Serendipity occurs on Snohomish County Centennial Trail

It felt like serendipity. Footsteps choosing an unfamiliar path, the empty bench in the heat of the day, a feathered flock chorusing overhead — all events that seemed to point the weary couple to the lonely house.

“That house found us. It was meant to be,” Cathy Ashcraft of Snohomish said as she reminisced about the day she and her husband, Dean, stumbled upon the early 1900s dwelling near the Snohomish County Centennial Trail.

“We saw this sad-looking house, abandoned, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely to live there.’ I started to sing Wouldn’t It Be Lovely — I sing to give me energy — and all the birds filled the wire above the house and began to sing too.”

The moment felt almost appointed for the couple who had enjoyed the cool of the morning in town at the 2013 Kla-Ha-Ya Days festival, strolling from place to place in their Victorian-style costumes. But as they walked in the direction of their parked pickup, the summer sun beat down mercilessly.

“We got turned around and so we got on the Centennial Trail,” Cathy said, recalling how Dean was tiring, even with the assistance of his medical walker. “There was a bench on the path and we stopped because he needed to rest. It was so hot.”

And that’s when Cathy spotted the forlorn and forgotten-era house directly across the trail.

“I thought, ‘Wow, if I lived there I’d have a water stand!’” Cathy said about her on-the-spot epiphany. “We needed a bottle of water right then, but we lived on a shoestring budget and it was the end of the month. We wouldn’t have had money for water anyway.”

But even if there was no water bottle to carry, Cathy decided to take with her a photo memory of the quaint house. After all, the couple needed to move soon and their search in small Northwest towns for an affordable old-fashioned home had come up empty.

“Stories of the ’50s always resonated with me and I loved the story of The Little House,” Cathy said, adding how Dean, once a child who bounced from place to place, had painted a picture of a charming house he called “Home Sweet Home” — a place he hoped someday to live.

Determined to find the home of her husband’s dreams, Cathy visited the local library to find the owner of the little house that had caught their eye. By fall of that year, the couple had moved into the rental built in 1936. With Dean’s “fix-it-up” skills and Cathy’s whimsical decorating, there was renewed character in their landlord’s childhood home.

“I decorated the house to look like it had stepped out of a fairy tale book,” Cathy said. “I’d hear adults say, ‘Hey, that’s cool!’ or little children say, ‘Mommy is that Cinderella’s house? Bikes too, ‘Look to the right!”

Still, Cathy was determined to do more. Up went a white tentlike canopy complete with chairs inviting walkers, runners and bicyclists to cool down in the shade.

“I wanted everyone to feel the love of this house, put it up on a candlestick and not hide it under a bushel anymore,” Cathy said, reflecting on a Bible verse and her plans to reach out to others. “I thought I could bring people over from the trail and let them feel the love.”

Like she had envisioned on that hot, thirsty day in 2013, Cathy began to provide free water bottles for passers-by from her H2O to GO stand. She even came up with an additional way to show love.

“The doggies would be across the street and I’d hear them panting when they stopped at the bench, so I decided to put water out for the dogs,” Cathy said about the dish she fills for the pets and water she adds to a dip in the road for the birds. “When I see people walking their dogs, I let them know. Now the dogs look over and want to know where it is if I haven’t gotten to it yet.”

This kind soul who has known severe hardship, reaches across the trail to comfort others.

In 1990, Cathy survived a vehicle rollover on an icy highway that ended in a 45-foot drop off the steep embankment. The crash left her central nervous system and circulatory system injured. Forced to learn how to communicate proficiently again, she was unable to continue work as a wedding display designer. Pain and diminishing eyesight are now her constant companions. Nevertheless, the trailside home has given her renewed purpose; early on she and her husband Dean would sit side-by-side on the lawn as visitors gathered.

Nicknamed “The happiest house at the end of the lane” by the couple, sadness entered in when Dean’s health began to fail. While he rested inside during his final weeks, a hospice ministry helping with basic needs, Cathy tried to make “lemonade out of lemons.” Each day she would offer H2O to GO — along with a smile — to people passing by, they unaware of her heartache.

“With Dean’s health on decline in 2014, I needed a documentary of his life,” Cathy said as she reflected on the urgency she had felt, but also her helplessness because of a tight budget and no video equipment. “So I said a prayer.”

Not long after, an ultra-marathoner chose the Centennial Trail for his morning run. As he jogged by, the decorated 20th century house caught his eye.

“I was running on the trail, it’s a popular place to run,” 1995 Washington State University graduate Wes Plate said as he reminisced. “I saw the H20 to GO stand — she was outside — and she’s a colorful personality, the way she dresses. I thought, ‘That’s interesting.’ ”

Wes had run on the trail before, but it was the first time he had noticed the house and sign.

“He came up to me and said, ‘I do short documentaries on interesting people and I thought I might be able to interview you,’ ” Cathy said, remembering her surprise. “After that, I got tears in my eyes and I said, ‘You might be my answer to prayer.’ ”

The independent video producer and software developer was impressed with Cathy who “gives to others out of her limited resources.” Wes not only created a piece about Cathy’s H2O to GO, but also generously filmed Cathy and her husband in several legacy videos, free of charge.

Cathy’s heartfelt prayer had been wondrously answered. For that to have happened, all the pieces had to come together at the right moment — a runner’s footsteps on a familiar trail, the lovely house catching notice, and one generous woman busy with morning kindnesses.

It seemed to be serendipity and God’s perfect timing.

This story was originally published May 29, 2016 at 2:13 AM with the headline "Serendipity occurs on Snohomish County Centennial Trail."