The Sanctuary

Every once in a while something comes along that just makes my heart sing.  It’s usually unexpected and not a really big deal.  Except to me.  Today it was a bit of  gray paint!

Every other Tuesday is errand day for us — usually on both sides of the river.  So, as we drove through Chinook this afternoon at the requisite 35 mph (and have you ever noticed that this is the ONLY area in our neck of the woods where EVERYbody obeys the speed limit?), we noticed that the dear old Sanctuary Restaurant was getting a fresh coat of paint!  A soft, foggy gray! I almost stopped the car and got out to give the painters a round of applause.

Fisher Poet Geno Leech

I think we’ve been holding our breath all these years since it closed.  Not that we’ve even hoped that Geno and Joanne Leech would open it again.  It was a magical one-time experience, their restaurant, and I don’t think it could ever happen the same way again.  But oh! how I hoped that the building would get some TLC.

We used to go there with my folks and with Gordon and Roy and with so many of our friends and loved ones who are now gone.  How we enjoyed the Swedish meatballs and the desserts with lingonberries and the wonderful fresh fresh fish.  Once in a great while, Geno would treat us to one of his poems and, if we lingered past closing time, Joanne might come a sit with us for a while.

Elegant Joanne Leech

In later years, I’d take my mom to Little Ocean Annie’s, their “casual restaurant” as Fodor’s Travel Talk Forum called it.   We’d have fish and chips and, though dementia had stolen so much of mom’s ability to talk, her eyes still sparkled as she ate.

Originally, the building was  a Methodist Church and parsonage built in 1916. I don’t really remember that, though I probably passed it coming and going to the ferry in long-ago years.  I think I heard that the building sold a while back — one of those bittersweet bits of information that the passing years seem to bring too frequently.  I don’t know what the future holds for the lovely old structure, but I hope my heart continues singing as I pass her by every now and again!

Back View of Sanctuary