Looking back and moving on

The good news: They figured out who killed Conan the mastiff with a bow and arrow.

The bad news: It was someone the family knows.I can't tell you much more than that, at the request of Liam and Amanda O'Hara.

Liam is the one who came out of their Wallingford house early on March 26 and found Conan in his pen, a razor-tipped arrow in his side.

The 7-year-old dog died two days later. The O'Haras moved out of the house not long after.

They're hoping a new place will ease the hurt for them and their other mastiff, Jezebell.

But they do want to say thank you to everyone who expressed sadness, sympathy and outrage, who made donations to the Seattle Animal Shelter in Conan's name, and who showed up at a memorial at the Mosaic Coffee House.

Conan's was just one of the columns that I wanted to come back to, and wrap up.

More good humans stopped to help Bernard St. Clair, a homeless man who was struck by a semi-truck crossing Interstate 5 last month.

Rebecca Lane was first, followed by husband, Michael, and others who prayed over St. Clair until he was taken to Harborview, where he later died.

Lane left her name and number with the medical examiner, who passed it on to St. Clair's brother and sister, Sharon and Dwayne, of Tacoma.

During a "short and very powerful" call, Lane said, Sharon asked her about St. Clair's state, whether he had any last words. No, Lane told them. But there were people all around.

One of them was reader Mary Roberts' brother, James, who prayed aloud while Lane knelt beside St. Clair. James was on his way to the airport to pick up a family member for a funeral.

Women in Black, a group of women who memorialize the homeless, held a vigil for St. Clair. Lane was there.

The experience "has added to my commitment to staying very centered and calm in my life and paying attention to people in need," Lane said.

It has also revived her anger over the issue of homelessness.

"It's just inexcusable."

Few know that better than Pastor Patrinell Wright, who wanted to thank those who helped send her Total Experience Gospel Choir to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where they helped rebuild the home of Hurricane Katrina victim Yusef Bryant and his family.

"A skeleton is what it was," Wright said of what they saw when they arrived March 24. "No windows, no doors, no fixtures ... "

Thanks to those who attended three fundraising events at Kenyon Hall in March (and their own concert audiences) the choir raised some $25,000 to hire contractors, plumbers and electricians; and to buy sheetrock, nails and a sander.

Special thanks to Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam for playing with the choir and pitching in.

But listen here, Wright said.

"I am not done. I will continue to beg on behalf of those who feel they can't ask."

She plans to return to the Gulf Coast in July to dedicate the Bryants' old/new house.

Dedicate to whom? I asked.

"To God, to thank him. People ask how God works, and he works through people."

Don't we know it, and well.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She is happy to bear witness.