Right: Maybelle Deach, Maui, Hawaii, 2008.

It was a Gold Wing Motorcycle that reinforced Maybelle Edwards Deach’s urge to travel with a touch of adventure. She and her husband, Chuck Deach, motorcycled through several states during the 1980’s.

The Deach couple followed the rules of the Portland, Oregon, Emmanuel Hospital’s School of Nursing where Maybelle was enrolled. No marriage until within three months of graduation so, after two years and nine months of training, she married her brother’s best friend in 1957.

North Dakota’s drought and depression caused Maybelle’s parents to seek available work in North Bend, Oregon, where she was born in 1936. In Junction City, Oregon, the family raised a large garden and chickens, canned their own food and Maybelle’s mother skillfully made over clothes. World War II followed the depression and Maybelle recalls blackouts, airplane observations, drills and the family vehicle reserved for Dad to use for work. A family move to Portland enhanced Maybelle’s love for music. She sparkles as she recalls marching in the Rose Festival Parade while playing the piccolo and flute with the high school band.

As Maybelle was becoming a nurse, Chuck was attending Portland State and learning to fly. They bought an airplane in 1958 while Maybelle was working at Emmanuel Hospital and earning $300 per month. The plane provided transportation to Lopez Island where the couple had visited friends in the past. Captivated by the island, using their plane for down payment and making payments of $50 per month, they bought forty acres where Maybelle now lives.

Chuck made an exploratory visit to Alaska the same year. It turned into a twelve year stay. As their three sons arrived, the couple traded work shifts: Chuck at Northwest Orient Airlines, Maybelle at Providence Hospital in Anchorage where she was a regular part-time nurse in the maternity ward. She was there on March 27, 1964, when the “great Alaska earthquake” hit. The epicenter was about 75 miles east of Anchorage with a magnitude of 9.2, the second largest earthquake recorded in the 20th Century; it and the resulting landslides and tsunami caused 30 blocks of extensive damage in Anchorage. The quake lasted about five minutes with 11 aftershocks greater than 6.0 magnitude following during the first day. The hospital, about two-years-old and constructed with the most recent guidelines, remained functional. Having only one patient in her ward, Maybelle was called to the emergency room. Since it was impossible to contact her family, she was relieved to learn that no patients were arriving from her portion of the city.

In May, 1971, the Deach couple moved to Lopez Island. They bought into Sunset Builders Supply, Inc., a new business with several shareholders. Located in the Earl Yost barn, the expanding business needed a building. Chuck Deach created the design, the Sunset Builders Construction crew erected it on stockholder Bill Hughes property on Center Road and it opened about 1973. Maybelle and her husband bought out most of the stockholders in 1975 and the business turned into a “mom and pop” store. “I learned a lot,” Maybelle admitted. Harold Gillespie, Angie Poole, George Howard, and Andy Anderson were among those working in the venture. Harold Klein maintained a business in the shop.

As her children were growing up, life on the island included “huge 4-H activity.” Central meetings were held with children breaking off into groups specific to their interests. The Deach boys were involved in swine, sheep, dairy and cooking. Participating in the county fair was a significant event in the summer.

There was no doctor, no clinic, an old ambulance, and little emergency equipment in the 1970s.

Maybelle was an interim health care contact on Lopez for Dr. Heath from Friday Harbor. She worked her way through fires, deaths, motorcycle crashes, chain saw accidents and the usual island ills—all with inadequate communication. “You did your best,” she explains. The first Emergency Medical Technician training was held in the late 1970s with Maybelle as a participant who encouraged others to become involved. Emergency situations required more than the few people who were participating prior to the arrival of Dr. Dengler and the clinic.

Following Chuck’s terminal illness diagnosis, the pair sold the store to Tammy Cowan in July, 1992. Chuck died the next month. The ecumenical choir and her faith community assisted Maybelle during the difficult transition. She utilized her nursing skills with respite care and hospice work.

Purchase of a VW Westphalia and camping through the national parks with her grandson put Maybelle happily back on the road. Gathered from travels to Israel, South Africa, Turkey and European countries, a collection of tortoises rests on her buffet.

Maybelle marvels at diverse Lopez pulling together in difficult times. “We’re not here to see through each other, but to see each other through,” she concludes.