Pat Turner’s life teaches us about the value of kindness and determination
Words are inadequate to describe the extraordinary life journey of Pat West Turner, the Entiat native who lost a leg in a car accident as a high school senior and who carved out a rich life where she learned new sports, taught school and made time to brighten the days of those around her.
If they gave out medals for resilience, courage and service to her fellow human beings, Pat would take home the gold.
She’s in the final stages of completing her memoir, Skiing Uphill, which recounts how she has overcome one seemingly insurmountable challenge after another.
Pat is a community builder extraordinaire — someone who made a difference not by doing everything herself but with the help of countless people in the community along the way.
She is grateful to all the people who made a difference in her life and helped her overcome a devastating life event that radically changed the course of her life. She talks about the doctors who put her back together after the accident, including Von Smith, Al Stojowski and Dr. Jerry Gibbons. Gibbons is still going strong into his 90s.
Otto Ross, another nonagenarian who still teaches skiing at Mission Ridge, helped Pat learn how to ski one-legged with outriggers for ski poles, which led her to compete nationally and internationally in ski races. She’s deeply indebted to Ross for helping her get back on the slopes.
Pat went on to teach middle school and developed a special rapport with students. She told students that her handicap was evident for all to see, but used that as a teachable moment. “You can see my handicap, but I can’t see yours,” she remembers telling them.
She used her handicap to open lines of communication that allowed students to express their own difficulties and challenges. She has always had a love affair with skiing. For years, she worked at Mission Ridge Ski and Board Resort, which kept her close to skiing even though she was unable to ski in later years.
Like all teachers, she has a heart for others. She saw the students as individuals with unique strengths and weaknesses and did her best to meet them where they were emotionally and academically.
She never stopped looking for ways to continue challenging her body and mind. In the last few years, she and her husband Joe have participated in competitive bowling at Eastmont Lanes.
Along the way, Pat has continued to grow, evolve and challenge herself. She took painting classes, which led her to befriend an author and publisher who encouraged her to write her life story so that others might be encouraged and inspired.
She’s been working on the book for several years, but was struggling to make progress. Ultimately she figured out that her own perfectionism was keeping her from completing the work.
Fortunately, her friend the publisher challenged her to finish the book and this year she quit trying to be perfect and got the first draft finished. The book should be available by the end of the year.
Along the journey she has continued to find ways to encourage other people and brighten their days. She started crocheting what she calls bookworms, bookmarks with eyes that she started giving out to students and which she hands out to people she meets.
She also paints rocks with inspiring messages that she leaves along the Loop Trail, in the Kindness Garden at Confluence Health and elsewhere.
Now that she’s in a wheelchair full time, she appreciates all of the help that she gets from friends, strangers and local restaurants. She relies on the help of others to live a full and active life.
What has she learned through it all? “You can never have enough friends,” she said.
Pat West Turner shows us that whatever limitations or challenges we face, we can find a way. I’m looking forward to reading her memoir.
