Some weeks the news just stinks, not “buenas noticias,” as Mayor Lucero always requested. Sometimes it’s “malos noticias,” bad news.

Our community lost some very special people within the past week, Lorraine Gallegos a week ago today and Jeff Woodward on Wednesday. Although Lorraine’s husband Lee was still alive last I knew, we really lost him too, because the person he became last Friday morning when he took Lorraine’s life was not the person we had always known him to be.

I got to know Lorraine and Lee when they would come into the Courier to clean the office. We talked about mostly inconsequential things, but it was always a pleasure. Lorraine was so sweet and cheerful, and Lee was always so kind.

They were both hard-working people, and our stop was just one of many jobs they worked over the years. They stopped cleaning our business earlier this year I think, although time runs together for me anymore.

I and everyone else who knew Lorraine and Lee were shocked and heartsick to learn of her death last Friday. When one of their sons came in on Monday to talk to me, I learned that Lee had an aggressive form of Frontal Lobe Dementia, which was diagnosed only a few months ago and had gotten rapidly worse in a short time. He had an appointment this month with a specialist who might have been able to help manage the symptoms, but unfortunately that was not soon enough. He also had a tumor in a different part of his brain, and I don’t know how much that might have affected his personality as well.

The illness changed Lee from the mild, gentle, kind person we all knew him to be. He was always solicitous of his wife when I saw them together, very kind and sweet to her.

I miss them both, Lorraine whose smile will always be present in my memory, and Lee whose kindness is what I will choose to remember.

One time after Lorraine and Lee had been to an anniversary celebration for their daughter in Salida, Lorraine gave me one of the extra silk rose centerpieces she had made for the event. I have had it on my desk ever since, and it will always be special to me, a reminder of the sweet person she was. My heart goes out to her family whose suffering I cannot fathom but whose faith will carry them through.

Jeff also suffered from an illness that rapidly and aggressively attacked him, in this case his body rather than his mind. Jeff fought one of the worst cancers, pancreatic cancers, and he gave that fight his best shot, just like he did everything else in his life.

Those of us who knew him in one fashion or another (railroader, businessman, barbecue genius, community leader, dad, grandpa … ) were blessed to know him. For me, he WAS Early Iron. He never took the credit he deserved for his part in putting on this event, because he always credited the Early Iron team and supporters and the community. He always said Alamosa was the best community there was. He would work pretty much year round getting ready for the event that drew more than 500 vintage automobiles and their owners and families (and those of us who just liked to visit the show) to Alamosa every Labor Day weekend.

This year and no year ever afterwards will be the same without Jeff — bigger than life and whose influence in this community will last well beyond his life.

Lorraine and Jeff filled different roles in this community, but the holes left by their passing are gaping and painful for so many who knew them.

I am just grateful I was one of those who did.