Mankato Magazine, December 2018

CANCER

SUCKS Which is why we’re telling stories of survival and hope this month!

ANN ROSENQUIST FEE’S farewell Meet BENCHS’

TERRI HANSON Say hello to

THE SHOE LADY Megan Ruble DECEMBER 2018

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FEATURE S DECEMBER 2018 Volume 13, Issue 12

18

CANCER SUCKS Just about everyone has been touched by cancer, and it’s almost always a horrible experience. So we’re turning the tables on that nasty disease and bringing you stories filled with hope and positive energy.

ABOUT THE COVER Megan Ruble was photographed by Pat Christman at the Andreas Cancer Center on the Mayo Clinic Health System campus in Mankato.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 3

DEPARTMENTS 6 From the Editor 8 Faces & Places 10 This Day in History 11 Avant Guardians Pegeen Rozeske

13

12 Beyond the Margin Christmas journeys 14 Familiar Faces Terri Hanson 32 Day Trip Destinations West 7th Heaven 34 Then & Now President Truman’s

whistle stop in Kato

37 Food, Drink & Dine

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38 Food 3-D cookies 40 Wine More adventures through

wine country

41 Beer The Dark Truth 42 That’s Life Dear Santa

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44 Garden Chat Seed catalog musings 46 Your Style For Pamela, who rocked it 48 Night Moves Cheap date night 51 Coming Attractions 52 From This Valley The Mickee Prescription

46 4 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

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Coming in January Your best YOU!

Holiday Events Christmas at the Hubbard House

THE MANKATO BALLET COMPANY presents

The Gingerbread House Mystery

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Saturday, December 1 3:00 - 7:00 p.m.

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New Ulm State Street Theater

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Students/Seniors: $15 Call or go online: 507-389-6661 • www.MSUTHEATRE.com

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Children: $12

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Call or go online: 507-389-6661 www.MSUTHEATRE.com

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Saturday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets to the New Ulm Performances must be purchased through the State Street Theater Website or at their Chamber of Commerce. Tickets will also be available at the door and will be priced the same in both locations.

Chapel of Our Lady of Good Counsel 170 Good Counsel Drive, Mankato

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 5

FROM THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

By Robb Murray DECEMBER 2018 • VOLUME 13, ISSUE 12 PUBLISHER Steve Jameson EDITOR Joe Spear ASSOCIATE Robb Murray EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Amanda Dyslin Ann Rosenquist Fee Bert Mattson Bryce O. Stenzel Diana Rojo-Garcia James Figy Jean Lundquist Nell Musolf Pete Steiner

PHOTOGRAPHERS Pat Christman Jackson Forderer

PAGE DESIGNER Christina Sankey ADVERTISING Danny Creel SALES Joan Streit Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh Zimmerman Marianne Carlson Theresa Haefner ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Sue Hammar DESIGNERS Christina Sankey CIRCULATION Justin Niles DIRECTOR

Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second St., Mankato MN 56001.

To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues.

For editorial inquiries, call Robb Murray at 344-6386, or e-mail rmurray@mankatofreepress.com.

For advertising, call 344-6364, or e-mail advertising@mankatofreepress.com.

6 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Cancer, in stories

W

hen we decided to have an issue of Mankato Magazine focused on cancer, we knew right away we wanted human stories of survival to be our engine.

Storytelling, after all, is one of the most ancient ways humans convey information. It might even be the first way it was ever done. It is primal, it is powerful. We could have let the medical community tell the story, with doctors talking about groundbreaking treatments or nurses telling readers about the horrors they’ve seen.

But we thought we’d take you right to those horrors, so to speak, and put hopeful faces on them. So it’s personal stories of people who won or are winning their war with cancer that makes up a big chunk of the December issue.

For background, the World Health Organization says: n There are more than 100 types of cancers; any part of the body can be affected. n In 2018, 7.6 million people died of cancer — 13 percent of all deaths worldwide. n About 70 percent of all cancer deaths occur in low- and middleincome countries. n Worldwide, the 5 most common types of cancer that kill men are (in order of frequency) lung, stomach, liver, colorectal and oesophageal. n Worldwide, the 5 most common types of cancer that kill women are (in the order of frequency) breast, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical. In many developing countries, cervical cancer is the most common cancer. n Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of cancer in the world causing 22 percent of cancer deaths. n Cancers of major public health relevance such as breast, cervical and colorectal cancer can be cured if detected early and treated adequately. n All patients in need of pain

relief could be helped if current knowledge about pain control and palliative care were applied. n One fifth of all cancers worldwide are caused by a chronic infection, for example human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer. n More than 30 percent of cancers could be prevented, mainly by not using tobacco, having a healthy diet, being physically active and moderating the use of alcohol. In developing countries, up to 20 percent of cancer deaths could be prevented by immunization against the infection of HBV and HPV. Just about everyone knows someone who has fought this dreadful disease. Let’s hope that fact becomes less and less true in the coming years and decades.

Elsewhere in Mankato Magazine, we say goodbye this month to a woman who is one my favorite writers anywhere: Ann Rosenquist Fee, author of our Your Style column. Her lively writing style and unique thoughts on style were like a little gift for me every month. I’d often read her work and think, “I can’t wait for people to read this.”

She’s moving on to the next phase of her creative life, and we wish her well. The new kid starts in January.

Finally, I want to draw your attention to our Familiar Faces feature. We’re introducing you to Terri Hanson from the Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society. If you’ve adopted a pet from BENCHS in the last few years, then you know Terri. And you’d probably call her a friend. She’s one of our community’s gems.

Robb Murray is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at 344-6386 or rmurray@ mankatofreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @freepressRobb.

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 7

FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports

Dig It Event 1. Mason and Carter Haugh sit in the cab of a big wheel loader.

2. A tipped side dumper welcomes families into the event.

3. Families explore the equipment.

4. A volunteer explains different material processing to a group.

5. Kids and their families play on the giant mound of sand.

6. A group watches an excavator load rock into a crusher.

7. (From left) Breah Davis, Ellie Nienow, and Bentley Davis pose for a photo on a Holtmeier truck.

8. A group of kids watches a demonstration of rock getting crushed into gravel.

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8 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports

Indian Hills Grape Stomp

1

1. Dan and Aletha Drenth participate in the grape stomp.

2. Ray Winter, one of the owners of the winery, measures juice from the grape stomp.

3. Amy Manette performs at the event.

4. The wine bar was busy with people tasting the Indian Island wines.

5. Indian Island Winery is located South of Janesville.

6. The vendor show offered a variety of goods.

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 18 • 9

THIS DAY IN HISTORY Compiled by Jean Lundquist

Happy Holidays

Round the town Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1953 With Christmas fast approaching, the Mankato Free Press offered tips on how to tip the milkman, and make his holiday happier. First, don’t oversleep and forget to put your milk bottles out, then call later and ask for special delivery. He wants to be home early to spend time with his family, too. Second, be sure there is no dishwater or moisture in the bottom of the bottles when you drop in a few coins or tickets. If you don’t, they will freeze to the bottle, and make retrieving the gifts soggy and/or difficult to get out of the bottle. “A little cooperation . . . will make Christmas . . . a happier time for the driver of the milk truck that calls at your door.”

Phone eavesdropping nears end at dunnell Friday, Dec. 4, 1964 Carl Rupe, owner of the Dunnell Phone Company in Martin County, said his company would be the first in the nation to provide one-party private phone lines when construction is complete in a few months. Not all of his nearly 300 Fairmont-area customers were happy at the news. “There’s been a little bit of gripe from some of those old girls,” he said. At the time, all of his lines had eight customers. With a grant from the REA, all his new lines were to be underground. “We won’t own a telephone pole.”

City officials propose limits on power of regional groups Saturday, Dec. 4, 1976 At a meeting of the Coalition of Outstate Cities at the Century Club in North Mankato, A proposal was drawn up asking the state legislature to limit the power of organizations such as the Region Nine Development Commission.

Other cities just wanted the power to secede from such an organization, rather than limiting their power associated with receiving federal grants. Mankato Mayor Herb Mocol was elected President for 1977, and Mankato City manager Bill Bassett was elected Secretary/Treasurer. Mocol warned the group that neither scenario was likely, and he was proven to be right.

115 North Kato employees to get at least a 6 percent raise Tuesday, Dec. 7, 1976 The 42 full time and 72 part time employees of North Mankato were granted a happy 1977 when the city council approved a minimum 6 percent wage increase. Those making $16,000 per year or more were given even larger increases. Under the schedule, City Manager Bob Ringhofer would get a bump to $27, 891.40 per year, and the overall budget for personnel services would increase to $546,085. Councilman Ron Saye voted against the increases, saying for a city of 8,000 residents, it was out of line. Ringhofer countered that the increase was in line due to the “metro problems” that came from being in close proximity to Mankato. For perspective, in 2017, the budget item for personnel services was $4.45 million.

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Meet ‘The Shoe Lady’ Pegeen Rozeske recreates shoes from centuries gone by

F

rustrated with not being able to fit into store-bought cowboy boots, Pegeen Rozeske took matters into her own hands by learning how to make her own shoes to ensure her footwear actually fit.

“When I was a kid, you could get any size you wanted,” said Rozeske. “You can’t get those sizes anymore. And people today with orthotics, they have diabetes, they have oddly shaped feet; those are the people in my market.”

Rozeske began an apprenticeship 15 years ago to learn how to make cowboy boots in Redmond, OR. “The training was the start of it,” she said. “It has never stopped; I am still learning.”

After honing her boot-making skills, Rozeske turned to making historical shoes.

“Historically, because the sewing machine wasn’t invented prior to 1840, all the shoes before that were hand stitched,” she explained.

Her favorite time period to recreate is 1770.

“I make historically accurate shoes for people who do re-enactments or work at historic locations,” said Rozeske.

The process from start to finish for a pair of handsewn tall boots is three weeks. It begins with Rozeske first measuring the shape of the customer’s foot.

“Because every person’s foot is different, the pattern for each individual shoe is unique,” she shared.

She then cuts out the leather and stitches it together.

Each pair has two soles: the insole and the outsole. The entire upper is stitched to insole and can be replaced as needed.

What started off as a hobby quickly turned into a fulltime career for Rozeske about four years ago.

“Part of what I do, it’s not just the shoes,” explained Rozeske, who not only demonstrates for groups of kids and adults how the shoes are made, but strives to take listeners back to the time period the shoes would have been worn.

“I see about 6,000 school children in an average fall,” she added.

Originally from New Ulm, Rozeske has participated in historical re-enactments since 2001.

Her shoemaking demonstrations can be found around Minnesota at the Lester River Rendezvous in Duluth, Big Island Rendezvous in Albert Lea, Jack McGowan’s History Fest in Mankato and Wapiti Rendezvous in Nowthen to name a few.

“When I travel, I have a box that has all of my tools and supplies,” she said. “That goes from event to event.”

Her passion for history continues to fuel her work as “The Shoe Lady.”

“Show me a picture of a historic shoe and I can try and recreate it,” she said. “History itself is my inspiration.”

She often receives shoe orders just by doing demonstrations at the events, something that has greatly expanded over the past year.

“I currently have orders out 28 weeks,” she said. “It is overwhelming and humbling.”

When she’s traveling to and from historical events from September to October, Rozeske also educates spectators about what life was like before 1840.

When I am out of the road like that, I live in a tent,” she said, “A couple of nights it was pretty chilly. We have had some severe weather also this fall. Living in a little white canvas tent for six weeks can be an adventure.”

The experience also helps keep Rozeske learning along the way.

“I thoroughly love working with leather,” she said.

“Kids teach me so much. If there are questions they ask, I have to learn to. Kids are little sponges and so much fun.”

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 11

BEYOND THE MARGIN

By Joe Spear

Christmas journeys connect us

A

bout 2020 years ago Mary and Joseph rode a donkey and walked 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be counted in the first decreed census of the Roman Empire.

