‘Thank God for Roger’

Roger Repp is one of those guys who just can’t help helping people.

“I don’t know what I would do without him,” said Jeanene Powers, 72, of Spokane Valley.

When her husband, Raymond “Smokey” Powers, died in 2005, she looked around her house, which sits on a large double lot near Felts Field, and worried that the place would soon fall apart.

“Being a widow is really hard,” Powers said. “I’m on a limited income and don’t have what I had before.”

Within a few days of her husband’s funeral, Repp, a longtime friend, stopped by and started pitching in.

“He just came on the scene without having to be asked,” Powers said. “It was like a cloud lifted off of me.”

It seems that her husband and Repp had long shared a passion for antique cars.

“We went way back,” said Repp, 62, owner of R E Loans at 819 W. Riverside Ave. in downtown Spokane. “He helped me rebuild an old Model T.”

Among the chores Repp tackled was sorting out hundreds of car parts, mowing down the weeds, trimming bushes and trees, building a fence and re-roofing the garage.

“He’s done things for all kinds of people and has been offered money, but he will never take anything,” Powers said.

“I keep saying ‘Thank God for Roger,’ ” she added. “His heart is so big; I don’t know how it fits inside him.”

Margaret and Jack Johnson of Spokane Valley agree.

The Johnsons, both with health issues, have been neighbors with Roger and Glenda Repp since 1974. They met over their backyard fence.

“We watched their children grow up,” Margaret Johnson, 87, said. “They are just like family.”

This winter both the Repps have been making almost daily trips through the backyards to shovel snow off the Johnsons’ driveway.

“They are here at a drop of the hat if we need them,” said Johnson.

“Jack and Margie are such good neighbors,” Repp said. “I told them that I would help keep them in their house as long as I could.

“With a lot of these older people if they don’t have someone around to take care of this stuff, they will get moved out of their homes. Most just don’t seem to last long after that.”

The Johnsons are “very reassured” knowing the Repps are looking out for them.

“When you stop and think about it, the world has really changed,” Johnson said.

“When I was being raised up we never locked houses and everything was so open. Now you are afraid of leaving anything out,” she said.

“It makes it real nice to have good neighbors like Roger and Glenda.”