Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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When I was a small child, I’d look up at my father and think “He’s a giant.” As a grownup, I still thought of him as a giant. In many ways he was a man ahead of his time. He had a passion for learning, a passion he passed on to me. So often he’d tell me that my education didn’t have to end with my diploma from high school. He’d always say, “The day you quit learning you are dead.” Dad told me that people who accumulate material possessions just for the sake of showing off were never happy. Oh, they might tell you they are, but you’ll always fin...
While in Arizona several years ago, I attended an art show. Some of the works were for sale. One small painting of pansies caught my eye every time I walked by it. Finally, I decided to purchase that painting and bring it home. It now hangs in my living room where I can see it every day. The bright yellow flowers with their deep purple center brings a smile whenever I look at them. Every once in a while, a phrase one of my daughters said when I was showing her a small statue I’d purchased enters my mind. As we looked at it, I commented that t...
This time of year brings with it bittersweet feelings. We witness high school seniors receiving their diplomas. Diplomas that signify an end to their childhood education. Diplomas that are their entry into the world of adulthood. Students who have finished their elementary education are promoted into high school. They are about to enter a completely different educational world. As parents watch their children take their first steps into a larger world, they are assailed with memories of when their chlidren were born, when they took their very...
Recently, a friend was inquiring about my health. I told her I am having chemotherapy every week. In the course of our visit, she asked me “Do you ever get scared?” I thought about her question for a few moments and replied, “I was scared when I first suspected I had cancer. And I was scared when my fears were confirmed and knew I was facing surgery and chemotherapy as well as the possibility of radiation.” I went on to tell her that not only was I scared, I was worried and sad and that I had a lot of concerns. She asked what I had been mo...
First off this week, I need to tell everyone the plans right now are for me to have laproscopic surgery in Billings on Friday, April 13, to remove a large kidney stone in my left kidney. I had a kidney infection for over three months because of the stone. Secondly, since I am due for surgery, I won’t be having a column for a few weeks. Please know I deeply appreciate all of the prayers said for me and concern shown. I live in an incredible area, I wouldn’t trade for anything. Every day I hear a train whistle many times over. Of course, tha...
Sometimes it’s very small. At other times it’s so big it seems to fill your world. But no matter the size, it’s always there. What is it? Hope. Hope can start out like a fully-grown plant. But it can also be like a tiny seed put into the ground, just waiting for the right time to germinate. It can lay there for a long time and then suddenly there is a need for it. So, like the seed that’s been planted, fertilized, and watered, it slowly begins to open. It seeks an opening in the ground surrounding it, searching for a place it can use to esca...
Last week I was recovering from an adverse reaction to an antibiotic that I had been prescribed. As well as trying to gain back my strength from that, I had my chemo treatment ,followed the next day by receving a pint of blood. All of that combined to sap my energy and I just wasn’t able to put together a column. By the way, if you don’t see my column, it’s because I’m either traveling or having a tough week. This is going to be a column about this and that this week. The storm of the last few days has been tough on a lot of people. First i...
A few nights ago, my left foot began strongly itching at 3 a.m. It itched so bad that I couldn’t get back to sleep. I had to have lotion applied to it in order to stop the itching. Since it’s difficult for me to reach my feet in order to apply lotion to them, I had to wake up my husband. He got up, applied lotion to both my feet and lower legs and then we both went back to sleep. Later that day, I was thinking about how my husband woke up at 3 a.m., got up and put lotion on my feet without a complaint. All he said was, “I hope that helps...
We’ve all heard the old saying about if the cup is half empty or half full. I’ve also read a bit of a different version and that is it doesn’t matter if your cup is half empty or half full. The point is that your cup is always refillable. I doubt that whoever wrote about the cup was thinking of fame or wealth. Perhaps, instead, the author was speaking of things like forgiveness, joy, compassion, concern for others, kindness, helpfulness. Or was it anger, greed, bitterness, revenge? Not long ago I read a short thought-provoking paragraph about...
After visiting with a friend awhile ago, I was thinking about our conversation. We had talked about many topics, one of them being ripples. I was reminded of high school age students in a Sunday School class I’d taught some years ago. At the time, the students I was working with asked if they could write a church service. Since it happened to be the season of Lent, I felt it would be a great learning opportunity. So I set down some basic rules for them. The night of the service, they brought out a large old galvanized wash tub. One by one t...
Last week, I wrote about a gentleman who lived next door to us -- Grandpa Hjort. I learned a great deal from him. As I thought about him later on, it came to mind that Grandpa Hjort was like so many older people I visited with when I was growing up. People, such as a lady who lived a few houses west of us. Her husband was killed in an accident while working on railroad tracks. She told me of how six men came to her house with her husband’s body on an old door and of how she cleaned him, put clean clothes on him, then called the sheriff and u...
Every once in a great while we meet a special person. That one person whom we want to know more about, someone who makes us shake our head at their stories, and who, as time goes on, comes to mind in times we are having difficulties in our own lives. So it’s been with me from time to time. One of the most interesting people l’ve known is a gentleman who lived next door to me and my family when I was growing up. He insisted my brother and I call him and his wife Grandpa and Grandma, which we did. I can’t call his first name to mind, but his l...
