COUNTRY
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015
Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
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‘Gone to the dogs’ Faith and pets help Scandia author overcome abuse, child’s addiction BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
SUZANNE LINDGREN | COUNTRY MESSENGER
Sixth grade play Hannah Dettmann as Ariel wishes for love above the sea in Marine Elementary’s sixth grade play, “The Little Mermaid, Jr.” See more photos on page 6.
Marine ventures ‘under the sea’ Sixth grade presents ‘Little Mermaid, Jr.’ BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
The house was packed as a crew of sailors took the stage, singing of mysterious fathoms below. A siren-like voice drifted in from offstage, and the sixth graders at Marine Elementary
had spectators hooked. The silence of the audience at the first performance of “The Little Mermaid, Jr.,” comprised primarily of kindergarten through fourth graders, indicated rapt attention as free-spirited Ariel set out to explore the world and find love outside her waters. Though the play bears Disney’s SEE SIXTH GRADE PLAY, PAGE 2
The first pages of Bev Rasmussen’s memoir, “Hope from Above,” recount a childhood marked by hunger and abuse, both physical and sexual. Bounced between parents and foster homes, the story is one of a child looking for love and instead losing trust in humanity. But Rasmussen’s book is not a chronicle of sorrow. As the title implies, her focus is on resilience. “The reason I wanted to write it is because people have a tendency to blame their past for their present,” she says. “People say, ‘I can’t do that because my parents did this to me. I suffered abuse.’ I wanted to say, ‘We all have a choice.’” In spite of unpredictable living circumstances, there was a constant in Rasmussen’s childhood: love from dogs. “I got into dogs at a very early age because of abuse,” she says. “People were not there for me. Dogs were.” Rasmussen often jokes that she’s “gone to the dogs.” “You’ve heard the old cliché, dog is man’s best friend,” she says. “Well I know why that’s true. If you take the word dog and spell it backward, it spells God, and he is my best friend. It was my faith in God and my animals that brought me
through.” Serendipity and Rasmussen’s own resourcefulness helped her find a family, eventually, to love and care for her. Through them, she connected to her faith and began to move beyond the emotional damage sustained by years of abuse. She channeled her love of dogs into
she and her daughter worked through the challenge and Rasmussen turned it into another chance to grow and share hope with others. “Drugs destroy families,” says Rasmussen, “and through that experience I wanted to offer something to other people. I’d never experienced addiction,
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Bev Rasmussen with Winston, a certified therapy dog Rasmussen brings to area schools, hospitals and nursing homes.
training and grooming, eventually becoming a veterinary technician. Even in adulthood, however, Rasmussen’s struggles continued. The book goes on to describe her struggle to help her daughter overcome a decade-long drug addiction. With love — often of the “tough” variety —
so I didn’t know what it was and how to come out of it. [My daughter] showed me a lot.” She joined Al-Anon, a support group for family and friends of alcoholics, and began to speak publicly about her life’s journey and how she and her daughter SEE AUTHOR, PAGE 5
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