SundayNewspaper

2 R REACH THE EDITORS | Metro editor, John de Leon, 206-464-2073 jdeleon@seattletimes.com | Deputy metro editor, Beth Kaiman, 206-464-2441 bkaiman@seattletimes.com | News Tips newstips@seattletimes.com Danny Westneat Seattle Times columnist The thing they don’t tell you about writing an obituary is that it doesn’t have much of anything to do with death. Whenmy dad askedme to write one for my mom, a few days before she died three weeks ago, I froze. I can’t do that, I thought. At the time the only communication she couldmus- ter, as she lay in a hospice after suffering a stroke, was the occa- sional squeeze of my hand. What did I know about what she was going through? Even the neurologist had told us that med- icine doesn’t quite comprehend the workings of the brain, so he couldn’t say how hers might repair itself, or not. On the pressingmatter of death, the doctors were even more evasive. It’s not their de- partment, they seemed to be saying. Well it surely isn’t mine, I thought. Watching your mother die is to be made aware of how clueless you are. About your own relationship to the woman who birthed you. But also about the most universal of human experi- ences. For instance, nobody toldme that the “skin organ,” as the nurs- es called it, is the herald of death. About a day after she stopped squeezingmy hand, my mom’s skin, soft and electric, trans- formed to a crinkly parchment, like vellum. “That means she’s near,” the nurse said. The rest was mysterious, part biological breakdown and part soul-departing spirituality. The nurses insisted she could hear us to the end. My dad, ever the scientist, was skeptical. But you can’t risk being wrong in that situation, so we persisted in tell- ing her the family news and that we loved her, as well as playing Chopin on the wireless speaker. In a panic about her obituary, I did what reporters do best: I shifted the focus to others. I spent her last days carrying around a notebook and quizzing any rela- tive or friend who stopped by. What was she like?What were her passions, her dreams? To a person they hesitated, and then out came the stories, sometimes See > WESTNEAT, B2 RECALLING MOM’S LIFE SERVES TO REAFFIRM LIFE ITSELF WE S T N E A T F AM I L Y Helen Westneat was a teacher and a librarian. B E T T I N A H A N S E N / T H E S E A T T L E T I ME S Day-old sandwiches and salads from campus cafes are stacked at the UW’s Any Hungry Husky pantry. The South Fork of the Sno- qualmie River starts to flow with runoff coming from the Alpental ski area as snow melts in the early warm weather last week. By HAL BERNTON Seattle Times staff reporter The Pacific Northwest is again experiencing surging spring heat that shattered temperatures this past week and prompted red-flag warnings for fire risks in lowland portions of Southwest Washing- ton. Last year, intense May warmth brought a sudden melt of a big mountain snowpack, causing flooding in north central and northeast Washington as the Oka- nogan River reached its highest flood stage in four decades. This year, the statewide snow- pack, as of Friday, averaged only 58 percent of the median amount for that date. So instead of being concerned about high water, state officials are preparing for summer drought, which can raise the po- tential for wildfires, reduce irriga- tion flows to farmers and make life difficult for salmon that depend on cool water to survive. “When you look at some of the snowpacks in some of the basins, it looks like they are doing a swan dive off a cliff,” said Jeff Marti, a state Ecology Department official who noted that Gov. Jay Inslee already has issued drought-emer- gency declarations in the Okano- gan, Methow and upper Yakima watersheds because low snow- packs are expected to crimp water supplies. For Seattle-area residents who endured a snow-laden February, it may seem odd to be talking about drought. But many of the winter storms that hit the Puget Sound region, as well as the Yakima ba- sin, did not bring heavy accumula- tions in the upper reaches of Cas- cade drainages that act like a kind of natural reservoir. In a long cool spring, snow slow- ly melts to feed the region’s streams and rivers. But the past week has been like the middle of summer: Friday’s high of 86 de- grees at Seattle-Tacoma Interna- tional Airport broke the record of 80 degrees set in 1993, according to the National Weather Service. As snow retreats, the ground underneath quickly dries out. See > SNOWPACK, B2 Heat shrinks snowpack, may threaten flows for fish, farmers S T E V E R I N GMA N / T H E S E A T T L E T I ME S RECORD TEMPERATURES Above-average fire risk is expected for summer months Flower Festival blooms at The Market P HO T O S B Y A L A N B E R N E R / T H E S E A T T L E T I ME S Above, Lisa Calloway has her arms full with two bouquets — one for herself and one for her daughter — purchased at Pike Place Market on Saturday, the day before Mother’s Day. At left, flower sellers line the cobblestone street at Pike Place Market for the market’s 11th annual Flower Festival, which takes place the same weekend as Mother’s Day. Prices range from $1.50 for a single tulip to $35 for elaborate bouquets. The festival, which features more than 40 flower farmers from King, Snohomish and Whatcom coun- ties, continues 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. ON THE WEB More photos: Go to seattletimes.com seattletimes.com/localnews | MAY 12, 2019 | SUNDAY C NORTHWEST ALSO IN BUSINESS INSIDE: New law could be model for health-care investment B4 By SCOTT GREENSTONE Seattle Times Project Homeless engagement editor When Armen Papyan’s family home burned down, he found it ironic. A budding politician and student body president at the University of Washington’s Tacoma campus, Papyan had been advocating for home- less students since high school. As a junior at Foster High in Tukwila, he went to Gov. Jay Inslee’s office and asked the governor not to cut services for couch-surfing students. As a freshman at UWTaco- ma, homelessness was hap- pening to him. His Armenian immigrant family was large, and housing costs in the region were soaring day by day. He spent six months on friends’ and families’ couch- es, and getting to Tacoma via public transit was hard. “You have to think about how you’re going to get to class. You have to think about who’s driving,” Papy- an said. The memory of that fire and the time after has never left him: “You still remember the whole thing burning down in your face.” Experiences like Papyan’s aren’t rare. A new survey shows the clichéd “broke student” at UW’s three cam- puses is in more dire shape than previously known: An estimated 5,000 students reported that they spent nights in a car, shelter, tent or at a friend’s in the year leading up to the survey because they had nowhere else to stay. An estimated 160 students currently live in a car, shelter or tent. About 10,000 stu- dents cut the size of their meals or skipped meals to keep costs down, and 7% have skipped eating for en- tire days because they didn’t have the money. The survey is based on a sample of about 10% of UW’s student body, and weighted to project and draw conclu- See > HOMELESS, B7 Thousands at UW grapple with hunger, survey finds PROJECT HOMELESS