It’s soon going to be eight years since I was diagnosed with cancer. I went through major surgery and six months of chemotherapy. Not quite five years later, I was told my cancer had returned and mestastasized to my bones. I then began a regimen of hormone therapy medications - four or five different ones. Each one would work for a few months and then become ineffective. So just about a year ago, the oncologist decided my treatment was going to have to change to chemotherapy infusion. That meant having surgery to insert a port in my chest t...
The pages of the calendar have turned and now it’s a new year. It’s hard to believe that it’s the year 2018. I remember being in World History class as a sophomore in high school, studying a historical time line. A discussion began concerning when the 20th century would be left behind and we’d be living in the 21st century. At the time, the year 1958, we all wondered if we’d be alive to see the new century. We talked about what it would be like, about what progress humanity would make. Last week, I was visiting with a close friend. She comme...
This week I decided since 2017 is drawing to a close, I would list some quotes and sayings that have stayed with me over the years. Some of them I’ve come across over time. Years ago I read this: “You are the master of the unspoken word. But once it passes your lips, you become its slave.” Not a bad way to remind us to think before we speak. Not long ago I was watching a program about a teenage girl who had fibbed to her mother concerning where she had been. As the girl was looking at the compass her dad had received from his father, her mothe...
Little things. A hair brush. A bottle of dishwashing liquid. A toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. A roll of paper towels. Just a few disposable diapers. A box of facial tissues. Nothing big, but all definitely a necessity. These, along with all sorts of paper, personal hygiene, and cleaning products are being collected at church as their Advent project. All items will be given to the Valley County Food Bank. Also being sought as well are coupons for food items. This isn’t just an Advent project, though, for this little country church. It is a...
I remember being asked, “When do you stop worrying about your children?” My answer was, “Never. You start worrying about them from the time you know you are going to have a baby and the worry never stops.” I know of a seven-year-old boy who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of two. He has had multiple surgeries, chemotherapy in the form of pills and infusion, and radiation. Last week he told his mother, “Mom, the cancer is back. You better take me to the doctor.” She did. The diagnosis? The cancer has spread to his chest wall and heart. And...
An actor being interviewed about his medical diagnosis stated, “Acceptance isn’t resignation.” He was so right. When I was told in January 2010 I had a blood clot in my arm and could lose a finger because of it, my first feeling was one of fear. Fear that I could lose more than a finger. Fear that my arm and hand would never be the same. But I knew I had to accept the way things were and try to move forward. So I had the surgery and everything turned out fine. The neurosurgeon was able to remove what turned out to be two clots in my arm and sav...
Sometimes I wonder if we realize how many times we receive a gift, yet don’t realize it as such. We are given a gift every single day when we wake up. Throughout each day we receive more gifts. A hug from a child, a smile from someone we pass on the street, a telephone call from a friend inviting us to lunch, a greeting card, a compliment on what we are wearing or something we’ve done or made. The list is endless. Do you ever think of a family dinner as a gift? It is. One of the best gifts there is. To be together with our parents, bro...
Last week I wrote about our 49th wedding anniversary. One thing I forgot to add was it’s important that both the husband and wife need to have a sense of humor. A prime example is a conversation that took place between my husband’s parents. We had asked one of our nieces, who lived in Helena, to be godmother to our son. She opted to stay with her grandparents. On a morning several days after she arrived, my father-in-law looked out one of the kitchen windows to see it had snowed during the night. The sidewalk leading to the garage had a lig...
This past week my husband and I celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary. Those 49 years have saw lots of ups and downs. We've been through losing our house twice to fire. I say house rather than home because I've always held that a house is a bulding but a home is where your heart is. When our first house burned down and I called my brother to tell him, he said, "You lost your home to fire?" My answer was "No. We lost our house, not our home. None of us were injured so we still have our home, we just don't have a house to put it in." Raising...
Over the past week, I’ve taken time to notice little things that have made me smile or make me feel blessed or thankful. such as my 6-year-old granddaughter telling me she has six loose teeth. When I commented that with that many loose teeth, the tooth fairy would run out of money. Her answer was, “Oh, no, Grandma. My teeth are just loose. They haven’t fell out yet.” While watching a nature documentary, one part of it showed a very small light blue bird that lives on an island off the coast of Mexico. The narrator said that the adult bird’s...
This past week was an unusually busy one for me. I was on the go from Wednesday through Sunday. It started out by me having chemo and bone strengthening treatments on Wednesday, followed the same day by a visit with my primary doctor, which ended up in a change in one prescription and receiving two new prescriptions. The day came to an end with a stop at the grocery store to stock up the fridge and pantry with necessary foods. On Thursday, we went to the Glasgow airport to pick up my brother, Steve, who lives in southeast Iowa. He and I try to...
Not long ago, I heard of a friend who had to be placed in a nursing home because he has Alzheimer’s and it was no longer possible for the family to care for him at home. How difficult this decision had to be for his family. And how heartbreaking his diagnosis. A conversation overheard several months ago between two women, was about a friend of theirs who had been diagnosed with a seldom-heard-of disease, was about her being taken to a nursing home where she could also receive physical therapy in the hopes she could possibly return to her h...
On Labor Day this year, we attended the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Lauckner Farm. There were 120 people who signed the guestbook. Those who were there exchanged memories of the Lauckner family from over the years. It may have even been the first time some of these memories were discussed. As we were on our way home, I marveled at the number of 100th anniversaries that have and are planned to take place in this area. Last year, Wagner Farms celebrated 100 years. Several years ago so did Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Nashua. Th...
