Lending an ear for 20 years

Everyone’s got a story. And for the past two decades, Laurel Ewing has made listening to them a large part of her job. 

Ewing, a law clerk at the Flathead County Attorney’s Office, is the first person visitors meet when they enter the building in the shadow of the historic county courthouse on South Main Street in Kalispell. When she’s not busy scheduling appointments for the county attorneys, scanning paperwork or printing out documents from the courthouse, she’s lending an ear.

“So many people just need a sounding board. They need someone to speak to, to hear their words,” Ewing said last week. “I let them talk. I don’t interrupt them. They need to know they are cared for.”

Marking Ewing’s 20th anniversary with the county with a Facebook post in February, officials noted with a touch of lightheartedness that she dealt “with irate individuals, victims, lawyers, and defendants (and their moms), all with grace and overwhelming patience.” Add to that list neighbors wanting to know why law enforcement was on their street the night prior. 

Ewing acknowledged that not everyone walking up the steps and into the office — which was at one time the county jail — is happy to be visiting, but they are all people just the same. 

“I get angry people, I get sad people. I have confused people,” she said. “They’re all different. But they all deserve respect. They all deserve a smile.”

She also admits that at times she acts as a guard dog of sorts for the county attorneys and their support staff. Ewing said she answers what questions she can and takes messages for prosecutors if they are unavailable. 

She has learned over the years to take a deep breath and bring the tone down with visitors or callers. Her rule is to be honest with members of the public even if that means giving them an answer that they don’t like or want. 

While the exchanges might be tolling, Ewing said she long ago figured out how to keep work at work. 

“I know that everyone has their own story and it’s theirs. It’s not mine,” she said. “I know how to let go … I don’t have to take it in.”

A guard dog of sorts in another way, Ewing is fiercely loyal to her colleagues in the County Attorney’s Office. They are as close as a family, said the mother of five and grandmother of eight, recalling how her coworkers came together to help her during a spate of recent health problems.

Though she already has her retirement date on the calendar — she looks forward to diving into her hobbies come April 2027 — Ewing said she loves coming to work each morning.

It’s work that often goes unsung or is misunderstood, she said. The attorneys go through stacks of reports daily, weighing whether to file charges, usually while prepping for trials, she said. 

“I think people have the wrong idea about the office,” Ewing said reflecting on criticisms she has heard about the county agency. “It would be great if people knew we’re hard workers here. We’re doing everything we can to keep people safe just like law enforcement.” 

And that’s without factoring in the increased workload that has come with Flathead Valley’s population growth. Raised in the Flathead, she has watched crime increase as well, including homicides. Ewing said she has come to dread the start of the new year as it often seems to bring a murder with it. 

The oldest of four children, Ewing was working with her father, a chemical dependency counselor, when she took the front desk job at the County Attorney’s Office. She has seen the toll that drug and alcohol abuse has taken in the community in her present position. 

“I think a lot of people need to know how to communicate without the influence of drugs or alcohol,” she said. “I look at the community and I love the people in it, but some are making really poor choices.”

She also worries about the many victims of partner or family member assault that she sees pass through the doors. The survivor of an abusive marriage — she’s been married for nearly three decades to her second husband — she learned from the experience. 

“I didn’t let it continue. I got out … and I grew after that,” Ewing said. “You need someone in your life who can build you up instead of tearing you down.”

It was that period between marriages when she was raising four children as a single mother that helped her become the person she is today, she said. 

“… When I was young I was closed off, I isolated a lot,” she said. “I came to terms with who I am one day. I started changing things about myself.”

She credits her second husband with building off of that and helping her with communication. From there, “things started to change,” she recalled.

“I don’t know why, but I guess if I’m here for a reason, it’s to help people cope,” Ewing said.

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.