The Journal has a new family member at its Orcas office.

Diane Craig has joined the office as an administrative assistant. In addition to Heather Spaulding, Diane will be the person you call to pay bills and help with your newspaper subscription. You can reach Diane at 370-376-4500.

Diane is a longtime newspaper person, working in news and marketing at the Tampa Bay Times.

Diane wrote the following about her arrival to Orcas.

The answer to the question is always the same: I didn’t find Orcas Island; it found me.

I know I’m not the first person to say that, and that’s what makes being here so incredibly amazing.

Last June, after 17 years in the Sunshine State, I shipped some boxes to family and friends, packed up my ’96 Buick and headed west. Friends in Auburn, Washington, had a trailer where my cat and I could crash until I figured out where I’d ultimately land. I was not about to sweat through one more Florida summer or hurricane season.

Besides, it was time to move. I was turning 70, my parents had passed; I’d gotten the degrees I wanted; had the distinct pleasure of working for one of the country’s best newspapers; lived for awhile on the water; and wrote for a living. I’m a Midwesterner by birth, and never was one for the tropics.

So, how did I end up here, on the Rock?

Two years ago one of my nieces honeymooned on Orcas and, knowing I was planning a move to the more progressive PNW, said the island was where I should move. “It’s like Cornwall with trees,” she said, knowing that I’ve called the rugged southwest England coast my spiritual home since the 1980s. “And it has a newspaper!”

When I first visited the island last August, tears came at almost every turn. It felt like I had come home.

In breathtaking order, I found an apartment, a wonderful landlord, weekly Scrabble games at the library and the most charming people who bid me “Welcome” every time they learned I was new to the island.

I have indeed come home.