MOM’S MEMOIRS – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
(Continued)
Mom’s Autobiography – Chapter 28 – In Book, Page 66
Mom’s Deer Story, Tim Called To Medford, Sue Married, Jim Graduates From Sem, Assigned to Racine, Wisconsin, Jim Accepts Call To Merrill, Steph Married, Travis Born, Vacation In Globe, Arizona, Steve Graduates From Luther Prep, Steve Married, Dad Accepts Call To Waunakee, Wisconsin, Mom Invited To Governor’s Mansion
Tim was, and is, a deer hunter, and so Dick (and Tim’s sons when they were old enough), and a member went hunting on the member’s land. One evening when Tim had hunted and shot a deer, he couldn’t find it and it was getting dark. The next morning I was taking Sue and Tim’s dog, Chelsea (a beautiful Golden Retriever), for a walk (or was he taking me for a walk?) down the road toward the County Park. What should I see but a deer lying next to a corn field. It didn’t move, even when it saw us. So Chelsea and I went back to the parsonage to tell Tim to come and see the deer. Tim was in Fox Lake, but Sue called him and he came. Tim, with his bow and arrows, walked down the road with me, and there was the deer, still lying next to the cornfield. After shooting some arrows, which were deflected by some bushes, he shot the deer. It was the same deer which he had wounded the night before. And that is no “fish story”, ah, I mean “deer story”. Tim went hunting after that and got other deer, but before he accepted the Call to Immanuel of Medford, Wisconsin, he shot two huge buck, the heads of which were mounted and adorn one of the walls of their basement.
Tim, Sue, and their children lived in Waupun until 2003 when he accepted the Call as pastor of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Medford, Wisconsin, where Dick’s father was pastor for seven years. Tim’s picture is on the wall of the church near his grandfather’s. The Lord works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform. Sue and Tim’s children of grade school age attended Immanuel Parochial School and those of High School age attended the public High School in Medford. We were entertained quite often by Timmy and Christopher playing basketball at the High School and Matt playing basketball at Immanuel. They were all very good basketball players. We were also entertained by Julia playing the trumpet with a band.
Sue and Jim were married June 5, 1982, at Lord And Savior with Dad Mueller officiating. They had a beautiful wedding with Sue wearing my wedding dress which made me very happy. Jim graduated from Northwestern College in 1981 and attended the Seminary, vicared at Benton Harbor, Michigan, where “James” was born on November 20, 1983, and graduated from the Seminary May 31, 1985. He received the Call to First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Racine, Wisconsin. Brian was born January 22, 1985, and Rebecca April 28, 1986. We attended “Grandparents Day” on May 1, 1992, and have very nice pictures of Jimmy, Brian, Becky, and Christina, born April 23, 1990, with Grandpa and Grandma Weiland, and us. While Sue, Jim, and family were in Racine, they took in a Ukranian boy named Paulo Goropiak. They were under the impression that he was an orphan, but found out that he had a father in the Ukraine, so Paulo had to go back.
Jim was a dedicated Pastor in Racine until he received, and accepted, the Call to Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Merrill, Wisconsin. Sue, Jim, and family moved on January 8, 1996. Sue said, “it was the coldest day of the year”. Laura was born after they got to Merrill, January 21, 1996. She is our youngest grandchild. God has blessed us with so many wonderful grandchildren. The children attended Our Savior’s Parochial School in Wausau, and Northland Lutheran High School in Mosinee (near Wausau) when they were of High School age.
Steph and Jeff were married May 25, 1985, in St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Watertown, Wisconsin, where Sue, Tim, and we had been married. So we had another beautiful bride marrying another handsome man. Jeff graduated from Northwestern College in 1985 and then attended the Seminary. He and Steph lived in the “gatehouse” of the Kurth estate. The Kurths had a brewery in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, before they moved next to Lake Michigan. Mr. Kurth had passed away, so Jeff did the work that had to be done on the estate. Steph and Jeff became parents when Travis was born June 30, 1986, in Milwaukee.. He was in an “incubator” in a Milwaukee hospital for quite awhile, and when they took him home, they had a monitor so they could hear him at night. Jeff received the Call on May 19, 1987, as vicar of St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Globe, Arizona. Carla (Horlamus) Heitsch, Jeff’s Mom, and Pastor and Mrs. Rudolph Horlamus, Jeff’s grandparents, also came to the service at the Seminary.
January 6, 1988, Steve, Tina, Dick, and I went to Globe, Arizona, for our vacation. Dick was sick, so I drove from Waunakee to Crystal Lake, Illinois, and then Debbie drove us to Chicago to go by plane from there to Phoenix, Arizona, west of Globe. Dick perked up and what a wonderful time we had with Steph, Jeff, and Travis. The Arizona history and scenery is fantastic. The Pinto Valley Copper mine is in Miami, Arizona, just outside of Globe. Steph and Jeff took us to see the mine and a shop where we could buy beautiful copper souvenirs, Salt River Canyon, Tonto National Monument, and Theodore Roosevelt Dam and Lake. At Apache Tears for a small fee we were given a little hatchet to dig for Apache tear stones and put them into a bucket they gave us, or we could pick them right up off the ground. What fun we had! We have many Apache tear stones to this day. Just east of Apache Tear Caves, in the 1870s, a band of 75 Apaches cornered by Calvary from Pinal City, leaped to their deaths (Apache Leap Mountain) rather than surrender. Legend has it that the “Apache Tears” were formed from the tears shed by the mourning Apache women.
