love you” too
often. I wish I had. Maybe
that’s why I try not to miss
an opportunity to tell my
kids I love them. When I go,
I may leave a lot undone,
but I don’t want there to be
any question about that.
So, am I angry at God
for taking my mom? I could
be. But then I’d have to be
angry at Him for taking my
two brothers, my dad, and
my young brother-in-law.
None of it seems very fair.
But there are a lot of other
people out there who have
lost loved ones. Being mad
at God because he took the
ones, I loved doesn’t make
much sense. It’s like being
fine with the guy throwing
rocks…until one hits you.
Is God up there ran-
domly throwing rocks at
us? I don’t think so. One
thing he’s shown me in no
uncertain terms is that He’s
there and loves me…. even
when I don’t love him back.
If He loves me, then He
loves everyone else. He’s
taken from this life. He
doesn’t take death lightly
and he knows what it’s like
to grieve.
Losing someone cuts
deep into the heart. But
blaming God doesn’t help.
What helps is trusting that
God knows what he’s doing
even when we don’t. He’s
got a plan….and its way
better than anything we
could come up with…. be-
cause He’s God, and we are
not. “For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the
heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your
thoughts”. Isaiah 55:8,9
And why do I have
hope? This…..
• “For God so loved
the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that who-
ever believes in him shall
not perish but have eternal
life.” John 3:16
By Susie Crosby
Plan ahead for MS Walk
April 26
Spring is a busy time
for south Morrow County
folks. Residents are inun-
dated with spring sports—
baseball, track, golf and
softball—St. Patrick’s ac-
tivities; Easter activities;
May Day activities; and all
the frivolities that go along
with them.
Here is a reminder for
another: The Heppner MS
Walk on April 26. The walk
will begin at 10 o’clock at
Hager Park. The route is
an easy mile walk through
Heppner with stops along
the way. This event ends
with a special no-host meal
at Bucknam’s Tavern.
More information will
follow closer to the date.
Heppner City
Council meeting
-Continued from PAGE ONE restroom and hauled away
meters, responded to three
water leaks, did updates on
GIS and master meter list,
conducted an emergency
water shutoff on Church St.,
raised three fire hydrants
and burned a slash pile.
The sewer department
cleaned contact basins, did
four septic dumps, com-
pleted a recycled water
report and submitted it to
the DEQ, and checked a
possible illegal sewer at a
property.
The streets department
removed Christmas dec-
orations, fixed potholes
behind the post office, fixed
the May St. sidewalk and
installed a small retaining
wall, trimmed overhanging
trees and fixed potholes on
Morgan and Church streets
The parks department
removed lights from Heri-
tage Plaza, fixed one sink
and replaced the other at
the city park restroom,
winterized the Hager Park
grass clippings. They also
continued to help take care
of the therapy pool for the
park district.
Other departments
hauled spoils, joined a
walkthrough of the senior
center to see if the city can
help fix some minor prob-
lems, attended a meeting
with the county courthouse
architects on the location of
water and sewer, replaced
burned-out lights and at-
tended the annual chamber
luncheon.
City Manager John
Doherty reported that he
attended several meetings,
including Port of Morrow,
Heppner Housing Author-
ity, GEODC, CHIP, LP-
SCC and League of Oregon
Cities. He also told the
council he had held calls
regarding housing develop-
ment in Heppner, including
infrastructure development,
cluster homes, mass-tim-
ber projects and 3D print
homes.
Alex Shoeing
Alex and Mardelle
Alex with Mother and brother
Alex showing horses
oped what would become
his lifelong career, shoeing
horses.
“I always wanted to get
into something,” he says.
“I learned from other guys.
When they came to shoe
horses, I’d shoe one foot.”
His move from Cali-
fornia to Oregon came in
1948. It wasn’t meant to be
a permanent move. He and
some buddies were up north
for a rodeo in Molalla, OR.
“I did not come here to
stay. I ran into a nice guy
who must have liked my
work,” Camarillo says.
