ABIDING

Me downtown Spokane about 1945

Spokane, WA was called the Inland Empire. Dad jokingly called it the “ingrown empire.” It was kind of a little big town — small enough that people knew each other, yet large enough to feel important. The city grew up around the Spokane River and became a center for lumber, agriculture, and banking.

Although my parents grew up in the area, our own family never lived there. Still, Spokane held a special place in our lives. We would visit grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins about once a year, and each trip carried its own memories and traditions.

One of the highlights of downtown Spokane was The Crescent Department Store. It was a favorite shopping destination for many. The store offered just about everything you could imagine—men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel; shoes; millinery (hats); furs; furniture; rugs; heating stoves and ranges; and all kinds of home goods, or “housewares,” as they were called then.

Among the many departments was the Record Department, where my mother-in-law, Rita, worked. She sold sound equipment and records to music lovers from all over. It wasn’t unusual for customers to hum a tune and ask her to find the record that matched. One day, however, a customer puzzled her by asking for a “monorail record.” Rita was baffled—until she realized the woman really wanted a monaural record!

Life at the Crescent was never dull. One particularly memorable day, a woman approached the record counter with a stack of albums and presented a Crescent Credit Card. Rita glanced at the name and froze—it read Isabel Stowell, my grandmother’s name. When Rita asked about it, the woman confidently claimed to be a granddaughter. Following the Crescent’s rule that “the customer is always right,” Rita completed the sale—but something didn’t sit right.

As soon as she could, Rita called me to ask if I had a cousin by that name. When I said “no,” she immediately alerted store security. They quickly caught the woman leaving the store with piles of merchandise from other departments. It turned out that while my grandmother was in the hospital, her credit card had been stolen.

Looking back, it’s clear that my grandmother had someone praying for her that day. God’s protection was woven through even that small drama at the department store.

John 15:7 — “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”