By Mike Weland
Not many know it, but there’s a street in Bonners Ferry named for a diminutive human dynamo whose smile and boundless energy brightened the community she adopted like a tiny second sun. Marciavee Cossette, 91, passed away last night at Sunset Home Assisted Living.
Known for years as “The Worm Lady,” she was a regular fixture at the Bonners Ferry Farmers Market, extolling the benefits of earthworms. Spokesman Review reporter Laura Umthun interviewed her, publishing “The Worm Lady” February 20, 2010.
“‘Marciavee Cossette talks to her Georgia Redworms with the same passion that other people talk to their plants; worms are her friends and her business,’ Umthun wrote. ‘Cossette calls herself ‘The Worm Lady,’ and is the owner of an eco-friendly worm fertilizer business that harnesses the excess waste produced by earthworms and sells it by mail order and at the Boundary County Farmer’s Market. ‘I feed the worms; they produce fertilizer that I give to my plants. I grow the plants, harvest the crop, and the cycle starts again,’ Cossette says.'”
For several years, planters appeared on city sidewalks in the spring as if by magic, flowers blooming profusely in the rich loam, you’d see her in the early morning, shaded by a bonnet, lavishing love and water to keep both the plants and those who enjoyed them happy. She was tiny, but a huge part of GROW, whose members celebrated her birthday with her years, and may well continue as a community event.
Marciavee was everywhere, and everywhere you happened to bump into her, she was effusive, sprightly, happy to see you and happy to be seen.
She was a regular feature at Bonners Ferry City Council and Rotary Club meetings and at nearly every parade or shindig occurring in town … most often in colorful costume befitting the occasion. For years, she was the main attraction at the Special Olympics Penguin Plunge, with people coming not because they wanted to freeze for the cause, but to see what Marciavee was wearing that year and would feel ashamed if they didn’t sprout a few goosebumps, too. She served on the Boundary County P&Z Commission for many years. She dined regularly with her many friends at the Bonners Ferry Senior Center until she was hospitalized after a fall this winter and moved to Sunset Home, where she remained as impish and mentally vibrant as ever.
It is doubtful any one person in Boundary County could name all the places Marciavee enlivened … it is doubtful anyone could have kept up with her at all.
On November 1, 2011, the Bonners Ferry City Council met and as was usual, Marciavee was there. Discussion was being held on an amended plat of the Maxwell Acre Tracts between Super One Foods and the old Co-op. Surveyor John Marquette was there to explain the details, Jerry Lewis from ITD was on hand and all the details had been ironed out. Councilman Mike Klaus made motion to approve the amended plat as presented but city administrator Stephen Boorman recommended that a short, one-block street traversing the field behind Subway and connecting the Super 1 parking lot and Kennedy Street should have a name.
Some who were there recall council president Chris Clark needed hardly a moment’s thought to recommend “Cossette Street.”
“There were several reasons it felt fitting,” Chris remembers. “Maricavee was a very gracious lady who was very involved, and she almost always brought treats, always went above and beyond.”
And while it was her community involvement that gained her the most notice, the nursing care she provided quietly behind the scenes enabled many elderly to spend their last days in dignity, in the company of their families, at peace.
Even with the sun breaking occasionally to show off the spring leaves just breaking out from their buds in just the slightest hint of green, it seems a little darker today, a little more somber. As if the light of a small, diminutive sun that shone for us and us alone flickered and dimmed slowly to darkness.
Rest in Peace! The Curley Q’s club will miss you!
She was a fixture at St. Ann’s Catholic Church from the day she moved here. Always helping where needed and almost never missing Mass, daily and on weekends. She loved hearing the choir sing and always had complements for them including applause. She chaired the rummage sales at the church for years and was greatly missed when her health began failing. Even through all of her many medical issues (broke most everything that could be broken over the years) she remained smiling and wanting to help where she could. She was a real “energizer bunny”!
Thank you Mike Weland for a great article! I’ve been on Cossette Street after leaving Medicine Man Pharmacy to get prescriptions for MarciaVee over the years and never thought to ask her about it. And now I Know the Rest of the Story as Paul Harvey used to say! She will be sorely missed.
Dear Mike,
I lovingly recall many stories you have both published and told over the years about our dear beloved Marciavee, The Belle of Boundary County. This however, was the most outstanding tribute possible. Marciavee has positively touched the lives of most, if not every person in Boundary County in one way or another. She held each and every one of those relationships very special and dear to her heart. Her legacy will live on and she will be missed, loved, and remembered for generations to come.
MarciaVee was a caregiver for my dad who was a gruff retired military officer. She would just shake her head, laugh and wave at him rather than be offended.
Marciavee! A grand lady. Involved in this community in more ways that you can count. I met her working at the GROW Community Gardern and serving as Vice President. Or was it at the Farmers Market? Or at Rotary? Or manning a table at Super One. Or, ……… She was everywhere. Volunteering for almost every thing. And, If you’re a man and haven’t been pinched by MV, you haven’t been out and about in Bonners Ferry. I will miss her so much. One of her sayings that fits so well: “If you can’t say something nice about somebody, don’t say it!” That says it all about her!
Maricavee will be sorely missed and so fondly remembered! She loved to serve this community. She had true grit, surviving so many falls and setbacks, going back to the farmers market with her beloved composting worms! She took the Master Gardener twice. She gave & gave & gave to this community. She had just a bit of the devil in her, in a sweet way. I loved her smile & sparkle! A unique & very fine lady.