Minnesota Vikings Discussion – SkolAsylum: 07 Jul 2023

She was a colicky baby….

The first child of 5 born to a housewife and an Army veteran-turned-electrician, when she was about 6 months old her father, wanting to give his wife some relief from the constant crying, took his little girl down to the riverbank, tossed in a line and would let her howl at the moon, giving birth to her nickname: Moondoggie.

15 years later she’d save her uncle, a WWII veteran, from that same riverbank after a gas lantern exploded in his face. Dragging his 220 lbs up the road and flagging down help.  He lost an eye, but lived another 30 years thanks to her.

2 years after that, ranked top 5 in her class, she walked into the principals office and took the GED equivalency test. When told that she was in the short running to be Valedictorian, she shrugged and said ‘I’m outta here’ with a smile on her face, never looking back.

2 years after that she was standing on 2nd base in the bottom of the last inning of a softball game down a run when the batter hit a soft bloop single into right field. She blew past the stop sign of the 3B coach and chugged for home, the ball beating her by a full 2 steps, she lowered her shoulder and railroaded the catcher. She was called out immediately, tossed by the umpire who cited a clear violation of league rules. She was furious, kicking dirt on the umpire and at the very end of her tirade she pulled the burly man down to her level, kissed him on the cheek and said ‘I’ll see you at home honey’ – the ump was her fiancée, the same man, who as a kid lived down the street from her, swam the lakes and rivers with her and started teasing her at a young age, and the next day became her husband.

Less than a decade later she found herself working as a waitress, but only part-time. So she started a 2nd job, also as a waitress. She’d work M/W/F at one place, T/Th/Sa at another. Both places noticed the ‘regulars’ weren’t there when she was gone. They’d follow her to wherever she worked, some going so far as to call her employers to find out what days she worked. From there she met a man who needed an office manager. She went to work for him for almost 25 years. Her final title was VP of Operations.

She raised 3 kids. 1 boy and 2 girls. She doted on them, was tough when she needed to be and taught them the value of family, good cheese and how to stand up for themselves. She taught her son that others may open doors, but it was on him to square his shoulders, hold his head up and walk thru them.

She was fearless, unafraid to speak her mind to whoever, whenever – including when she shoved the son of the CEO of her husband’s company into a pool after he’d grabbed her ass at a party. She did the man a favor, as her husband was unaware of what happened and most assuredly would’ve meted out a rough justice that would have both brutal and swift. A day later her husband was called in to meet the CEO and was certain he was to be fired. He wasn’t, the CEO apologized profusely and informed the husband that he had removed his son from the company. That removal stayed permanent.

She was an athlete as a youngster, and it carried into her adulthood until at the age of 33 she was diagnosed with degenerative arthritis. Softball and bowling and water skiing went away. So she took up golf, regularly attending ‘ladies night’ at a course a few miles from home. She was late to this course one day and in a hurry she stopped at home. Athletic as she was, she was also clumsy and she slipped on a rug in the entryway of the house and jammed her side into a half-wall. It hurt, but she was tough, and she went golfing. The pain increased over a few days and so she went in to get an X-ray, certain she had just a cracked rib.

That’s when they found the cancer. 

Small cell carcinoma in the lung. They gave her 6 months. That was in March of 2007. By Veteran’s day she was in remission. She celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with family. She laughed and joked and cackled. She loved. She won, and she had more time.

In February of 2008 her husband received a call from one of her employees. She was making mistakes that weren’t like her – She could run a 10 key calculator while juggling two computer screens, talking on the phone and painting her nails. She was a perfectionist at work and her employees were worried. So her husband coaxed her into going to see the doctor, just to make sure everything was okay.

‘It’s spread to her hips, her stomach and her brain…’

Those were the words her son heard first hand from the doctor, he’d hear nothing else as he smashed the phone in a fit of rage.

2 months later she broke her hip, halting all chemo and radiation while having a replacement. She was hospitalized in Lincoln. The son would come see her every morning after work, bringing fresh fruit and they talked about everything. Life, death, love, loss, football, religion, the afterlife…. The list was endless. She was a devout Catholic, he a lifelong skeptic. It broke her heart when he told her he wouldn’t sneak her out for a smoke, it broke his telling her no.

15 years ago today she took her last breath. She was 70 pounds when she died, her eyes were closed but her mouth was open as if in awe, and while her son is still a skeptic, he’s certain in her final moments she saw God.

She was my mother.

RIP Moondoggie.

Skol!