We also visited Coolidge Dam, the San Carlos Apache Mission church (Pastor Seefeldt), and Bes’h Ba Gowah Archeological Park. We visited Paul and Lynda Grass, and their family in Tucson, Arizona. They had been members of Lord And Savior, Crystal Lake, Illinois, where Dick had been their pastor. We visited the Apache Lutheran Mission church (Pastor Pontel) at Peridot, Arizona (on the Reservation). On the cornerstone it says, “Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone”. There was a little Apache Indian store on the Reservation where I bought a beautiful Peridot green stone (Peridot is not found in many places in the world) necklace and matching earrings. Dick preached at St. Peter’s, Globe, where Jeff was the vicar, on January 12, 1988. We saw a Roadrunner (bird) running in front of the church that day. But all too soon it was time for us to leave our loved ones, Steph, Jeff, and Travis, and go back to Wisconsin.
We were to be at the Phoenix airport on January 19, 1988, but the road through the mountains was closed. It had snowed. We waited, and the road opened. It was dangerous driving. One lady driver was hanging on for dear life to the wheel of her car and finally parked. The Lord guided Jeff’s hands, and brought us safely to Phoenix, in time for us to make our flight to Wisconsin.
Steve graduated from Northwestern Prep May 10, 1986. His sport at Northwestern had been cross-country running. While Steve was at Northwestern, he would come home weekends, mow lawns, barbecue for the family, make his delicious omlets (he wrote a composition about how to make them and got an A) for Mom, Dad, and anyone else who asked for them, etc. He decided, with Michael Roberts (the son of Mr. Dave and Mrs. Carole Roberts, Lord And Savior’s devoted organist), to attend Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee to study art.
Mike has a sister by the name of Marci. Steve was interested in her, but he told us not too long ago that Wally Gutzmer had her “tagged”. At Wisconsin Lutheran College he met a girl by the name of Tina Schiman, from Manitowoc. Steve remained at the College for two years, and then worked for Quad Graphics. Tina also worked there. They were married June 16, 1990, in Christ the Lord Evangelical Lutheran Church, Brookfield, Wisconsin. Sadly, the marriage did not work out after Tina became involved with a man she worked with.
WAUNAKEE, WISCONSIN
Dick, my husband, received an exploratory (there wasn’t a congregation there yet) Call to Waunakee (THE ONLY WAUNAKEE IN THE WORLD), Wisconsin, in 1986, and accepted. The congregation at Lord And Savior said, “Why are you going when you have everything here?” Again, our hearts yearned to be in mission work, going out and “bringing in the sheaves”. So Pastor Karl Gurgel, Pastor of St. Paul’s in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, and Chairman of the Home Mission Board called us and said he had found the perfect parsonage for us at 416 Patrick Avenue in Waunakee. It was owned by the Meffert family. We met him at the house and were enthralled with it. It was a three-bedroom house, but the people who owned it had built an addition – another bedroom, shower room, huge great room, and a deck off of that. Also, there was a big walk-in basement which was finished with a lounge, extra room, utility room, and storage.
We moved from Crystal Lake, Illinois, where we had lived for eleven years. Dick was installed November 15, 1987. Our neighbors were mostly Catholic – what warm friendly people they were, even inviting us to their children’s weddings. Shortly after we moved in, our neighbor lady, Marilyn Gregorich (a cousin of Mrs. (Sue Ann) Tommy Thompson – he was the Governor of Wisconsin at that time) came over and said, “Irene, how would you like to go to the Governor’s Mansion (next to Lake Mendota in Madison)?” When she asked me, I was busy pulling weeds from a flower garden, but I accepted, ran into the house to take a quick shower because she said that she and some of the other ladies were leaving soon, got into the car with them, and off we went to the Governor’s Mansion, built in 1928, and located at 99 Cambridge Road in the village of Maple Bluff.
Marilyn announced us at the gate, Sue Ann Thompson met us at the door, and guided us on a tour of the Mansion from top to bottom. On the upper floor are the bedrooms. The Thompsons have two daughters, Kelli and Tommi (and a son, Jason), and when we got to the girls’ room, the wallpaper, bedding, drapes, etc. were all done in yellow with pink flowers. I asked Sue Ann if her daughters liked that, and she said they hated it. When they moved into the mansion, it had been redecorated before them, so there was no money left for them to decorate. As quoted in the Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wisconsin, April 2, 1992 – “First Lady Sue Ann Thompson is mainly a weekend and summer occupant, keeping her school teaching job in Elroy and living in the family home there”. But what a tour it was – all that history, all that art, etc. of governors and their families before them! Sue Ann even took us to the wine cellar in the basement. Then she took us out on the patio and we had brownies and soda for refreshment. She is a most gracious hostess. What a lovely time we had!
On July 31, 1988, Governor Tommy Thompson and his wife, Sue Ann, were the Grand Marshals for the 1988 Waunafest Parade, and rode in an old fire engine. We again visited with Sue Ann when our neighbor, Marilyn Gregorich, invited us to their home for a get-together on August 4, 1988 (refer to Album #36 for picture and newspaper clippings). We did not see the Governor there, but were happy to see her again and visit with her.