SEQUIM — Nina and Bill Fatherson’s truck is falling apart.
So they’re going to California to see their children, who will come to Sequim to get them and ensure they take this vacation, their first in 25 years.
The Fathersons, you see, don’t like leaving their jobs at the Sequim Food Bank.
They serve — and Nina hugs — 40 to 60 people who come in to the food bank on an average morning.
The building, at 144 W. Alder St., is only supposed to be open from 9 a.m. to noon Fridays and Mondays, but the Fathersons often answer the phone and open the door on other days, to travelers and families who’ve found themselves too broke to buy the basics.
And six days a week, the Fathersons drive their 1997 Ford F-250 from here to Port Angeles to pick up donated food from Safeway, Costco, QFC, Big Lots and Sunny Farms.
Then there are individual donors, like the Sequim residents who call and say: “We’re moving. Come get the food.”
But the truck breaks down with increasing frequency, Nina said. The shell is nearly worn out. Its gas mileage is terrible.
And the transmission is tired, although the Fathersons aren’t.
They have this hope that they’ll come back from California after Easter to a different truck.
