Heart attack shakes pastor just a little

ROYAL CITY — At 56, Alice Warness is a youngster among the senior citizen community, but she may have wondered recently after a heart attack that slowed her a bit.

Actually, Alice had two heart attacks within five days while she was studying at the Claremont School of Theology in California earlier this summer. But she’s doing well and is getting back to her duties.

Alice is the pastor of the United Methodist Church in Royal. She is also the band and choir director at Frontier Middle School in Moses Lake. She writes a weekly spiritual column for the Sun Tribune. And she’s a wife, a mom and a gardener.

In other words, she’s one busy lady. And she plans to remain that way.

Alice came to United Methodist in 2014 to pastor the second Sunday of every month in place of full-time pastor Bill Altheim. A year later, she was assigned to the church, with Altheim preaching once a month. On July 1, Alice was made the full time pastor.

Alice started life on her parents’ dairy farm near Darrington in the western foothills of the Cascades. They retired the year she graduated and moved to Colfax to be near her while she studied at Washington State University.

“I loved it. I went home every weekend,” she said.

The home economics major and music minor played tenor saxophone in the WSU Cougar Marching Band in 1981, when WSU’s football team made it to the Holiday Bowl. The Cougs lost an exciting 38-36 contest to the Brigham Young Cougars, but Alice hardly noticed.

Not having done much traveling, she was swept up in the late December southern California experience. She was treated to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and an NBA game.

“It was awesome,” she said.

Alice started her teaching career at Inchelium High School on the Colville Reservation in 1982. Most of her students were tribal members. She taught gainful home economics, or restaurant skills. Successful students received a certificate that allowed them to go to work.

“I loved it there. I really liked it there,” she said.

But Alice was there only one year to replace a teacher on maternity leave. She moved on to Ocosta High School in Westport, where she lived nine years and worked five.

There, Alice met her husband Michael. He was part of a cranberry farming family. They were set up on a blind date by Michael’s cousin, who was in Alice’s class.

“I really didn’t want to do it,” Alice said.

But it was only a harmless dinner at the cousin’s family’s home. It would be meaningless.

“We were engaged one month later, and we were married three months later,” she said with a giggle.

After taking a break to start a family, Alice went back to work at Inchelium. She was a K-12 math and language arts tutor on a one-year federal grant.

The next year, 1993, Alice took a job as a first grade teacher assistant at Springdale, near Spokane.

At the end of that year, the music teacher resigned. Nobody applied for the job. So administrators started looking through staff files for someone who might be able to do the job.

“At first I didn’t think I wanted to do it but, after a while, I liked it,” Alice said.

Alice carried out those duties for five years. Then she had to look for a new school for the sake of her “gifted” daughter. Springdale didn’t have a program with which to challenge her.

Alice found her daughter’s opportunity in the Moses Lake School District and a job as the Frontier Middle School band and choir director. She is now in her 17th year.

Alice’s life has always been faith-filled and, four years ago, she sent a prayer up to God asking for direction. She wanted to serve Him better.

Not long after, the Pastor at Moses Lake United Methodist announced to the congregation that the young man who was taking the course for licensed local pastor had resigned. Almost immediately, Alice said she would take the position.

“The Holy Spirit came over me and said, ‘This is your moment,’” she said.

Licensed local pastors are not reverends, but they carry out pretty much the same function. And LLP can choose their church while reverends are assigned.

Alice filled out the paperwork and, that summer, headed off to her first year at Claremont. After one year, the district director called her in. There was a need for a second Sunday pastor at Royal City.

Alice took that post, started pastoring and continued attending seminary. She created a busy life for herself, maybe a little too busy, at least maybe too stressful.

Alice was at Claremont for her third year when her first heart attack happened on June 30 at about 8 p.m. She didn’t know what was happening, but she went to emergency.

The doctor performed an angiogram and found no problem with her arteries and sent her home. On July 4 she was back at the hospital with a larger heart attack.

This doctor told her it was her second heart. He was irate that the first doctor sent her home without medication.

Alice learned that the first doctor was brand new, on his first day at work. He didn’t consider that Alice might have the condition she has, which requires different testing.

“I don’t blame him at all,” she said. “He just didn’t think to consider I might have this condition.”

Alice had to forfeit two of her seminary classes. School officials sent her home to Washington to convalesce.

Alice’s arteries are fine, but the small vessels around her heart constrict when she’s under stress. That surprised her because she has preached that people need to hand their challenges over to God.

“I guess I wasn’t doing that completely,” she said.

Alice will work on that and keep on trucking. And if some day a heart attack does take her, she’s ready to accept that.

“I never was scared,” she said. “I’m not scared of death. I know where I’m going.”

Alice will soon get back to teaching, gardening and writing. And she will get back to the pulpit too.

“I love it,” she said. “I love being a minister. I love the people. I love the community.”