When their son was born, they learned that King Herod back in Judea vowed to kill all the babies — the innocents — upon word of a new King of the Jews in the works. They never went back.

It’s a compelling story we can recount each Dec. 25. It’s a story of fear and flight of a young couple with a child.

They were escaping certain death at the hands of an evil country and ruler.

It’s hard not to recall the plight of the first refugees as we watch thousands flee Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador for some of the same reasons and under some of the same circumstances.

Most refugees from Central America claim they are leaving their countries for fear of their lives. Drug lords, corrupt governments and the promise of a life where they can avoid daily mortality fears brings them to Mexico with hopes for America.

The photos of the refugees are strikingly familiar to depictions of Mary and Joseph on a donkey. The Central American refugees are not on the backs of animals, but they do have their children on their backs.

It seems protection of one’s family while fleeing one’s home has been a universal struggle for 2,000-plus years.

But a few hundred years after Herod, the Romans became more friendly to Christianity.

Christmas had become a holiday and celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ through a series of actions and mental gymnastics taken by the likes of Roman Emperor Constantine I, who ruled around 300 A.D. And we’re probably all the better for it. And Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Walmart are certainly the better for it.

Seems the Roman emperor had a change of religious heart in 332 A.D. and converted to Christianity. Problem was the subjects were still celebrating the pagan holiday of harvest from Dec. 17 to Dec. 25, with the tail end of it being the winter solstice and a time for looking forward to spring renewal.

Church leaders jumped in to help out, according to History.com, (The History Channel): “Church leaders made efforts to appropriate the winter-solstice holidays and thereby achieve a more seamless conversion to Christianity for the emperor’s subjects.”

And this one, again, according to history.com, can be admired for its clever thinking regarding the seasons and God’s ability to bring about the Immaculate Conception.

“In rationalizing the celebration of Jesus’ birthday in late December, church leaders may have argued that since the world was allegedly created on the spring equinox (late March), so too would Jesus have been conceived by God on that date. The Virgin Mary, 12 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

pregnant with the son of God, would hence have given birth to Jesus nine months later on the winter solstice.”

The gift giving of Christmas comes from the pagan traditions of giving gifts for the harvest festival solstice.

The celebration of Christ’s Nativity spread from Rome to Christian churches east and west and eventually combined with some pagan rituals where we get the lighting of the Yule log as well as some traditions of Germanic tribes that introduced the Christmas tree.

The word Christmas comes from the celebration of Christ’s mass, mostly coming from the Old English.

The United States built a Christmas tradition around gift-giving with its rich immigrant cultures, according to history.com. The Founding Fathers weren’t all that enamored with Christmas until Charles Dickens penned A Christmas Carol in 1843.

“The story’s message — the importance of charity and good will towards all humankind — struck a powerful chord in the United States and England and showed members of Victorian society the benefits of celebrating the holiday,” according to history.com “The family was also becoming less disciplined and more sensitive to the emotional needs of children during the early 1800s. Christmas provided families with a day when they could lavish attention — and gifts —on their children without appearing to ‘spoil’ them.”

About the same time, from the mid to late 1800s, America experienced a huge wave of Immigrants.

Minnesota took on hundreds and thousands of immigrants from Germany, Sweden and Ireland. By the late 1800s, nearly 35 percent of Minnesota was foreign born.

Immigrants had influence on today’s Christmas traditions.

More from history.com: “People looked toward recent immigrants and Catholic and Episcopalian churches to see how the day should be celebrated. In the next 100 years, Americans built a Christmas tradition all their own that included pieces of many other customs, including decorating trees, sending holiday cards and gift-giving.”

We see, once again, by historical record, that immigrants have woven the fabric of our country for 200-plus years.

Country rock singer Collin Raye has a good take on this concept of charity and welcoming the least of our brothers in a song titled “What if Jesus Comes Back Like That.”

He talks about down and out hobos, crack babies and others who might be our test if they were Jesus in his second coming. From Raye’s lyrics: “What if Jesus comes back like that/ On an old freight train in a hobo hat/ Will we let him in or turn our back?”

It may soon be possible to determine if some of those refugees traveling by foot to America are Jesus.

An Oxford university geneticist and biblical scholar

Migrants from El Salvador start on their way to the United States, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. A third group of migrants from El Salvador had already made it to Guatemala, and on Wednesday a fourth group of about 700 Salvadorans set out from the capital, San Salvador, with plans to walk to the U.S. border, 1,500 miles away. (AP Photo/Diana Ulloa) are trying to get DNA from some of the world’s oldest relics, including the Shroud of Turin that was said to be the blanket in which Jesus’ body was wrapped.

The researchers believe if they can find Jesus’ DNA they will be able to tell who among us might be his descendants.

That might raise the stakes on the whole border wall debate.

Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine.

Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 13

Familiar Faces

Meet Terri, the crazy dog/cat lady I Terri Hanson gives a shot to an Alaskan husky and malamute mix that was being adopted at BENCHS. Photos by Jackson Forderer

Name:

Terri Hanson Age: 29 Family: Single mother of pets Education: Bachelor of Science in Cultural Anthropology, two minors in English and Poetry City of residence Mankato Job title: Dog Adoption Specialist Brief work history: I’ve been with BENCHS for about 10 years.

t all started at age 6 when a black-and-white cat became the first to fill her heart. Cut to more than 20 years later, and Terri Hanson’s day — and her heart — is absolutely filled to the brim with animals.

On top of the five pets she has at home, Hanson serves as the dog adoption specialist at Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society. All day long she gets to play matchmaker between families and dogs, watching as people of all ages invite deserving and loving pets into their homes.

For someone who loves animals so much, it’s rewarding work, to say the least.

Mankato Magazine: What was the name of your first pet, and what was he or she like?

Terri Hanson: Kasper was a black and white cat that found my family when I was about 6 years old. He was my best friend. He would wrap his body around my neck and ride on my shoulders all over the house like a little king.

He would let me dress him up in dresses, drive him around in strollers and loved car rides and leashed walks.

He definitely thought he was a dog, but I treated him like a little person. I was a weird and overly sensitive kid, and he brought joy and companionship to my life every day.

MM: What do you love about working with animals?

TH: Animals live in the moment and experience a wide range of emotions. I am lucky every day because I can immediately offer stability, companionship, understanding and security for the animals as they arrive to BENCHS from various backgrounds. I love watching them thrive, heal and succeed. I love educating families about shelter dogs and being their matchmaker and advocate.

MM: What is a common misconception about pet adoption in our city?

TH: Shelter and rescue pets are not “damaged goods.” In fact, most of them are issue-free. The majority of them do not come from horrific backgrounds. Many of them are here because of something they had no control over, like moving, divorce and allergies.

MM: From where does BENCHS receive most of its pets?

TH: BENCHS’ primary focus is on animals that are

14 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Terri Hanson hands off Gizmo the dog to Mike Richardson at BENCHS. Hanson facilitates many dog adoptions at the animal shelter. unclaimed from the City of Mankato some options of dogs that would be involved in hurricane relief with Animal Impound. Our next focus is a great match, and I bring them in to the hurricanes in Florida and the animals that are local surrenders. So Carolinas. meet the families! these would be dogs and cats that are being brought to BENCHS by their MM: What do you wish people MM: Do you personally have pets at owners. knew about some of the pets up for home? adoption that they perhaps can’t see MM: BENCHS has received TH: I have never spent a day in my during a short visit? hundreds of dogs from Texas the past TH: We operate a little bit differently life without pets around me. As an few years, correct? Why is that, and than other shelters, and we do not adult, my pack of misfit animals has typically allow the public in our dog grown at a very rapid rate, but I am what can people do to help? kennel area. This can be frustrating at my maximum capacity now, with TH: When the local need for shelter for people who have gone to other four cats and a blind and deaf senior space is satisfied, we do take in dogs from out of state when and if space shelters with more relaxed rules. We dog. allows. Texas is one of the most want to greatly monitor the stress I have accepted that if I get any and well-being of the dogs we have. dangerous places for strays. They more pets stuffed into my trailer, are completely overburdened in their Constant disruption, hands I will literally be single forever. I shelters and impounds, and in many touching them through kennel bars adopted my dog Suki almost a year cities in Texas they are euthanizing and dogs in the process of grieving, ago, and she requires a lot of special just for space. healing and decompressing need attention to say the least. She enjoys This includes dogs that are shy, privacy and space, and it sometimes being carried around, barking, takes time before they are ready for pregnant, heartworm positive and waking me up anytime I close my the next chapter. We respect that eyes and eating an array of snacks have simply outstayed the allowed time frame. These dogs are perfectly and food 14 times a day. Most of the the dogs are all in different stages adoptable and are essentially just of readiness. Because of this, we do animals I have at home are ones that born in the wrong part of the U.S. more of a match-making technique. were not very adoptable or were We are part of a transport program As the dog adoption specialist, it struggling at the shelter. network where volunteers and is my job to show families dogs that would work for their lifestyle and MM: What is something people transporters from the south travel with the dogs and bring them to our fit their preferences. This has been might be surprised to learn about doorstep. We typically are able to much more successful than picking you? accommodate these dogs about once a dog based on looks alone. I ask the TH: I have a secret longing to be a a month, but it varies depending families a series of questions, and stand-up comedian and also a rapper. based on their answers, I give them on space. BENCHS has also been MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 15

TH

OF

IFT G E

Dear Cancer: You’re losing, and we have proof.

By Robb Murray

Y

ou don’t need a reminder about what happens in December; everyone knows it’s Christmas time.

But we could all use reminders — regardless of season — about perspective. And so our gift to you this holiday season is the gift of hope.

We decided more than a year ago to take this month and tell stories of survival. And we chose to focus those stories around an ailment so many of us know too well.

Hardly anyone can say their lives haven’t been touched by cancer, or as some call it, “the big C.” Some of us have seen loved ones die. And some of us have battled the monster one on one.

About a month ago, we started asking the public for volunteers for this space in the magazine, hoping we’d get a few good story subjects and be able to write a few good stories. We were fortunate to have dozens of 16 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

people raise their hands, call us, email us or respond affirmatively on Facebook. We had people from around the state contact us. Some folks nominated others. It was, to put it mildly, a robust response from people who all wanted to say the same thing: There is hope.

To make our story list as diverse as possible, we decided to choose people with a variety of cancer types. So you’ll notice in the folks we chose that nothing is repeated. We wanted a good mix of men and women. And while the vast majority of potential subjects we heard from were female, we did end up finding several compelling stories from men.

But mostly, we were just looking for unique stories of hope. And we were blessed with an abundance of that.

n Shawna Merrill told us about having kidney cancer at age 7, and undergoing chemotherapy at a hospital with a little girl who was a same age and had the same form of kidney cancer.

“Cancer is ‘the big C,’” she wrote to us. “You have it. You fight it. You beat it. But it’s always there in your mind. You just keep going and try to do your best.” n Megan Ruble told us about the pain of having to wait several days before being able to tell her daughters, and about her fight to beat breast cancer by not leaving treatment untried.

“So I thought, if that happens five years from now, I want to be able to say to my kids, ‘I did everything I could have done, I did not leave anything short, I didn’t decline a treatment that was available to me. I want to be able to say I did everything I could.” n Jay Zielske, an agronomist for DuPont Pioneer, spent two decades in the sun and wound up with stage 4 melanoma.

