When it comes down to it a lot of visitors to the sunny [or rather rainy, snowy, etc.] banks of our lovely little city filled with Lilacs seem to think we are all about the Bloomsday or the Ironman race, or even the good old World Expo 74'. You'd think those couple of tidbits or the wandering Cougars, Huskies, Sasquash, Eagle, Pirate, or Bulldog from one of the many University and College campuses that the Spokane area is known so well for would have had a big impact on how we would have designed everything about the Abbey right?????  Giggles.  Well not so much.  Oh sure. we thought about it, however, in the spirit of fun we dug a bit further back and weighed in our many options.  

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Did we want a coronet that was a huge Expo hat with 70's party lights or a steam stack with vapor from the 1880's floating out of it?  Both were good choices!  Excellent candidates!  We even thought about a replica of the first jewish temple that was originally down on 3rd Street here in Spokane or the front doors of one of the old grand motels that used to grace the main street of our fair city.  Those were fun thoughts but they just didn't have the umps or pickles needed if ya know what I mean. 

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After a lot of hand wringing (and bribing Sister Scarlet Muffins with tons of coffee to become the Mistress of Habits and do all the sewing-  who in turn bribed soon to be postulant Ravin Amazonia with tons of Chocolate for the location of every single fabric store in Spokane)  the house decided that it wanted something that reflected our desire to spread joy & love while being a bit silly at the same time. We also determined that the coronet should reflect a bit of the founding history of Spokane to honor those that came before us.  This is why the oversized Nurse's hat or the "BILLBOARD" as it is affectionately known was chosen as the coronet for the Abbey of Our Lady of Lilacs. The Billboard attaches to the headband with three buttons. The button on the Right temple stands for love, the left temple for Universal Joy, and the Button on the forehead stands for the expiation of stigmatic guilt.  With their powers combined the three buttons hold the Billboard in place to form the ultra large oversized Nursing hat of our Abbey!!!!!!!    Nursing has deep roots in Spokane going back to the days when Washington was a Territory. Therefore it is with happy joy that we acknowledge and celebrate the history of the care of the poor and the sick with the wearing of our coronet!