Great stories are based in trust.

I’ve worked in journalism for 13 years, and L’OBSERVATEUR has been fortunate to serve the River Parishes for more than 100 years.

Those decades of service would not have been possible without trust — a special relationship behind each member of the community willing to share what’s most personal to them with a newspaper reporter.

The same goes for our business relationships, where members of the business community work with our sales team to bring their marketing message to the most engaged audience in our community, regular readers of the newspaper and lobservateur.com.

With our latest edition of River Parishes Magazine, C’EST LA VIE, we are excited to again share these relationships with our readers and community.

The all-color, all-glossy magazine hits newsstands Wednesday and is filled with great stories.

A very special thanks goes to Dustin Jenkins and Daniell Nielsen, who became engaged in June 2015. They have since moved to Gramercy — where Jenkins is a sergeant with the St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office — and are set to wed next month.

Their union is unique, as Daniell’s first husband, Brandon, was one of two St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s deputies killed Aug. 16, 2012, when suspects in the shooting of another deputy opened fire in a LaPlace mobile home park.

A fourth deputy was also critically wounded.

Almost four years later, Dustin Jenkins and Daniell Nielsen share their story of connection, trust and blended families with local readers as they discuss finding love after tragedy.

Their trust is appreciated.

The same is true in the story of Alfred Sterling Sr., a man before his time.

Sterling, an entrepreneur, did things most black men weren’t doing in the 1950s.

According to family, he started out with a food truck, selling fruits and vegetables in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Sterling eventually utilized the GI Bill to acquire plumbing, electric work and brick laying experience and started numerous businesses.

One of those, according to daughter Clara Sterling Radecliff, was passed on with the expressed promise never to sell.

Radecliff shares the story in the magazine.

Features on Jenkins, Nielsen and Sterling are a small part of the package we’re publishing next week.

Contributing writers Raquel Derganz Baker, Lori Lyons, Monique Roth, Kyle Barnett and Pam Folse have put together the perfect summer lifestyles magazine that’s 100 percent produced by and catered to the River Parishes.

Our marketing team of Constance Woods, Corey Thomas, Christine Browning and Candace Hemelt — special thanks to them — secured the business and sponsorship support needed to produce the all-color, all-glossy magazine, which comes out quarterly.

Some of our stories include:

• Chuck Wisher was born in Ohio in 1926. He worked at Shell in Norco, meeting his wife June along the way. The two retired in LaPlace; however, Wisher hasn’t spent retirement being lazy. He has a role in American Legion Baseball and has won more than 300 medals competing in the Senior Olympics.

• Jill Hymel Eichhorn of LaPlace shares her recipe for Shrimp Rice — learned from her mother — and explains why it’s the perfect summer meal.

• Former West St. John High School football coach Robert Valdez is now leading his old arch rival, St. James High School, as its new head coach. Dwain Jenkins, a former player and assistant coach at Lutcher High School, has returned to the school as the Bulldogs’ head football coach after coaching cross-parish rival St. James High School. The two veteran football men have unique perspectives on their new gigs.

We think you will enjoy these stories and many more local features in this month’s River Parishes Magazine. Be sure to pick up a copy in your newspaper.

Stephen Hemelt is publisher and editor of L’OBSERVATEUR. He can be reached at 985-652-9545 or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.