“And of course, the shocking thing was, I felt great. Cancer is a sneaky disease because, a lot of the times, you can feel perfectly good and you had been extremely sick.”

n Edgar Burn was given a prognosis for his pancreatic cancer that wasn’t great: 3 months to 3 years. Ten years later, he’s proven the doctors wrong and never forgets how lucky he is. “I’m thankful for every day. I’m well aware that I may not have the day I had today, tomorrow could be totally different.” n Amy Haigh got cervical cancer in her 30s. But she never let it define her. “I never thought it was like a tragic thing. I didn’t see it as a death sentence. I never looked at it as if I was going to die. I never looked at it that way.” n And Kim Sogaard’s battle with lymphoma had little chance against a woman with hope like this: “One thing I do tell people is: If an oncologist gives you a shred of hope, you ride that baby home. You hang on to it because they don’t throw it out there to make you feel good.”

So in this holiday season, our goal is to tell their stories so that you can spend the Christmas season knowing there is so much more to this holiday than excess or “presents.” For some, just being alive today is a gift they never thought they’d get.

We hope they inspire you as much as they inspired us. MM

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 17

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Even healthy, busy, church-going people get cancer

By Robb Murray | Photo by Pat Christman

T

he worst part, of course, was the waiting.

You’ve probably heard a story like hers before.

Megan Ruble’s doctor found a lump in her breast — a lump she kicks herself over now because she didn’t do self exams — so they had her come in for a biopsy.

That was on a Friday.

She tried to call and get the results over the phone but, of course, that’s not how these things are done.

But … There was a hint, she says.

“They gave me like a breast cancer book thing, and she’s like, ‘You know, this is just in case,’” Ruble recalls.

“And I remember thinking, ‘I don’t think you give that to everybody.’”

After a few days of tests ... after doctors told her the lump in her breast was “concerning” … after being curiously handed a pamphlet on dealing with cancer …

Ruble knew. She just knew.

So two days later, she went to church. And in a circle of fellow parishioners, all of Ruble’s emotions poured out of her. She cried and told them how scared she was and how terrible it felt not knowing anything about her future.

She had yet to tell her three daughters, though.

Ruble and her husband decided to wait until after they’d discussed the biopsy results with her doctor.

That meeting took place a week after the biopsy was taken.

Sitting in her doctor’s office, Ruble and her husband listened as the doctor explained just how dramatically her life was about to change.

Then she heard a buzzing in her purse. Her phone was vibrating every 30 seconds or so. She didn’t check her phone in that meeting, obviously.

“After 15 minutes in, when we feel like we kind of got all the info we can have at the time (which is very little, which is also very scary because then you’re like, ‘I have cancer and I don’t know how bad it is, I could have cancer all over my body, I could have stage 4 cancer, I could be dying — for me that was the single worst period of time: knowing you had it, and not knowing how bad it is)” she said. “So I pick my phone up, and my daughter had texted and was like, ‘Mom, I forgot my swimsuit I need you to bring it to me.’ Thirty seconds later, ‘Seriously, Mary’s gonna kill me.’ Thirty seconds later, ‘Where are you!?’”

The frantic texts from her daughter are something they’d joke about later, but it speaks to how a cancer diagnosis can be especially difficult for a busy mom.

Ruble, who was in Mankato for that doctor’s appointment, quickly employed the help of her mother in St. Peter to address the missing swimsuit issue (the

Ruble kids attend St. Peter public schools) and then hurried off to that swim meet. It was parents night, a night any parent wouldn’t miss for the world. She zombied through that meet with her mind swirling with uncertainty. Looking around the room at all the proud parents and hard-working swimmers, the gravity of what she had to tell her children the next day weighed on her.

The next day, the Ruble parents gathered their children. The first thing Ruble said was: “I want you to know that I’m going to be OK.” She told them her diagnosis. Her oldest daughter asked a lot of questions, as oldest ones will. The younger ones cried.

A short time later, the Red Wing High School graduate, class of ‘92, sought treatment plans at a few different cancer centers and ultimately chose the Mayo Clinic. In a slightly unusual treatment order, Ruble’s team at Mayo recommended she do chemotherapy first, then surgery.

“The first eight treatments didn’t really make me sick.

I’d missed a day of work to have treatment, but then went to work (Gustavus Adolphus College, Dean of Students office) and worked every other day. The second round, the AC regimen, the “red devil,” that was harder. It was every other week. Sick for a week, work for a week. Sick for a week, work for a week. But I never had nausea, never vomited.”

She had a mastectomy in April.

“I wanted to be rebuilt, so they start doing that right away,” she said. The rebuilding process includes insertion of a device that can be gradually expanded to allow skin to stretch around it.

After chemotherapy, though, doctors found an additional tiny spot of potentially cancerous tissue. So they recommended she undergo radiation therapy. She took their advice.

“This could come back,” she said. “So I thought, if that happens five years from now, I want to be able to say to my kids, ‘I did everything I could have done, I did not leave anything short, I didn’t decline a treatment that was available to me. I want to be able to say I did everything I could.”

Like many cancer patients, Ruble lost her hair. But her church family, the same ones who were among the first to hear about her diagnosis, rallied around her.

They started a hat collection, which Ruble happily accepted and packed them all into a door-hung shoe organizer.

See More BREAST CANCER on Page 36 MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 19

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Exercising the cancer away Kim Sogaard attacked her diagnosis with hope, a positive attitude and dreams of hiking the Canadian Rockies

By Diana Rojo-Garcia | Photo by Pat Christman

O

n a Friday in 2013, Kim Sogaard experienced an unbearable amount of pain. It was so extreme that her husband wanted her to go see the

doctor.

“I’m like, ‘No, no, I’m just fine,’” she recalled. “Then it kept getting worse through the day.”

The pain was so excruciating that she believed if she hadn’t gone to the emergency room that night, she wouldn’t make it through the morning.

“I mean, it was that intense of pain when that happened,” she said.

She then saw her general practitioner late at night, the world’s best doctor she said.

“He goes, ‘I’m not going home and you’re not going home until we get to the bottom of this.”

They ran tests and found a large tumor.

“I asked him, ‘How certain are you it’s cancer?’ He goes, “Like 80 percent.’ Then of course I had the weekend to sit and think about it, and not know if my life was going to be ending soon. It was a pretty heavy matter to deal with.”

Sogaard was diagnosed with lymphoma May 28, 2013. The experience of the diagnosis was surreal.

“I would have a meeting with an oncologist, and I would keep like, staring at his computer screen,” she said. “I kept thinking, ‘Damn, that’s my name on there. I think it really is me that they’re talking about.’”

Though lymphoma is an aggressive and rare cancer, Sogaard kept as optimistic as she could be. Besides, she’s never had a “Why me? Poor me” attitude, she said.

“I was realistic in knowing that it could be possibly the end of my life, and I would have been sad about that, but I was also given a tidbit of hope. Hope is just the most powerful thing in my entire world.”

Even now, after being healed from cancer as of October this year, she scatters her home with musings on hope and holds onto necklaces with the word “hope” to give to others in their time of need.

“One thing I do tell people is: If an oncologist gives you a shred of hope, you ride that baby home. You hang on to it because they don’t throw it out there to make you feel good.”

So when her onconolgist gave her that sense of hope, she held onto it tightly through her journey.

Hope, and setting goals helped Sogaard get through chemotherapy.

One of her goals was to go hiking on the Canadian Rockies with her son, who lives in Chicago.

“When I called him about the diagnosis, he was

sobbing so hard on the phone that he was having trouble breathing,” she said. “We had always talked about going up to the Canadian Rockies and going hiking, so to get him to settle down, I said, ‘Here’s the deal, I want to go hiking in the Canadian Rockies. Mark your calendar. None of this pencil BS. Pull out a permanent market, you put it in.’”

While she was going through her treatment, she’d read through which hiking trails to take and start planning for the trip.

“I do really recommend to make some plans beyond this problem,” she says. “Don’t sit and stare at the problem. Plan that celebration.”

One of her chemotherapy sessions took an hour and a half. She’d use the time to think about a 17- or 18-mile hike in the Canadian Rockies.

“I would pretend that each drop was a step of that hike,” she said. “Then the next summer, we did end up flying to Calgary, we went and did that hike. That was my dream come true. I got my reward.”

Exercise has always been a prominent aspect in Sogaard’s life. She started running as a hobby in 1972, and continues to run trails multiple times a week. Even during treatment, she’d walk trails with her friends.

“I walked six days a week. I think it was good for me physically to remain active. I know that it was tough, but I wouldn’t have missed it. It’s kind of funny because, and I know that this isn’t true, but my doctor says that I’m the only person who he knows that exercised cancer away.”

Sogaard said that, in a weird way, cancer was the best thing to happen to her.

“Those seem like absolutely crazy words,” she said.

She recalls, though, speaking with her sister who had cancer a year before Sogaard was diagnosed. She noticed her sister was understanding and found more joy and appreciation every day.

“I learned the same lesson. Hopefully I choose battles a little more wisely.”

All the problems that might occur to her now, such as a broken spring in the garage door?

“Big deal.”

Though, at times, as cancer gets further away in the rearview mirror, Sogaard’s afraid of circling back into being hung up on little things.

“If there’s a really huge thing that is upsetting to me now, I compare the heaviness or the seriousness of that moment, to sitting in the oncology chair and hearing my diagnosis. Everything else just kind of disappears then because, by comparison, it’s not a big deal.”

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 21

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‘Never give up …

Never give up hope’ Jay Zielske picked up melanoma through working outdoors for 26 years. Now he’s cancer free and warning people to be smart about sun exposure

By Diana Rojo-Garcia| Photo by Pat Christman

“W

here do you think — geographically in the United States — where do you think the most frequent reporting of people getting melanoma is?” Jay Zielske asked.

Most people think it might be in the hotter areas of the nation, such as Arizona or Florida. But in fact, it’s unexpecting states like the land of 10,000 lakes.

Minnesota is listed number 4 in the U.S. for most frequent reporting of melanoma.

Zielske openly shares his story to provide awareness and prevention methods of melanoma to others, especially with other agricultural colleagues. Zielske has worked at DuPont Pioneer as an agronomist and account manager for 26 years.

“When I was first diagnosed, I thought to myself, ‘If I survive this, if I’m blessed with surviving this, then that’s going to be my duty — to give hope to others in the future.’”

Zielske was diagnosed with stage four melanoma in 2014. As he was shaving one morning, he found three lumps along his chin that weren’t present before. A biopsy then tested positive for melanoma.

“It kind of shocked the doctors because there’s those moles, those skin symptoms,” he said. Melanoma can typically be spotted by an abnormality on the skin — a mole — but Zielske didn’t have one. To this day, doctors aren’t sure where the cancer started.

The surgery that he went through removed 29 lymph nodes. The cancer had metastasized throughout his lungs, femur and liver.

“And of course, the shocking thing was, I felt great.

Cancer is a sneaky disease because, a lot of the times, you can feel perfectly good and you had been extremely sick.”

Fortunately, doctors acted on it quickly and Zielske went through immunotherapy.

“I was very fortunate that I got sick at the right time,” he said. “The timing was good because there’s so many new treatments that became available and, ultimately, it was one of those new treatments that knocked the cancer out of my out of my body.”

Statistically, stage 4 melanoma cancer has a median survival rate of five to nine months. Two years after his diagnosis, 2016, Zielske had his first clean PET scan.

Since then, he goes in every four months to get a PET scan. So far, they’ve all been clean. A clean scan this month will result in having to get scans only every six

months.

“If we get to the point where we’re fully a year between scans, that’s going to be really strange,” he said. “That will be walking on a tightrope without a safety net because I was really sick, and I felt great.”

Beating cancer four years later, though? “It’s pretty amazing.”

Throughout his journey, Zielske’s faith and family (and especially his wife, Karen) were strong supporters. Shortly after his diagnosis, the family of six packed up his truck for a long trip.

“I always wanted to see what was on the ground between here and the West Coast,” he said. “Anybody else would have made four vacations out of it, but ours … we didn’t know how long we had.”

Before, Zieklske said he wouldn’t take time off work to do those things, like the vacation or heading off to Ohio for a Minnesota Gophers football game. He’s learned how precious every day is and to take time to enjoy it, even if you are really busy, he said. You don’t know how much time you have. He made the time.

