Spooner’s Jean Parker was born in Shell Lake and when she was just four years old her family moved to Zion, Illinois where she lived until she was eighteen years old.
Well, you might say she lived in Zion most of the year, the other part, summer to be exact; she joined her mom and another sibling in running the Grand View Lodge on Long Lake between June and September.
They took care of the four cabins and the duplex cabin and the hundreds of other jobs that running a resort entails; in the fall the family would pack up and go back to Zion for the winter.
After high school graduation the family returned to Wisconsin, buying her grandparent’s place, and she had plans to go to college at River Falls to become an English teacher.
She got a summer job as a waitress at the historic Topper Café on Spooner’s main street and lived upstairs. Then one day her plans and her life changed completely.
His name was John Parker. They married and she traded college for marriage and their first child, Jason, was born after she had worked for the Red Cross Drug Store for three years. As long as she was home with him, she turned their house into a day care for eleven years and had their second child, Jaimee, during this time.
Being a woman of high energy, she became a teacher’s aide for three years, working with the Spooner school system, which then led her to be certified in special education when she was in her early thirties.
These special kids were the students she loved the most and she went on to spend twenty four years in the field working under the supervision of the special education teacher.
Twelve years ago John retired from his lifetime career with the DNR and Jean decided to join him in retirement.
She had always been a traveler and each trip whetted her appetite to do more; to see the world. John spent his service years with the U.S. Navy and he had already seen the world, so she traveled with him a few times and the rest of her trips she took others along, including school groups going abroad through the American Council for International Studies, doing this along with her high school friend.
After being in China several times along with the British Isles, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Austria and Greece, she became a private tour director to the British Isles leading local people on a trip of their lifetime.
The theme of her life was becoming obvious; she was a tender. From day care and her students to her tour groups, she loved to take care of people.
Her next career was a surprise to her, but it fit right into her tending nature.
Jean and John attend, and are very involved with, the United Methodist Church in Spooner and when an older man at church was moving out of a house he shared with his beloved wife, now deceased, he had no idea where to start and what to do.
Jean spent her life as a garage and estate sale devotee, so she stepped up and said she’d help him; thus leading to more and more estate sales for those who were overwhelmed with the prospect of doing it themselves.
Through the years she’s been available to process, stage, price and execute the sale, including the newspaper ads and hours and hours of physical work sorting and going through outbuildings and deep closets and attics along with supplying the tables and supplies for the sale.
Once hired, she’d do an initial walk through with the owner/owners and their children to see what everyone wanted to keep and what needed to be for sale.
Then the hard questions were asked; questions like did the owners want to make money, or empty the house and what they were planning on doing with the items left over and did they want to take care of that chore, or did they want her to?
Because Jean has always loved antiques, and even buys and sells them through the Vintage Gallery in Rice Lake, 218 North Main to be exact, she spends time on the internet determining what price the items need to be, so she already knew the key sites that would help her accurately price her client’s items. She also encouraged the owners to have all their ‘good’ jewelry appraised by a professional. This way, by the time of the sale, all items are neat and tidy, marked accurately and when the doors opened there were no questions left to ask.
Her service is a God-send for the elderly who are moving into a nursing home, or assisted living and are frankly overwhelmed with the task of emptying a home where they have lived for years and years.
Thanks to her husband and various family members, she’s able to empty heavy items from outbuildings and move large pieces of furniture if need be.
It’s been a busy six or seven years, business improving each year, but in 2018 all of her various obligations will cease for a bit because she’s finally going to her trip of a lifetime, going to the Holy Land, a trip she’s very much looked forward to for a long time.
Meanwhile, she’s still involved with life in the fast lane and will probably spend the rest of her life tending to something or somebody, with the heart-felt gratitude of all those who were privileged to be under her excellent care.
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Diane Dryden has been a newspaper feature writer for twelve years and is the author of two novels. Order your copy of the Accidental King of Clark Street and Double or Nothing on Foster Avenue today!
Last Update: Jan 24, 2017 11:06 am CST
