Wash at home in Ritzville

RITZVILLE – In 2016 when Earl Wash contemplated leaving his home in the Tri-Cities to be closer to Spokane siblings, he investigated several towns including Davenport, Sprague, Harrington and Lind.

Ritzville wasn't in the running.

"I was trying to avoid Ritzville," the 91-year-old man said. "The pictures I saw of the homes in Ritzville... You had to climb 100 steps to get up to the front porch. I didn't want any part of that."

But when his real estate agent showed him a residence on Fourth Avenue, Wash reconsidered. He found the house in prime condition, having been remodeled in the 1970s.

"It had everything I loved," he said.

The comfortable house here is a far cry from Earl's humble beginnings in Cusick, north of Spokane. There, his father delivered firewood with teams of horses during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Earl was only 5 years old when his father slipped and fell into an icy river in April 1937. At that time, his brother was 14 months old and his mother was pregnant. Wash's sister entered the world a mere five days after his father's death.

In the aftermath of that tragedy, his mother and three young children moved to Spokane, where they struggled to make ends meet on welfare checks of $35 a month, Wash said.

Humble beginnings indeed.

Nevertheless, Wash looks back on his life with gratefulness.

In 1950, he graduated from North Central High School in Spokane. He served in the U..S Army for two years in the mid-1950s, spending time in Karlsruhe, Germany, as a supply clerk.

"I got to run into Mannheim and Heidelberg twice a week for supplies. In six months I put on 30 pounds. I took care of the cooks and the cooks took care of me," he said. "It was the nicest vacation I ever had."

When he returned to the states and was discharged from the Army, Wash worked in various warehouse and factory jobs in the northwest, spending 30 years in Portland, Ore., where he met his wife, Mary Ann.

For 13 of those years the couple managed an apartment complex of 128 units - his wife tending the office and Wash shouldering maintenance responsibilities.

"I went into an occupation I knew little or nothing about," he said. "But I learned by watching the masters."

Over the years, Earl has suffered his share of hardships, including the death of his beloved wife, crippling arthritis, cancer and a recent diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, he said. Nevertheless, he remains hopeful, buoyed by a strong Christian faith, his local church, friends, family, and the myriad benefits of a small rural community.

"It's the only place I've ever lived where, after being here only 3 months, I could walk into the bank, the grocery store, or the drug store and people would say, 'Hi, Earl! How are ya?'"

For Wash, Ritzville is no longer "in the running."

It's home.