“The longer you’re healthier, unfortunately, you kind of creep back to old habits or mindsets,” he said. “Like, ‘No, I can’t do that because I got XYZ going on.’”

He’s made it an effort to find the time to do things he loves, and a balance between work and family life.

Since melanoma is preventable, the first thing Zielske recommends is to is avoid tanning beds.

“The risk of getting melanoma for one exposure in a tanning bed is greater than the risk of getting lung cancer from smoking cigarettes, and most people would think smoking cigarettes is a dumb thing to do,” he said.

Second, even though he understands the eagerness to go outside after a long Minnesota winter, make sure to wear protective clothing and reapply sunscreen.

And for Zielske? He counts himself fortunate for beating cancer, though it’s been hard.

“I think, somebody who thought that they maybe had five to nine months, and you get another year of life, that’s really a win,” he said. “Never give up. Never give up hope.”

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 23

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For Edgar Burn, survival is music to his ears

Musician was told 10 years ago he had a short time left.

Now he’s thankful for every day

T

By Diana Rojo-Garcia | Photo by Pat Christman

here is no recipe for surviving cancer, Edgar Burn said.

“I wish there was. I wish I could tell you to just follow the steps and you might get an extra four years on your life, but there really isn’t.”

Though, there are a few things that have made Burn’s battle with cancer a little more tolerable.

Nine years ago, Burn was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic and liver cancer. He was only given three months to three years to live.

“I’ve lived three times past that,” he said.

His oncologist still makes a point during his appointments to tell Burn that he’s her “little miracle.”

The scariest thing about cancer, Burn said, is all the things, and people, that are affected.

“You go through a lot, I mean there’s physical things, there’s mental things, there’s ‘How are these people that depend on me going to go on?’ But the hardest thing is just hearing the diagnosis from the doctor.”

Depending on how aggressive the cancer is, it could be a death sentence, Burn said.

There was a glimmer of hope in Burn’s case, however.

“The guy who did the biopsy, said ‘You might get lucky. You might not have that aggressive of cancer.’

And that gives you a little bit of hope.”

The first thing that went through Burn’s mind was his two daughters. At the time, one was 6 and the other 12.

“I was hoping to walk them down the aisle, and I was hoping to take care of them until they were able to take care of themselves, and you just lose that.”

But as soon as he received his diagnosis, he was determined to fight, and to do so with help from his friends and with humor. Among those friends was Chuck (Scott Rodriguez).

Chuck had been there for Burn from the beginning, including taking him to Rochester on a weekly basis for chemotherapy.

“We’d joke around and still do,” he said. “Say it’s me and him, and somebody outside of our circle. If they heard the crap that he says straight up to me, they’d think ‘He is the most insensitive guy I’ve ever seen in my life.’”

People like Chuck in Burn’s life is what helped him through the rough times. People who’d go out of their way to make the day go a little bit easier and to simplify things when they got complicated, Burn said.

That, and keeping his mind occupied with his passions, including welding and music (Burn is a drummer for Old Sinners and Rhythmaplex).

“My oncologist asked every time, ‘Are you still playing music? You need to be playing music,’” Burn recalls. “That would be one of the questions with ‘What’s your blood pressure? What’s your height and weight? Are you still playing music?’ Right up along with the other questions.”

He’s learned to tune more into things that are important in his life, such as helping others. Before his diagnosis, he and Chuck started Post Holiday Extravaganza, a music festival to beat seasonal depression. After his diagnosis, PHE and Midwest Art Catalyst morphed for a fundraiser for music and arts for school programs.

“There’s much more joy knowing that something was created and someone can appreciate or benefit from it,” he said.

The journey, though, has been tough, especially knowing there are others going through the same treatment, and not everyone survives, Burn said. Or even overhearing another patient through the paper thin walls at the hospital speaking with their doctor, and asking how to peacefully pass away after the doctor said there wasn’t nothing left to do.

“That’s rough on everyone’s part. Then you get those thoughts in your head, you’re like ‘Will that be me someday?’ That’s your list of things to think about. It’s just very odd.”

Even with moments in his personal life and experiencing other’s hardships, he’s learned to allow himself to feel more emotions, and he’s also learned to appreciate every day, even when it’s hard.

“But it comes back very strong after I have a situation where I end up in the hospital, or I have a bad week or day,” Burn said. “Or when I go to Rochester and can barely function, but in a few days I’m fine again. When you get so low, you do learn a lot about yourself, and it’s a good thing, as long as you can come back out of it.”

Next year in September celebrates Burn’s 10-year anniversary of surviving cancer, and he takes in every moment of every day.

“I’m thankful for every day,” he said. “I’m well aware that I may not have the day I had today, tomorrow could be totally different.”

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 25

REFLECTIONS

By Pat Christman

26 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

W

e think it’s pretty right now. Gently falling snow, footprints on a snow covered sidewalk, a shallow blanket of white on a newly harvested farm field. It all seems idyllic right now.

But wait for it. By January or February we will complain about having to shovel it all again. By March we will curse another snowstorm. By April we will cry with every falling flake.

Until then, we should take a hint from the children and puppies in the world and frolic in the snow. Appreciate its beauty and the changing of the season. Catch a snowflake on our tongues. Make a snowman in the front yard. Enjoy the beauty of winter. MM MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 27

l vic a Ce r 28 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

‘Cancer sucks … but it hasn’t defined me’ Amy Haigh took cervical cancer — and the treatment — in stride, and now she’s in remission

A

By Robb Murray | Photo by Pat Christman

my Haigh didn’t want to go to the doctor. She was worried about the bleeding, uncertain about what was happening inside her body, nervous over what it could be … but she just didn’t want to go in.

When she finally did, her worst fears were confirmed.

“She told me right away, ‘I think this is cancer,’” Haigh said from her Mankato home.

Cervical cancer, to be exact.

Having just gotten this stunning news, Haigh was in an awkward position.

“I didn’t have a chance to tell my family,” she said.

Why? She wanted to tell her daughters, but she also had a church conference the next day, and she was scheduled to deliver a lecture on leadership. She opted to hold off on telling daughters Elizabeth and Danielle.

At the Via di Cristo retreat in Hutchinson, she confided in some of the attendees that she’d just received a cancer diagnosis.

“They were very supportive,” she said. “It was a safe place. I think it was good timing.”

Eventually, she returned home. And that’s when she told her daughters.

“I said ‘I need to talk to you.’ I told them, ‘I went to the doctor, and they found cancer.” she said. “And it was just silent. They cried. It was hard. Elizabeth stayed home from school. Dani tried going to school, but came home.”

It might seem odd, but Haigh says she never thought of this diagnosis in a grim way.

“I never thought it was like a tragic thing. I didn’t see it as a death sentence. I never looked at it as if I was going to die. I never looked at it that way,” she said.

“It’s another thing to deal with. Another thing to get through.”

And she should know.

Haigh had already dealt with a health scare a few years earlier.

A runner in high school, she recalls competing in cross-country and track and field events where her body would produce sweat, but she’d feel cold inside. It would take a few years but eventually she was diagnosed with a heart condition called long QT syndrome.

According to the Mayo Clinic’s website: “Long QT

syndrome is a heart rhythm condition that can potentially cause fast, chaotic heartbeats. These rapid heartbeats might trigger a sudden fainting spell or seizure. In some cases, the heart can beat erratically for so long that it causes sudden death.”

(She’s also struggled with neuropathy which, according to the dictionary, means “a general degeneration of peripheral nerves that spreads toward the center of the body).

Her heart condition, which resulted in the insertion of a defibrillator device, is under control now, although her defibrillator did require a follow up surgery. That occurred when she was in her early 30s. The cancer came in her late 30s.

Like many cancer patients, Haigh underwent chemotherapy and radiation. The chemo wasn’t bad, she said. She didn’t vomit or experience nausea like many others. As for radiation, that wasn’t as easy. But she was able to avoid most of the horrors you’ve heard about for cancer treatments.

She did not, however, avoid surgery.

As part of her treatment plan, Haigh underwent a radical hysterectomy, a procedure that prompted the early onset of menopause.

She’s currently in remission, she says. And she recently — after a two-year wait — finally got into the Livestrong program at the Mankato YMCA. “It’s been great!” she said. “People there understand what you’re going through.”

Haigh is (and she wouldn’t argue with this description) on the shy side. When asked why she raised her hand when Mankato Magazine asked for volunteers to tell their cancer stories, she said she just wanted people to see the face of a survivor.

“Some people knew I had cancer, but most people didn’t,” she said. “I didn’t put it on Facebook. I don’t broadcast it. I wasn’t embarrassed by it, but I’m not an attention seeker.”

She says that, if she could do it differently, she might invite a few more people into her life to help her bear that burden.

“You feel alone,” she said, “and that was partly because I didn’t share it.”

One thing she would not do differently? Her outlook.

“Cancer sucks,” she said, “but it hasn’t defined me.”

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 29

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Little fighter At 7, Shawna Merrill found herself in a battle against kidney cancer. A marriage and two miracle kids later, it’s safe to say she won the war

By Robb Murray | Photo by Jackson Forderer

S

he didn’t know it at the time, but when Shawna Merrill was 7 years old and fighting a battle against a grapefruit-sized tumor on one of her kidneys, her parents were making grim plans.

Should the worst happen — should cancer take their daughter from them far too soon — little Shawna was to be buried next to her father’s sister, who died as an infant. Infants only take up half a burial plot. Shawna, they’d decided, would occupy the other half.

Of course they didn’t tell her that. At least not at the time. But as a parent, you must think of everything.

And when faced with the idea that your child may not come home from the hospital, as a parent you’re forced to make tough choices about things most parents will never have to think about.

But, luckily, that would never happen. Because Shawna won that fight. Cancer lost. And today, a woman who was told by doctors she’d be lucky to have any children at all just sent her youngest off to college.

“Cancer is ‘the big C,’” she wrote to us. “You have it.

You fight it. You beat it. But it’s always there in your mind. You just keep going and try to do your best.”

Shawna grew up near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And while she doesn’t remember much about getting sick, she remembers a lot about being sick. Her parents told her she complained a lot about abdominal pain.

Eventually they took her in for tests. An X-ray and some other tests found nothing conclusive, so they sent her home. But when she failed to improve, her parent brought her back.

“Then they found a grapefruit-sized mass on my kidney,” she said. “So you can imagine why that would cause some discomfort.”

She began treatment immediately.

“At that point is was all these trips to Iowa City, 45 minutes away,” she said. “It kind of stopped our family pretty much right in our tracks.”

The situation took a toll on her brother and parents.

Her father, a construction foreman, was told by his employer that they’d no longer tolerate him being gone from work to be with his daughter. They gave him an ultimatum. He chose Shawna.

“My mom ended up going to work so that we could have insurance because my dad lost his job,” she said.

Her treatment consisted of chemotherapy.

“I’d be admitted to the hospital, wait for chemo, they’d hook me up, give me chemo, then I’d stay there while the worst of the side effects would occur. Then I’d go home,” she said. “It was terrifying.”

In order to ease the psychological stress of going back for more chemo, Shawna’s mom devised a crafty plan: doughnut bribery.

“I have a serious addiction to donuts,” she said, “because my mom would take me to Donutland to get

me to go there.”

During hospital stays, Shawna befriended a girl of the same age going through the same thing. Their parents tried as best they could to align treatment schedules to have the girls there at the same time. And it often worked.

But shortly after Shawna left the hospital, the girl, Heather, died. Unlike Shawna, her cancer wasn’t encapsulated inside her kidney; it had spread, and neither chemotherapy nor radiation could conquer it.

Shawna lives with a constant, and cute, reminder of Heather: On the Merrill family home hangs a handdrawn image of two little smiling girls; under the images are the names Shawna and Heather. It was given to her by her grandmother while she was undergoing treatment, and she’s kept it ever since.

