Question of the Week: What is Your Christmas Wish?
By Cole Goodwin
Welcome to Question of the Week, a weekly news column that poses timely questions about life, politics, culture, economics, health, and more to people out and about in our communities. Each column features a new question that expresses curiosity about other people’s experiences and deepens our understanding of our communities and of people from all walks of life.
This week’s question of the week is a timely holiday’s themed question that asks us to consider our hopes for the future, our wishes for the world, and our goals for the coming year.
Question of the Week: What is your Christmas Wish?
Pictured: Helen Cahn and her dog Scarlett
Helen Cahn, 62, White Salmon, WA
“My name is Helen Cahn and I’m 62 years old. I was born in upstate New York, and lived a lot of my life in Arizona. I live in White Salmon now. I’ve been here for 30 years. I love it. Can’t complain. My wish for the world is that we could heal our divisiveness and get back to some kind of ability to communicate on a productive level.”
Pictured: Crystal Champion
Crystal Champion, 38, The Dalles
“My name’s Crystal. I’m 38. I grew up here in The Dalles. My hope for Christmas is we can get the homeless a good place to get decent showers, food, clothing, and a place to stay. My hope for them is that they can live like normal people.”
Pictured: Greg Gilbert
Greg Gilbert, 62, Hood River
“My Christmas wish is for the virus to go away.”
Julian Avila, Bingen
“My Christmas wish is that everything is at peace, and warm and wonderful.”
Pictured: Jean McDonald
Jean McDonald, 78, originally from Colorado now lives in The Dalles
“Oh my god. For my husband to be well. For me to never have to cook again because I’m sick of it. Oh my god. That’s the two things on my list. But the cooking one is the biggest one. “
Diane, White Salmon
“My Christmas wish is the end of COVID.”
Tom Godwin, 74, Husum, WA
“You gotta be kidding, there’s too many things. Peace, that’s what we’d like. Quit fighting.”
Pictured: Amber Schak
Amber Schak, Vancouver, WA
“My name is Amber, I work in the (Bingen) community but I don’t live out here. I’m from Vancouver. My Christmas wish is to continue to be happy and healthy.”
“My husband and I bought the Napa Store in July and we’ve been out here since then. We’re trying really hard to be a part of the community as much as we can. We live in Vancouver...eventually we’d like to end up here, we just have kids in high school so it’s gonna be a bit.”
“My Christmas wish for the new business would just be to be successful, and for things to run smoothly. We’re building a foundation with this store and we look forward to growing possibly.”
“I grew up with a single Dad and Christmas was always so stressful having a single parent and not having a lot of money. So it took me a long time until I really had my own kids to enjoy this time of year a little more, because I had just grown up seeing the stress attached to it. So, sometimes I have to try not to be a Grinch. The commercial aspect of Christmas is just so sad to me.”
Pictured: Harold
Harold, 55, White Salmon, WA
“To find a place of my own. I’m trying to find a place. I’ve been staying in the shelter. I’m going to the library to see if I can find a rental.”
Murna Airs, Central Oregon
“Happiness and health. My wish is for happiness and health.”
Pictured: Cassandra Woody
Cassandra Woody, 38, Hood River
“Well, I don’t know quite how to phrase it but hopefully there is not another covid shutdown. I work in the restaurant business and our daughters also own their own restaurant so we’re hoping that it doesn’t shut down and if it does, that it’s not completely. I also hope everyone stays healthy.”
Alex, 48, Hood River
“My name’s Alex, I’m 48. I’m originally from California but I claim Nevada because I love Nevada and I love the desert. My wish for the year is that all my friends remain healthy.”
“I lost my mom about six months ago. I was a caregiver. And so I know what that’s like to be taking care of someone that’s really sick. So that’s why I wish that everybody in my area, in my community, my friends and family are healthy this year. That would make me happy.”
“I have been told that the caregiver tends to get sicker than the person that is sick. I don’t know that that’s true, but I know that the hardest thing I’ve ever done was just care for my mom. I couldn't do it for anybody else. I love and adore my mom but it was really hard. She had a lot of stuff: diabetes, heart failure, she had high blood pressure, she was on dialysis, you know, her kidneys weren’t working. So she was really sick and it was just a really tough job.”
“My one regret is not trying to get help. I don’t have any family out here. They’re all from California. And so I probably should have went back to California. I don’t know that it would have helped too much, but it might have helped me. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had. The toughest situation I’ve ever been in. I definitely tried my best. So yeah healthy friends. My wish is that everyone is healthy.”
Pictured: Ricky Esiquio, and Mitchell Keys
Ricky Esiquio, The Dalles
“My whole family being united, you know? I’ve got some brothers and sisters fighting right now. So hoping to be more united I guess and hoping for the whole family to be together.”
Mitchell Keys, The Dalles
“My family’s health, and just that nothing bad happens really. My Grandpa just had triple bypass surgery and he’s 91 years old so hopefully a speedy recovery for him.”
Sara, The Dalles
“I wish I was not in the cold weather.”
Pictured: Victor Johnson
Victor Johnson, 52, The Dalles
“For Christmas, I would like 1 billion dollars, please.
Enough to build all new schools and an early childhood development center, create a hundred miles of interconnected bike paths and walkways so people don’t have to drive cars everywhere, restore all the historic buildings in town, build a ton of affordable housing and create light manufacturing jobs in the green sector that pay a living wage, so people have jobs, help get the city completely off fossil fuels, and double the salaries of teachers, nurses, fire, police and mental health people who are excellent at what they do and make sure no one goes hungry or sleeps out in the cold.
And, if we have enough left over, maybe Stevie Wonder could play my birthday party.
If that’s not okay. Then I want an official red rider, carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle.”
Pictured: Jesus
Jesus, from out of town
“Well this is a shock. I’m from out of town. You got an out of towner. My Christmas wish is that I get back home in one piece. I’m here working...so maybe to save a few extra bucks, cause I’m always on the budget.”
Pictured: Antoinette
Antoinette, 51, River Falls Wisconsin
“I’m a traveling nurse so I’m here (in The Dalles) working. My Christmas wish is to see covid decrease. To not have to see so many people suffering in the ICU. To see people well, that’s my wish.”
Pictured: Keenan Walsh
Keenan Walsh, Spokane, WA
“My name’s Keenan Walsh, I’m a salesperson. So I drove up to visit the natural foods department at (Rosauers). I think my Christmas wish is that we have more humility. We’re all human and struggling, so my wish is for humility with compassion.
Life is fragile. We lost a little brother this year. My wife Stephanie’s little brother passed away. The things that we are always chasing after, they aren’t going with us. But relationships do.
What I love about natural foods is that people can disagree about a lot of things but we can agree on sharing good food. In the Arabic culture if you have problems with people, like if they are warring or disagreeing, when they meet in peace they always make sure that they eat food with the person they were having problems with. I just think it’s amazing how much food is a necessity that we all share.”
