Jim Wiest was an exceptional human being who understood how to work creatively to make life better for others.

In 1971, when I first met my sister Scottie’s future husband, I could tell that he was there to make life better for Scottie. He was a leather craftsman who had built furnishings for Scottie’s pottery shop while she was living in a garage apartment near Lewisburg.

After they married, they moved to a farm in Upshur County and finally to Elkins. She continued to make pottery, and Jim took a job as the regional Xerox representative. Whenever copiers broke down, desperate office personnel would call Jim Wiest to get Xerox machines going again.

He also bought a plane and learned to fly. He kept the plane in a hangar at the Elkins Airport, and when the 1985 flood devastated this region, Jim used his plane to help find and rescue people.

When Jim learned that he had cancer in 1998, he and Scottie made no secret of the facts. He and Scottie had what they called a “Cancer Party” before we went to Johns Hopkins to have his sarcoma removed from the back of his head. Several of us went to Baltimore to support Scottie and Jim, and it was a long slow operation.

The night after the cancer surgery, Jim had a massive stroke that paralyzed half his body. After several weeks when he finally came home, he could not walk or talk or even swallow.

Scottie had a wheelchair ramp built in the front of the house and an open shower area added where he could take his wheelchair on the first floor. They never gave up hope that he would live and learn again.

Finally, he could swallow a little chocolate mousse, and then speech therapy with Bobbi Trimboli helped him begin to learn to talk again.

Both Scottie and Jim kept working to make him as independent as possible. He not only learned to walk and talk, he learned to go up and down steps and even drive a car. He went up in the airplane, but did not fly himself.

He kept up with “Wall Street Week” and bought stock. He watched “This Old House” and started building furniture with the help of a “right-hand man.” He made a cradle and dining table for his niece and many wood products to give as Christmas gifts.

His creative and generous spirit never stopped. Even after 26.5 years of partial paralysis, Jim was still making wooden cutting boards for Christmas and the last ArtsBank Auction.

Jim Wiest never gave in to disease, disability, or discouragement. If he could not do or say what he wanted, Jim would say, “Oh well ….” and let his frustrations fly away.