“It is a reminder of how much I have to be grateful for,” she said. “She was the only person who knew what it was like to be me. And she was the only fun thing about getting treatment.”

Outside the hospital, the effects of cancer were showing.

“It didn’t bother me until I started going back to school,” she said. “I’d sit at my desk during the day and around the bottom of my desk would be hair all around where I sat.

“For a long time I wore a wig. But wigs back then were horrible things. And eventually I got to the point where I took it off, and I just said, ‘You know what?

This is the way I am.’”

Eventually, regular doctor visits became, occasional visits, which became rare visits. After five years, she was done seeing doctors about cancer. But she wasn’t done having major health issues.

Having undergone chemotherapy, her doctors told her, she’d be lucky to have children. Females are born with all the eggs they’ll ever have, and chemotherapy damages them. Shawna and her husband, Cory, beat the odds, though, with the birth of their first son, Alex.

Four years later, their second son, Will, came along.

Both pregnancies were difficult. She suffered from preeclampsia (a condition characterized by high blood pressure) which was likely brought on, or at least exacerbated, by having only one kidney.

A few years later, in 2010, another health scare greeted her. While trying to hop on the fitness running trend, she found herself often out of breath.

“The more I tried to run, the harder it got,” she said, “and my chest would feel like someone’s sitting on me.”

Doctors diagnosed her with partial anomalous pulmonary venous return (pulmonary veins going to the wrong side of the heart), and recommended a major, open-heart surgery.

See More KIDNEY CANCER on Page 36 MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 31

DAY TRIP DESTINATIONS: West 7th Heaven

By James Figy

Keg & Case West 7th Market celebrated its grand opening on Sept. 13, 2018. (Photo courtesy of Keg and Case)

West 7th Heaven St. Paul market provides delights during the holidays and year-round

T

o some, Keg & Case West 7th Market is a donut shop or maybe a cluster of restaurants, a place to find cheese platters, smoked meats, colorful bouquets or wild honey. But to Developer and Managing Partner Craig Cohen, the St. Paul market is “a miraculous constellation of happenings.”

Keg & Case held its grand opening in September after four years of planning and renovations. A mix of 23 unique vendors, the market provides options to dine, imbibe and shop, making it a convenient location during the holiday season.

“There are so many great gift items, things that are unique and brought to you by truly talented local makers and purveyors,” Cohen said.

Located in the historic Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company complex, the Keg & Case building was once used for keg storage, according to Cohen.

“When I saw it, I knew there was so much possibility — the industrial nature and intrinsic features like great natural light and architectural interest of this building,” 32 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

he said. “I knew it was perfect for a vibrant market like this, a place that would really anchor the neighborhood.”

During the renovations, vendors began eyeing space in the market. Nick Rancone and Thomas Boemer of the popular Corner Table and Revival restaurants signed on first.

“Nick, being a St. Paul guy through and through, saw the opportunity that this property and project offered,” Cohen said. “Nick and Thomas have created In Bloom, a highly unique and beautiful restaurant, which features a 20-foot hearth (for cooking).”

Along with opening another venture in the market — Revival Smoked Meats — Rancone and Boemer offered input on the mix of vendors Keg & Case needed to have.

From reclaimed wood decor and furniture to acclaimed French pastries, cold pressed juice to a husband-and-wife team selling pottery and nonrepresentational artwork — the options inside vary widely. Forest to Fork is one of the most noticeable due to its large fruiting chamber for exotic mushrooms.

The vendors collaborate often, using each other’s breads, vegetables and goods to create unique dishes.

Cohen hopes visitors will feel the same synergy whether stopping in for coffee or planning to shop, eat dinner and then enjoy a craft brew on the mezzanine.

“It is so fun for me to watch all different kinds of people come in and have great experiences here,” he said. “We have a great team and are lining up a variety of events for the future to keep people coming back, bringing friends, making memories.”

IF YOU GO:

KEG AND CASE WEST 7TH MARKET Where: 928 West 7th St., St. Paul, MN 55102 When: Individual merchant hours vary, but most are open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.

Saturday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday Visit KegandCase.com for more information

Keg & Case West 7th Market celebrated its grand opening on Sept. 13, 2018. (Photo by Darin Kamnetz)

Barkley’s Bistro Fresh dog treats made with healthy, recognizable ingredients.

In Bloom Wood-fired, chef-driven cuisine celebrating the ingredients and spirit of Minnesota.

Bogart’s Doughnut Co. Assorted doughnuts, including bready, brioche-yeasted specialties.

The K’nack Cured and smoked meats from German sausages to bacon to snack sticks.

Clutch Brewing Co. A mezzanine-level taproom offering local craft brews and sodas.

MN Slice Minnesota-inspired pizzas, including “Hot Dish” and “The Long Goodbye.”

Croix Valley Locally sourced sauces, seasonings, dry rubs and accessories for grilling.

Pimento Jamaican Kitchen Chef-inspired Jamaican street food, made with family recipes and fresh ingredients.

Evla Pottery A variety of pottery and abstract paintings made by a husband and wife.

Revival Smoked Meats Sandwiches and dishes featuring contemporary barbeque and smoked meats.

Five-Watt Coffee Community-focused cafe serving with unique blends and flavors.

Rose Street Patisserie Breads, pastries and treats from the first Relais Desserts-approved baker in the U.S.

Forest to Fork Fresh exotic mushrooms, plus books, knives and supplies for foraging.

Spinning Wylde Artisanal, organic cotton candy spun on site with more than 50 flavors.

Gazta and Enhancements Perfectly paired cheese plates as well as a grab-and-go cheese station.

Studio Emme Flower arrangements, bouquets and single stems as well as unique gift items.

Green Bee Juicery Healthful cold-pressed juices using raw nut milks and local produce.

Sweet Science Ice Cream Ice cream and treats made in small batches with local organic ingredients.

HandMod A local woodshop creating gifts and decor from reclaimed lumber.

Wandering Kitchen A chef-driven grab-and-go restaurant, providing food to enjoy on site or at home.

Hobby Farmer Canning Company New and old recipes for pickled vegetables, plus a drink called switchel.

Worker B Raw honey and products made from honey and beeswax, plus a demonstration hive.

House of Halva Middle Eastern desserts, including the famous, ancient sesame halva.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 33

THEN & NOW: ‘Whistle-stop in Mankato’

By Bryce O. Stenzel

President Harry Truman’s 1948

‘Whistle-stop’ in Mankato

T

hree score and ten years ago, on the morning of Oct. 14, 1948, President Harry Truman made a brief appearance in Mankato as part of his national “Whistle-stop” campaign tour.

He arrived at Mankato’s “Union Depot,” adjacent to the Minnesota River at 8:08 a.m. as part of his 31,000-mile, 352-speech trip across the country. He spoke from the back of the train, for only a few minutes, moving on to Waseca where he spoke again at 9:06 a.m.

Truman was not the first U.S. President to speak in Mankato. William Howard Taft had made a similar appearance on Oct. 24, 1911; however, he spoke at the Mankato Opera House.

Former Vice President Schuyler Colfax had died of a massive heart attack while changing trains in Mankato in January, 1885; Colfax was required to change trains by walking three-quarters of a mile from the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul depot at the foot of Hickory Street to the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha depot at Fourth and Washington Streets (now Washington Park).

But Truman’s “whistle-stop” was significant both for putting Mankato and all of southern Minnesota “on the map” as well as allowing Truman to reach out to southern Minnesotans for their votes, demonstrating both his awareness and appreciation for the people of the region in helping him retain his presidency.

President Truman was given little chance of winning the 1948 presidential election against his Republican challenger, Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York, by many pundits, pollsters, politicians and political naysayers; after all, he had only served briefly as vice president, becoming president upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April, 1945.

Although his actions in dropping the first atomic 34 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

bombs on Japan were widely viewed as ending WWII; Truman’s decision to use the bomb became more and more controversial as Cold War tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union deepened.

Steven R. Goldzwig, author of “Truman’s Whistlestop Campaign,” pointed out that there were people who simply believed Truman was not smart enough or experienced enough to protect and defend the free world. Truman’s decision to center his 1948 campaign on improving civil rights for African-Americans (many of whom he had served with in the Army, in WWI, and believed that they were entitled to the same rights as Truman was) did not win him favor in the South, an important source of votes for the Democratic Party.

Finally, Truman’s lack of charisma when speaking also threatened his campaign. Few people at the time appreciated or even recognized Truman’s fierce desire and determination to demonstrate that he could win an election in his own right by trusting the wisdom of the people.

Truman used the “whistle stop” train tour campaign — travelling the nation by rail — as a means of countering negative images by showcasing his homespun charm, persistence, and amazing energy to win the hearts and minds of the voters. Here are a few excerpts of President Truman’s speech in Mankato: Good morning! I can’t tell you how very much I appreciate this wonderful reception this early in the morning. It shows very conclusively that you are interested in the welfare of this great Republic of ours or you wouldn’t come out to hear the facts. It proves to me that you people here in southern Minnesota are just as much concerned about the problems that the country has to face today as are the people everywhere else I visited.

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Truman’s risky “whistle-stop” campaign through Mankato [Before use, submit this ad to Blue Cross [Ad: AD505 (5.94 x 5.12)] [Before use, submit this ad to Blue Cross [Ad: AD505 (5.94 x 5.12)] and other southern Minnesota Agency Relations for approval.

Send it by Agency for approval. Send it by email Relations to: agency.relations@bluecrossmn.com] communities in the fall of 1948 email to: agency.relations@bluecrossmn.com] proved to be one of his wisest campaigning decisions. Truman successfully appealed to Americans in all walks of life, and they responded to him in kind.

He was able to define the issues and articulate the stakes that mattered most to them. They rewarded their president by giving him an unexpected election victory.

Truman won a respectable 303 electoral votes to Dewey’s 189.

The States Rights Democratic Candidate, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, received only 19 Exceeding expectations & gaining trust electoral votes and the Progressive Candidate, Henry Wallace, received through exceptional value and performance!

0. Truman received all of Minnesota’s 11 electoral votes. The election of 1948 is considered by many historians to be the greatest election upset in American history.

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BREAST CANCER from Page 19 “It was the sweetest idea ever,” she said. “I got like 30 hats.”

During radiation treatments, friends coordinated rides back and forth to Rochester for the new proton beam radiation treatments.

Before her diagnosis, Ruble said she did everything possible to remain healthy. Ate the right foods, stayed in shape (actually, she was training for the half marathon in Mankato when she was diagnosed.)

And she was at her very first appointment with a new doctor when the lump was discovered.

“I had to go back to her a month after my diagnosis to get my IUD removed,” she said. “She walked in and I had tears in my eyes. I said to her, ‘Can I give you a hug? You saved my life.’”

Whether you’re buying a new home or refinancing an existing loan, we can help you navigate through a variety of financing options.

Your home is one of the biggest investments you have. Visit with Andy today and he’ll help guide you through the process from start to finish.

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Join the Family!

KIDNEY CANCER From Page 31 “My dad says, ‘You’re not gonna do this, are you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m doing it. Because I’m not going to be sitting around here with my family not able to do anything because I can’t breathe and just waiting,” she said. “Because of my success with cancer, when the heart thing came up I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m 100 percent in. Whatever I have to do to be healthy, to be around, to feel good, to be able to live and be with my family fully functioning, I’m going to do it.”

Fun Fact: Shawna’s career choice? Radiation therapist. She works with cancer patients in Mankato.

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36 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

I would like to wish all of my past and present clients a safe and happy holiday season!

B

Enjoy!

