Anna Lowe wanted to know more about her grandfather, who was killed when Mount St. Helens erupted 36 years ago.
Lowe was born in 1981 and never met him. Donald Parker, his wife, Natalie, and his nephew Rick were working at the Black Rock Mine northeast of the peak on May 18, 1980.
But there is a lot more to Lowe’s family story.
“If my grandfather hadn’t died, I would have never been born,” the Medford, Ore., woman said.
The Parkers were among 57 people who died in the eruption. Vancouver geologist Richard Waitt included their story in his book, “In the Path of Destruction: Eyewitness Chronicles of Mount St. Helens.” Waitt was the focus of a Sunday story in The Columbian.
Years ago, Waitt helped The Columbian put together an interactive map of the devastated area for our website. Readers can click onto spots where bodies were found and learn more about the victims.
Lowe tried to click on her grandfather’s link.
“I just wanted to find more information for my kids to learn who my family was,” Lowe said.
But she couldn’t open the link. Lowe called The Columbian to see what was going wrong. (The page uses outdated technology and can’t by accessed by smartphones or other mobile devices.)
Brief reconciliation
As she talked, Lowe mentioned that her parents were separated when the volcano erupted. The memorial services for their family members brought her parents back together again, briefly.
“We reconciled, sort of,” said her mother, Melody Clark, also a Medford resident. (Lowe’s father, Clifford Parker, was killed in a logging accident when she was 14.)
Without the memorial services, “She never would have been born. I’m really tickled she was,” Clark said.
“She is pretty special to me,” said Clark, who stressed: “I don’t want to make light of anybody’s death.”
Their story reveals some intimate personal relationships, but the scale of the 1980 disaster meant it overshadowed their family story, Clark said.
“It’s not my history,” Clark said. “It’s not Anna’s history.
“It’s history.”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story, or just tell a story.