That man was Ray-
mond Bilyeu, and he con-
vinced Camarillo to stay in
Oregon and break horses
for him. Camarillo stayed
in Sheridan, OR for several
years. He returned to Cali-
fornia for a couple of years,
but then returned in 1957 to
settle in Carlton, OR.
It wasn’t all horses and
work during those decades,
though. Camarillo mar-
ried his first wife, Shirley
Blanchard, and the couple
had two children, Ed and
Karen.
Later, Camarillo mar-
ried his second wife, Mar-
delle Hancock. He adopted
her two children from a
previous marriage, Tom and
Jeannie. The couple also
had two children of their
own, boys Clint and Neal.
Since that time, the
family has grown to include
three granddaughters and
four great-grandkids.
It was Mardelle and
their children who formed
the soul of the Camarillo
home and business. Ca-
marillo grew a horseshoe-
ing service that would
eventually serve more than
2,000 customers around
Oregon.
Mardelle did the book-
keeping and paperwork,
making appointments and
laying them out for Ca-
marillo every morning.
Meanwhile, their sons re-
call being dragged out of
bed and into a cold pickup
at four in the morning to
help their father heat the
forge.
“My dad was always a
hot shoer,” says son Clint.
“He shaped them to the
foot.”
Camarillo stayed in the
horseshoeing business for
48 years. He didn’t give up
his business and ranch in
Carlton until after the pass-
ing of Mardelle in 2001.
Even then, Clint says, his
sons had work lined up for
him in Ione when he moved
here to be near family. He
kept at it for another cou-
ple of years before finally
hanging up his hammer
and nails.
That was when he was
in his 80s. Now, at the cen-
tury mark, he doesn’t seem
to feel much older than he
did then.
“I don’t feel like I am,”
he says when asked how
it feels to be 100, but then
admits, “I’m falling apart
little by little.”
Camarillo says he nev-
er knew he was so famous,
but his birthday wishes
have been coming in from
around the country. A note
in the Ruralite magazine
saw birthday cards pour
in by the hundreds—along
with a small gift from the
Area 51 Birthday Groupies
in Nevada.
And why not? While
Camarillo may not feel fa-
mous, he’s lived a famously
quiet life that most can only
dream of, with little room
for artificial intelligence,
but plenty of room for horse
sense.
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Four generations of the Camarillo family were at Willow Creek
Terrace for Alex Camarillo’s 100 th birthday. L-R: Ryan Mathie-
son, Tiana Mathieson (granddaughter), Sharon Camarillo,
Clint Camarillo (son), Jennifer Adams (granddaughter), Stella
Adams (great-granddaughter), Mike Adams. Front center:
Alex Camarillo holding great-grandson Asher Mathieson.
-Contributed photo
-Continued from PAGE ONE couple of years, and then
cept for a two-year interrup-
tion for World War II.
“Everybody at a certain
age had to go,” he said.
Drafted in 1944 at the
age of 19, Camarillo was
sent to basic training at
Camp Hood in Killeen,
TX. From there, he went to
Boston and then Plymouth,
England, before being sent
on to Germany.
“That’s where the main
war was,” he says. “We
helped southern Russia for
a little while, because they
needed some help.”
He was a truck driver
in the army, mostly because
he told the military that was
something he could do.
“I told them I drove
trucks, so I did. I wasn’t
very good at it,” he quips.
Even so, he drove in all
kinds of situations, from
carting groceries to feed to
the troops to transporting
ammunition to the front
lines.
He was also stationed
in La Havre, France for
a time. There was some
question about whether he
would be sent to Japan,
where his brother served as
a paratrooper, but instead
he was sent home, leaving
the military in 1946 after a
two-year tour of duty.
In fact, five of his older
brothers also went overseas,
all of them returning safely
by the end of the war.
He returned to Santa
Monica Cattle Ranch for a
moved on to Moulton Cattle
Ranch in Irvine, CA, and
then Irvine Cattle Com-
pany. He worked in Lom-
poc, CA, ground-breaking
thoroughbred racehorses
for Tom Park and Dewey
Burton.
It was throughout this
time that Camarillo devel-
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