— Robb Murray, Associate Editor, Mankato Magazine

southern mn style

ack in the day, at my house, growing up on the East Side of St. Paul, we didn’t have “Christmas cookies.” There was never a plate anywhere in my house that I saw with a daintily arranged variety of clearly complicated cookie concoctions. If we had anything resembling Christmas cookies, they came from a store and were wrapped in a package that read “Keebler.”

These days? Sheesh. People are majoring in Christmas cookie baking. You can take artisan classes and get certified in frosting application or dough kneading. People are paying top dollar to get their sugar cookies cut out out solid gold cookie cutters!

OK, all that stuff was BS, but my point is that people are taking things super serious these days when it comes to Christmas cookies. We’ve got evidence, in fact, that things are being taken to the next level.

Literally. Turn the page to read about it.

Also, Leigh Pomeroy makes us all jealous with tales of taking a Viking Cruise on the Rhône River in France. I mean, this guy will do anything for a good bottle of wine.

And Bert Mattson reminds us that each winter our friends at Schell’s Brewery, down the road in New Ulm, release their annual Snowstorm beer. It’s something different every year, and this version is a Belgian Dark Ale. Sounds dangerous. And delicious.

food, drink & dine

A cookiecutter Christmas?

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 37

Food

food

By Amanda Dyslin

southern mn style

in 3D

I

Easy cookies that literally stand above the rest

t’s easy to fall into the cookie rut.

Christmas is so much work as it is, so why reinvent the wheel when it comes to the numerous platters of cookies you’ll be giving to neighbors, taking to your kid’s school, and putting out at family gatherings?

It’s also that time of year, though, when visually we want things to be special. We take the time to wrap the garland around our railings and banisters, we force the spouse out into the cold to cover the bushes in lights, we carefully unpack a lifetime’s collection of fragile ornaments to decorate a tree.

So maybe, albeit reluctantly, we can agree that presentation means something this time of year, and maybe there’s even a way we can marry these seemingly two conflicting interests of NOT driving ourselves crazy with more holiday work, while still wowing our family, friends and neighbors with show-stopping treats this year.

Which brings us to our plan of attack: 3D Christmas cookies.

So, yes, right, all cookies are 3D. But we mean sculptural; upright. We mean cookies that literally stand above the rest among the multitudes you will see and eat this year.

It sounds difficult, but it’s not. It’s all about layering.

38 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Here we go …

Sugar Cookie Gift Boxes Ingredients Sugar cookie mix (your own recipe or store bought; should be crispy) Icing in an icing bag Food coloring of your choice Mini M&Ms or other small candy Directions: Prepare your dough, dye red or green, and roll it out. Cut out 36 squares (recommended size 2 inches by 2 inches). In 12 of those squares, cut a 1-inch by 1-inch square in the center and remove the middle so you are left with a hollowed-out square.

Bake all 36 pieces until crisp and let cool. Dye your icing the same color as your cookie and put in an icing bag.

Lay 12 squares on a flat surface. Working with one square at a time, ice around the edge of the square and place a hollowed-out square on top, bonding the two together.

In the hollow, place a few tiny candies, such as mini M&Ms. Place another square on top to act as the gift box cover.

On top, run two lines of icing and draw a bow to create the gift box ribbon.

Voila! You’ve created 3D cookie gift boxes, and your guests can lift the lids to find the candy surprise.

Snowy Cookie Scenes

Christmas Tree Centerpiece

Ingredients Sugar cookie or gingerbread mix (your own recipe or store bought; should be crispy) Icing Mini candies and other edible decorations of your choosing

Ingredients Sugar cookie or gingerbread mix (your own recipe or store bought; should be crispy) Icing Mini candies and other edible decorations of your choosing

Directions: Prepare your dough and roll it out thick (so you have thick edges on your cookies). Cut out 12 uniform circles. Cut out a tree shape, a snowman, a reindeer or whatever figures you would like to create your winter scene.

Bake cookies until crisp.

Decorate your non-circle shapes, such as your trees and snowman, as you normally would with your typical sugar cookie creations.

Working with one circle cookie at a time, cover your circle cookies with white icing, and stand your trees, snowmen and reindeer on top, allowing the bottom of your figures to bond with the top surfaces of the circles.

You can put the tree shape in the back and a snowman or reindeer in front, and you will have a 3D, snow-covered winter scene.

You can also use a circle as your top shape, cutting a flat edge along the bottom, and decorate the top circle to look like a snowglobe.

Directions: Prepare your dough and roll it out. Cut out uniform star shapes, about 36. Bake until crisp.

Ice and decorate your stars. You may choose to use green icing, like a traditional Christmas tree, or white, like a snow-covered tree.

On a display tray, lay stars in a circle, with the edges touching and slightly interwoven, but all should lay flat on the tray. Make sure there is a hole in the middle of all the stars in which you can see the bottom of the tray.

Creating a second layer, use fewer cookies, but with the same method, slightly pushed more toward the center of the tray.

Continue this patter until you reach the top layer, in which only a single star cookie is used.

You can decorate the “leaves” created by the points of the stars with any type of candy resembling Christmas bulbs that you like. You can also dust with powdered sugar and glitter to look like snow.

Your centerpiece will be beautiful, and when it’s time for dessert, your guests can take cookies from the top-down.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 39

Wine & Beer

wines

By Leigh Pomeroy

A cruise up the Rhône T

southern mn style

he final part of our triptych visit to France was a Viking River Cruise on the Rhône River, beginning in Avignon in southern France and ending in Lyon near the river’s northern end.

It wasn’t our first intention to take the Viking cruise, but we were turned onto it by Monica DeBlois at the Travel & Cruise Center in Mankato because it came with free airfare, and our Sierra Club trip did not. Plus, it departed three days after our Dordogne trip ended, leaving us that interval to visit Burgundy, as I wrote about in my last article.

When we arrived aboard the 98-passenger Viking Buri (the ship’s name) we were ushered by one of the very

40 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

attentive staff to our stateroom.

Actually, it was a suite with a bottle of Drappier Champagne awaiting us, neither of which we anticipated.

The Champagne was so unexpected that I asked the ladies at the guest services counter, “Do we have to pay for this?”

“No, it comes with your room.”

They probably thought I was nuts, but little did I know that Monica had found us such a tremendous deal.

And it was this bottle of Champagne that began our friendship with a young (by our standards), thirties-something couple from Atlanta who were old hands at Viking cruises. Once we both learned that we were food and wine lovers, we invited them to share the Champagne with us, and this began a cruise-long tit-for-tat, their choosing an interesting bottle from the well-selected wine list to match whatever I picked up in the town where we stopped that day.

Later our little group was expanded to include a pair of nurses from Kentucky, also food and wine lovers, who had popped for the “beverage package,” meaning they could select without charge any bottles from the wine list, save for four or five of the most expensive. So you could imagine there was a lot of sharing going on.

Perhaps my favorite landside wine discovery came in Viviers, one of the many picturesque towns along the river that was originally founded by the Romans. After a guided tour of the ancient part of the formerly walled city, I walked the circle route around the historic center looking for a wine shop. Not finding one, I finally arrived at the tourist center in the hotel de ville (city hall).

After inquiring of the young lady at the desk, I learned that I had missed the wine shop, as it was located inside the parfumerie (the perfume shop), which I had remembered passing. But, she said, she had some wines that were sold there. In France, nearly any shop can sell wine, a very civilized

practice.

I looked at the six-bottle selection, which included two older rosés, and wasn’t that excited. So I asked if she had any other bottles.

She said yes, that some wine had just come in that morning. “Let me show them to you,” she offered.

So she opened the two cases and pulled from one a 2017 rosé that I knew was local and from the other a 2015 white Vin de Pays de l’Ardèche. “This one,” she said, indicating the Ardèche, “was delivered by the man who grew the grapes and made it.”

I said, “I’ll take one of each.”

“I don’t know the price,” she said, “but I’ll find out.”

After a brief phone call, she proceeded to write the prices on the bottle capsules: 7 on the rosé and 3.50 on the Ardèche. These convert to, respectively, about $8 and $4. Two local wines for $12 total? How could you go wrong?

That evening we sampled both with our wine-and-food friends.

The rosé was dry and spicy, perfect as an aperitif, and the white Ardèche was citrusy with a racy mineral element. For me, it was one of the most memorable wines on the trip.

The distance between Avignon and Lyon is short, only about 150 miles, but the voyage was leisurely, taking about a week to travel the river. What made the journey were the many side trips, some as part of the package, others at extra cost.

All in all, the Viking experience was like dessert after our Sierra Club trip through the Dordogne, which, apart from the elegant meals, was a tad more rustic. Let it be known that Viking pampers you, and if you enjoy being pampered I highly recommend the experience.

Next month: A visit to a winery in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and climbing the hill at Hermitage.

Leigh Pomeroy is a Mankato-based writer and wine lover.

BEER

By Bert Mattson

Calories, cream puffs, and the Dark Truth T his is the season for indulging.

At 45 (46 this month) I find I’m not as free to indulge the way I once would. There’s just not time in the day to pay the metabolic price.

Not one for sweets, it’s no great sacrifice rationing these. I do indulge this time of year. Rationing savory favorites hurts. So, in charting my caloric limits, these tend to eat up most of the pie. Then beer, of course.

But a few years ago I drank rich styles with reckless abandon. Not now. These treats must share that thin slice with sweets.

I have always enjoyed my deserts restrained. I’ve no stomach for the cloying. A plus for one who enjoys pairing sweets with suds — a bite of food sweeter than the beer it’s sipped with will wash out the sweetness in the beer rendering other qualities, like bitterness, unbalanced and harsh. Intensely sweet items, absent adequate fat, are ill equipped to handle a beer with high alcohol.

Pairing beer and sweets deserves some thought.

The temptation is to find food that will echo elements in the beer, or vice versa.

The complementary approach may work, but often it’s more interesting to contrast flavors. While flourless chocolate cake might work with the chocolate and coffee elements exhibited in Imperial Stout, often they’re more vibrant when offset by simple rich and creamy items, such as ice-cream or whipped cream.

That’s not to say that, with thought

and experiment, one cannot hit a home run with the complementary approach. The caramel and biscuit characteristics of Doppelbock along with the smooth, languid mouthfeel and elevated alcohol levels lend it to tangling intriguingly with something like buttery shortbread cookies dusted with praline. That said, caramel is a timeworn foil for chocolate. Confectioners play both sides by incorporating wafers.

Crafty ones add a salty element, like pretzel. Someone once told me that monks created pretzels in the image of children crossing their arms in prayer (Doppelbock was originally brewed by a Franciscan order in Munich). I don’t know if that’s true but the connection between beer and pretzels is unassailable. Makes me want to try a sip of Doppel and a Take 5. I’m drifting, sorry. Bock beers have a history with Christmas celebration.

Belgian beers are often on my mind in this season. So is Schell’s Snowstorm, which happens to be a Belgian Dark Ale this year. This is a vast and varying category, but Schell’s Special Belge is malty but with restraint, brings biscuit and hints of apricot. I found it perfect with a ginger man cookie dusted with coarse sugar.

Bell’s Consecrator Doppelbock comes out around month’s end. I’ll be picking some up with Pizzelle or some other waffle cookie, perhaps even caramel-smeared Stroopwafel.

A note on cream puffs: a sweet pate choux is deceivingly easy to prepare. I was a cook not a pastry chef. Profiteroles piped with lightly sweetened, freshly whipped cream, paired with Dark Truth, make an indulgence worth the price.

Bert Mattson is a chef and writer based in St. Paul. He is the manager of the iconic Mickey’s Diner. bertsbackburner.com

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 41

THAT’S LIFE

By Nell Musolf

Dear Santa,

W

ell, it’s that time of year again when everyone is lining up to tell you what they want for Christmas. I know for sure that both of my children, although well into their 20s, have already completed long (very long) lists full of heart-warming items such as CDs like “Christmas with the Devil” by Spinal Tap and T-shirts that cost $30 and turn them into walking advertisements for things I’ve never heard of or feature skulls drooling blood. Oh, Santa, how I miss the good old days of wish lists featuring Thomas the Tank Engine!

Of course my husband has his own wish list that can be completed in the tool department at any Home Depot, although why he’d want another snow blower (we already have two) or a ladder (I think we’re up to five) or a book on how to roof the house himself (not going to happen) I certainly don’t know. Please don’t bring him anymore flashlights. You can just get him some warm socks and maybe a package of underwear and he’ll be fine.

This year I’m the one who has a problem. While I’ve been a fairly good girl, I find I don’t have a single thing to put on my own wish list. This is a very strange situation, Santa, and

believe me it’s not for any altruistic reasons. I simply can’t think of anything I really and truly want.

Maybe I’m not such a good girl because that’s a blatant lie. I can think of hundreds of things that I want but not enough to take care of and maintain the way they should be cared for and maintained. Something about getting older has given me pause, and now whenever I’m tempted to make a purchase I find myself wondering “Do I really want this new bright and shiny toy enough to sign on the dotted line and have monthly payments for the next six years? Do I really need an adorable puppy who will undoubtedly wake me up before I’m ready to get out of bed for the 10 or so years? What about one of those single-lane swimming pools or even a shiny new pair of shoes? Am I willing to invest the time in walking, chlorinating or polishing?”

And the answer is, sadly, “No.” I’m at the point where simplifying sounds good and caregiving, even to an adorable puppy, isn’t too appealing. I’ve done enough caregiving and frankly, I’m tapped out.

Santa, I don’t know if you’re a fan of People Magazine.

I’m guessing not since you probably don’t have a whole lot of free time on your hands. Anyway, lately I’ve been thinking more and more about an article I read in People eons ago about a popular actor who lived in an apartment in Hollywood with wall-to-wall carpeting and not much else. He might have had a stereo but I’m not sure. He said that he didn’t want to get dragged down by “things” and preferred the freedom of not owning much. At the time I thought he was pretty silly, especially considering how much money he must have been pulling in with a hit series and the promise of residuals.

Now, as I look at a house that is bursting at the seams with stuff, I can see his point. I don’t really need any more things. Not even when they come wrapped in gold foil paper with a red and green bow on top.

But that leaves me with a problem. What do I put on my wish list this year? World peace would be nice. So would a faster metabolism. It would be lovely to turn the clock back a few decades so if you could pull a Clarence from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and plop me back in, perhaps, 1977 so I could watch one more episode of “Starsky and Hutch” with my grandma, go for it — although, please skip the never being born part.

However, I want to be reasonable, and if none of those work out I’ll settle for a nice assortment of Christmas cookies. Edible presents are always good and won’t add to my overall clutter. Just to my overall size.

Thanks, Santa, and Merry Christmas.

Nell Musolf is a mom and freelance writer from Mankato.

She blogs at: nellmusolf.com 42 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 43

GARDEN CHAT

By Jean Lundquist

Seed catalog time again U

Also, what to do about BUCKTHORN

sually, I am a sucker for free shipping or flat rate shipping when seed catalogs come in the mail, to my email in-box or when I’m online. Both of those things are common late in the year, as seed companies try to clear out their leftovers from the 2018 season. It’s often a come-on to do a bait and switch maneuver, I think.

Once again this year, I was disappointed. There was a great price on a seedless concord grape hardy in this region that as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it!

It was a flat-rate shipping price, so I decided to order a lilac and a peony to take advantage of the situation. But mostly, I wanted my seedless concord grape.

When we first moved into our house some 30 years ago, a neighbor offered me her concord grape, as she was digging it out, anyway. It was not seedless, but it was beautiful, sweet and I loved it.

It died last year. I refrain from saying I killed it, though that may very well be the case. I know it was at least 30 years old when it died here, but I have no idea how long it was in Kelly’s yard before it came here. Like sweet 44 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

cherries, it’s hard to find a sweet grape like a concord that will grow here.

I made some of the only wine I could drink from that vine. Also, jelly, jam and conserve, so I was very sad when it died. And now, here was a seedless variety, on sale, and with almost free shipping.

You guessed it — after six weeks, I got an email that it was out of stock, and asking if I would like to replace my order with another grape vine. I would not. Six weeks after that, my lilac and peony arrived. I’m anxious to see how they fared their first winter in my yard next spring. nnnn Late this fall I went on a buckthorn eradication program in my yard. I knew I had buckthorn, but I just figured I’d get around to taking care of it later.

When Steve came to put up our TV antenna so I could watch TV in the house for the first time in about 20 years, he said, “You’ve sure got a lot of buckthorn here.”

That woke me right up and got me motivated.

Buckthorn is a very invasive species from Europe, brought here in the mid 1800’s, intended as shrubs and hedges. By the 1930’s, it was outlawed from being sold anywhere in the United States.

The purple berries on the female plants are beautiful, but toxic. Even wildlife knows not to eat this stuff.

Buckthorn is easily identified by the fact that it stays green well into November, when everything else in the landscape is brown. It’s also very easily identified by the fact that you can’t grab it with your bare hand.

Not more than once, anyway.

The thorns on the young buckthorn are thick and nasty and painful; grabbing it is honestly not a mistake you will make more than once. As the plant matures, the thorns become fewer, but stronger and longer. It certainly knows how to protect itself.

It’s easy to cut buckthorn because the wood itself is very soft. It can easily be cut with a hand shear or tree lopper. Larger trunks will require a saw, but again, the wood is soft, so there is little effort involved.

Now here’s the key to truly eradicating buckthorn — if you cut it off and walk away, it will grow back in spades through “suckers,” the roots sent up to replace what you have cut. After you cut it, you must apply an herbicide to the stump to kill the roots.

I know a lot of people object to the use of chemicals. But if this step is deleted, you not only did no good in cutting down the buckthorn, you have made it worse, and made a lot more work for yourself in the years to come if you want to be free of buckthorn.

The city of North Mankato has a good video on its website on identifying and eradicating buckthorn. It features long-time M a s t e r G a rd e n e r a n d N o r t h Mankato resident Barb Maher. It also recommends some herbicides to use in your process.

As always, let me hear from you about your successes and “learning experiences” at gardenchatkato@ gmail.com.

Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com

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YOUR STYLE

By Ann Rosenquist Fee

For Pamela Byers Kearney (1943-2004), who did style like nobody’s business

Pamela Byers Kearney

T

here she was, this tiny and yet exceptionally stronglooking woman with maddeningly good hair, touching up minimal makeup at the vanity sink. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched a confident touch-up versus a nervous touch-up, but I can tell you, this one was confident, like the compact or lipstick or whatever were just props to give her a minute to think. She wasn’t really applying or changing anything. Just looking herself in the eye. And really focused, which gave me a good long minute to stare. It was the fall of 1997, my first month on the job in MSU’s Division of University Advancement, and I’d been tasked with scripting the fancy MSU Foundation Gala, and it turned out this woman at the vanity in the Verizon Wireless Center — where I’d ducked in to touch up my own face and take a moment to wonder “what am I doing in this job/in this town/in my thirties” — this woman was a guest of honor, a donor to the Foundation and a force in the community. She was Pamela Byers Kearney and she was my new style icon.

And it wasn’t really because of her wardrobe, although I’m pretty sure her wardrobe was nonstop-good. All I remember about what she wore, specifically, was 1) the one Gala when she wore a dang tux, and 2) the Mankato Symphony board meetings to which she wore brown leather pants. I think also a leather blazer and a blue or white collar-shirt. Don’t know if you’ve ever seen a woman in her fifties with an effortlessly wavy naturalnot-colored head of hair walk into a meeting wearing tailored leather and a composure that causes everybody in the room to sit up straight and listen, but I’m telling you, it works. It works harder than makeup, harder than fragrance, harder than cleavage or whatever else I’d previously assumed were the linchpins of a knockout feminine aesthetic.

And that would have been plenty, for me, in terms of a tutorial. But then Pamela went and showed us how to die.

You think the leather pants were something? You should have seen the photo montages, on easels, lining the room 46 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

of Mankato Mortuary at her visitation, documenting her farewells. No doubt the photos showing her on a sofa wearing tasteful bedclothes and hugging each of her twin nine-year-old boys weren’t showing the actual final goodbye hugs, but that’s what they stood for, to those of us walking through the room. We got the idea loud and clear that she was directing us to do tough things with steely dignity, with flair.

I had a touch of the cancer myself last year, and it turned out to be no big deal, but that period between diagnosis and resolution was suspenseful enough to cause me to assess whether I was doing everything I wanted to do, should do, needed to do. Pamela and those photos kept coming up, and I kept thinking, how did she know how to do that? Who told her to have the visitation lobby stocked with baskets of pink pens shaped like flamingos, with little notes attached, thanking each one of us for coming?

Who taught her the rules for dying with style? Or did she make them up?

Armed with that question, and the teachings I received last spring through the Mayo Health System Hospice Volunteer training program, I’m taking up the task. The task of figuring out how to die with style. So far, a few months into my visits to an elderly patient who is slowly sleepily exiting this world, I can tell you that I think street clothes look ridiculous on the dying. I don’t know what would be better, maybe a gown of sorts, but not the hospital kind; more like swaddling, maybe velvet. But seriously, something other than a blouse and cardigan.

Street clothes look wrong. They mock the lovely soft caving of a dying person’s cheeks, which, if you stand back, look like the ridges of the Badlands, or pond ripples.

It’s beyond the scope of my volunteerism, at this point, to haul in a whole lot of velvet and scarves and play shroud-party dress-up. But that’s kind of what I envision.

I want those of us who take pleasure in putting ourselves together, to look forward to that final phase. I want to figure that out.

CO

IN MO

C

I

CO

IN MOR

I promise to keep you informed.

Everybody please postpone your dying until then. Everybody please, for now, go get yourselves a tux or some leather pants or whatever makes you feel most confident and dignified and alive, and rock it, Pamela-style.

Ann Rosenquist Fee is executive director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter and a vocalist with The Frye.

She blogs at annrosenquistfee.com.

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 47

NIGHT MOVES — Cheap DATE NIGHT

By Diana Rojo-Garcia

The author checks out a solo exhibition by Jeremy Redlien at the 410 Project. Photos by Jackson Forderer

(cheap)

DATE NIGHT! You don’t need to empty your wallet to have a good time

D

ating sucks.

I’m not talking about the actual formality of dating of, say, swiping right on a Tindr profile or courting each other enough to determine when to meet. Certainly, that’s difficult and has its own set of problems.

No, the most difficult thing about dating is the actual act of going on a date with your significant other.

There’s planning, choosing a place that both want to go and agreeing on what to eat. It’s a hassle.

The worst part though? They’re expensive.

48 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

On average, a date in Minnesota costs $109.81 (according to Yahoo! Finance). Not sure if you’ve heard, but millenials are spending too much money on avocado toast to be have that kind of cash laying around for a date. Frankly, that’s a lot of money for anyone.

Thankfully, there are some budget-friendly options for those who still want to show off their partners in public and have some fun in Mankato.

Braden Saulsbury lines up a shot while playing pool at the Kato Cue Club. Saulsbury said he has been playing pool for five years.

Art galleries

It’s easy enough to find art around Mankato to speculate.

During less blustery seasons, there’s the CityArt Sculpture Walk that has stretches from downtown Mankato into lower North Mankato. There are pamphlet’s available for self-guided tours located near some sculptures in a metal box. (A bonus are all the murals that have been popping up around the city.)

There are also several exhibits that take place year round, including the Carnegie Art Center, Twin Rivers and the 410 Project, to name a few.

The exhibits are usually free for the public to view (but please leave a donation if you plan to go so they can adequately continue serving our community).

The 410 Project was the first stop, though my date couldn’t attend at the time — my husband was stuck at work. The intimate gallery featured artist, Jeremy Redlien. His vibrant aluminum work popped against the royal blue walls and each one demanded attention from the person viewing it.

There’s a certain magic about the 410, which shows mostly the work of local artists. It’s small enough so you don’t feel overwhelmed with each piece of work, and big enough to feel your appetite of arts and culture satisfied when exiting its doors.

I picked a Wednesday night at 5 p.m., so the gallery was empty — a perfect fit for someone who likes to appreciate art without distractions.

However, for the social bugs out there, make sure to check out the 410 Project’s Facebook for various events, including artist receptions, open mic nights, music nights, artist workshops and more.

Kato Cue Club

After checking out the 410 Project, I headed over to the Kato Cue Club where my hungry husband was waiting for me.

The burger and billiard joint has become one of our favorite places to go. Not only for its delectable burgers, but also to get in a round or two of pool.

Typically, we stop by mid-afternoon on the weekends when the lunch rush begins to dwindle down.

However, setting foot inside the family-friendly restaurant at 6 p.m., the place was active with pool players on the top floor and families enjoying dinner in the cozy booths.

“What brings you in today guys?” Erin Raines, co-owner of the Kato Cue Club asks.

“A round of pool, and a couple burgers,” I respond.

With a bright Smile, Raines gives us the pool balls then steps over to the side to grab a couple of menus.

“Anything to drink?” She slid the menus to us while maintaining her smile.

Just a couple waters, I said.

We ordered our burgers — The Popper for me and the Three Amigos for my husband.

(By the way, if you haven’t tried their burgers, drop this magazine and treat yourself.)

“Alright! I’ll set you guys up on the first table downstairs. I’ll bring those out to you!”

Though we have been here before, I’d never been downstairs in the spacious area. High tops are located on both sides of the walls with four pool tables lined up. There’s even another room with more pool tables and a spectator bench for pool tournaments.

Pool balls colliding fills the room with some light conversations from the others playing downstairs.

My husband arranged the pool balls onto the green felted table and went first.

SMACK. “What do you have against those poor balls?” I ask.

He just rolled his eyes and laughed.

“Your turn,” he said.

Okay. I got this, right? Positioning my tongue side of my mouth and aiming my pool stick toward the cue ball to get a solid into the pocket. And … I miss MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 49

Lauriann Cecil (center) help Lynne and John Seitzer pick out their seats for a movie and Emma Langemo (right) awaits any concessions order the two may have at the Cine Grand 4 movie theater in downtown Mankato. the cue ball.

Completely.

All I hear is a small snicker from my husband.

“Try again,” he says, and coaches me how to properly hold the stick. I held my damaged ego and tried again. The SMACK was more like a lower-case smack, but I hit at least one of the balls.

“There you go,” he said.

In between the round, our food was delivered by Raines upstairs. There’s nothing better than taking a couple bits from a fresh grilled burger after a long day at work, and sheer embarrassment.

We finished the round of pool after eating our food and headed to pay our bill, where we were greeted

by Raines and her youngest daughter showing us the latest game she’s downloaded on a smartphone. If you ever do head over to the Kato Cue Club, you’ll get a warm welcome and conversation with the young one.

In total, for one hour of pool and a couple burgers, our tab ended up at $28 (not including tip — always tip your servers).

Cine Grand Mankato

On a different night than the 410 Project and the Kato Cue Club, we went to Cine Grand, which is located downtown Mankato. It usually has movies that are about to leave the big screens, and it’s also one of our other favorite date nights.

It’s no secret, I’m a sucker for popcorn, especially as we get closer to the theater and the scent hugs my nostrils. Cine Grand.

As approached the concession stand, we were greeted by the cashier. Then we looked through the 50 • OCTOBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

computer monitor located on the concession stand to pick out a movie. We decided on “Crazy Rich Asians,” mostly because it was the next movie showing.

“Where would you like to sit?”

Toward the back — always the back. It gives you the best reclining opportunity in their deluxe chairs.

We ordered a shareable size of popcorn and one large drink and headed in.

Not going to lie, folks, after a long week of deadlines and working doubles all weekend, I was exhausted.

Those chairs are a Godsend. As soon as I sunk into the red velvet chair and reclined, my eyelids became heavy.

Then, a few minutes later after the courtesy reminder on the screen to turn your cellphone off or on silent, the lights darkened for the trailers.

What’s the harm of just shutting my eyes for a couple minutes until the movie starts?

“Are you sleeping?” My husband whispered.

“What? No, I’m just resting my eyes,” I replied.

He laughed and went back to munching his popcorn.

I didn’t make it past the full first trailer.

Over all, we spent around $25 at the movies. Not bad for a movie and a nap.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: DECEMBER Nov. 23-Dec. 31 6 Ugly Sweater Karaoke Party

Kiwanis Holiday Lights, 5-9 p.m.

Sunday-Thursday and 5-10 p.m.

Friday and Saturday — Sibley Park — Mankato — free and open to public — kiwanisholidaylights.com.

7 p.m. — Mankato Event Center — 12 Civic Center Plaza — Mankato — $5 for LEEP members or $10 for community members — 507-387-5122.

Nov. 30-Dec. 2

The Divers annual Christmas party concert 7:30 p.m. — Lee Theater in the Ylvisaker Fine Arts — first-come-first-served — blc.edu/events

Christmas in Christ Chapel Christ Chapel — Gustavus Adolphus College — St. Peter — $30 — gustavus.edu/events/ccc.

1

Bells on Belgrade, 2-6 p.m., parade at 6:30 p.m.

Belgrade Ave. — Lower North Mankato — free — businessonbelgrade.org.

1

Mankato Christmas craft and vendor show 9 a.m.-4 p.m. — Mankato National Guard Armory — 100 Martin Luther King Jr Drive — Mankato — free admission — 507-276-1650.

1

Mankato Symphony Orchestra presents: Candy Cane Concert, the Snowman 2 p.m. — Saint Peter Performing Arts Center — 315 S. Minnesota Ave. — St. Peter — $35, $23, $11, free for ages 8 and younger — mankatosymphony.com

2

7

7-8

Fall Dance Concert 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday — Ted Paul Theatre of the Earley Center — Minnesota State Mankato — $10 regular; $9 for seniors ages 65 and older, children under 16 and groups of 15 or more; and $8 for MSU students — mnsu.edu/theatre.

8

Musicorum’s winter concert 7:30 p.m. — Chapel of Our Lady of Good Counsel — 170 Good Counsel Drive — Mankato, musicorum-mn.org/performances.

13-16

The Mankato Ballet Company presents: “The Nutcracker 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday — Ted Paul Theatre, MSU — $20 general; $15 seniors, students and military; $12 children ages 3-12 — mnsu.edu/theatre

REO Speedwagon 7:30 p.m. — Verizon Center — Mankato — $99.50, $67.50, $57.50, $39.50 — verizoncentermn.com.

6

The Festival of Saint Lucia 10 a.m. — Christ Chapel — Gustavus Adolphus College — 800 W. College Ave. — St. Peter — free — gustavus.edu/events/stlucia.

6-7

Christmas at Bethany 5 p.m. — Bethany Lutheran College — Mankato — blc.edu/events.

287 St. Andrews Drive • Mankato 507-720-0250

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507.934.5655 stonesthrowgallery.org MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 51

FROM THIS VALLEY

By Pete Steiner

The Mickee Prescription S

he was indignant when her oldest son more or less forced her to sign up for Medicare Part D 12 years ago when she was 85.

“Why should I pay them for something I don’t use?” “Well, Mom, at 85 there’s a chance you’ll NEED a prescription at some point, and then you get penalized for every month you didn’t sign up.” Maybe it was the penalty part that finally persuaded her and her thrifty Welsh nature to concede.

In the long run, Mickee probably would have come out ahead with no part D. Remarkably, she never took a regular prescription drug (except for the occasional infection) until she went into the hospital 11 days after her 97th birthday. The day before that, she had gone to work, just like she had for 63 years. But in the end, even Mickee couldn’t beat acute leukemia, so she accepted medicine for the pain. nnnn Mickee, as you may know, was my Mom. The Free Press last August ran a lovely “Life Remembered” tribute story on her, so forgive me if I repeat some of what was written there. But she was a loyal reader of this column, and I told her during a visit after she’d gone into hospice care that I was going to write an article about her.

Always self-effacing, she said, “Oh, don’t do that!” But I insisted she deserved it.

At her memorial service, we talked about how she had remained so vital and independent for so long. About how she had leased a car at 96 and asked the salesman if that was a first for him. About how important work was (“retire and you die!”) At 97, she was down to 15 hours a week, but she hated missing a day. My brother Billy and I joked about how we would conspire with her boss to call her and tell her the office was closed if there was six inches of snow; otherwise, she would try her best to get there on time. nnnn Friends and socializing were important. Cleaning out her things, we found several address books. When a longtime friend died, she would simply cross off the address and phone number. But she kept making new friends, at church, at places she volunteered, at her office.

“Let’s go out for lunch!” she would say cheerfully, even if the person was half or one-third her age. There was the weekly bridge game as well as a couple of dinner groups.

If you wanted to visit her at home, you had to call to make an appointment on a day she wasn’t busy.

52 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

nnnn A few years back, I began calling Mom’s regimen for a full and cheerful life “The Mickee Prescription.” Of course, good genes are a part of it (“I hope you got my genes up until I turned 97,” she joked in the hospital.)

But she also was fastidious about her personal health.

“Make sure you drink enough water,” she was urging us long before everyone began carrying their own Nalgene bottle. At her house for lunch or dinner, there would inevitably be fruit and either a salad or a vegetable.

“And eat a few almonds every day,” she would casually mention.

She had been a vitamin C proponent for fighting colds ever since she read about Linus Pauling’s work 50 years ago. The two Tums she took daily were for calcium. That she rarely got sick and never broke a bone might be considered evidence of the effectiveness of her regimen.

Attitude might be the most important part of the prescription. As a member of the Greatest Generation that endured the Great Depression and a World War, Mom had learned the importance of duty and persistence.

Also key: love and laughter and faith.

For 75 years, it was a rare Sunday that she could not be found in the third pew on the left hand side of her church. Relentlessly positive, she would put post-it notes of favorite sayings in places she would regularly be reminded, like in the back of her checkbook, or as a bookmark in whatever book she might be reading.

In a nutshell, here are Mickee’s habits and words for living a good life: n Have one glass of orange juice in the morning along with a Vitamin C and D tablet. Take two Tums daily for calcium, have a glass of red wine in the evening. n Treat your skin with Oil of Olay. n Your day will go the way the corners of your mouth turn. n May every sunrise hold more promise; n May every sunset hold more peace. n Laugh as long as you breath; Love as long as you live!

The thing is, it was a prescription that sure seemed to work.

Peter Steiner is host of “Talk of the Town” weekdays at 1:05 p.m. on KTOE.

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& Spa and Auburn Marriott Opelika Hotel at Grand National two of their newest Editors' Choice Winners, along

on Alabama's Robert Trent Jones

with Pebble Beach, The Greenbrier, Pinehurst and 65 other North American locations. When you need to step

Golf Trail. To book your next outing,

away from the office for a great golf getaway or an off-site meeting, plan your visit to Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The best part about the Trail is you don’t have to break the bank to play world-class golf. »»

call 800.949.4444 today and visit rtjgolf.com to learn more.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 • 53

HELPING FAMILIES FOR OVER 25 YEARS. Accra provides support to families that need help in their homes for a loved one with a disability. We’ll help you navigate the different services available to you. One of our services, PCA Choice, allows you to choose a family member or friend to be your paid caregiver.

Non-Profit Home Care Agency We accept major insurance plans; Medicaid and private pay.

Call us and ask about the possibilities!

New Ulm: 507-225-0623 SERVING PEOPLE STATEWIDE 54 • DECEMBER 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

www.accracare.org