MOM’S MEMOIRS – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
(Continued)

Mom’s Autobiography – Chapter 47 – In Book, Page 112

Irene’s 71st Birthday, Julia Mueller’s Graduation and Confirmation, Cassie’s 3rd Birthday, Emma’s 1st Birthday, Dick and Tim Vacancy Pastors at Rib Lake and Spirit, “Ma” Kuckkan’s Stroke, “Ma” at Watertown Regional Medical Center, Jennifer Mueller and Kevin Poston’s Wedding, Marquardt Manor Becomes “Ma’s” Home, Dick’s Bell’s Palsy, Juvenile Diabetes Walk For The Cure in Cheyenne, Wyoming

APRIL 17, 2001 – IRENE’S 71ST BIRTHDAY

There we are again sitting at Sue and Tim’s dinner table with the FAMILY tablecloth with all the colored balloons celebrating my 71st birthday. As my sister Lottie (Doloris), who is in Cathedral City, California, says when I talk to her on the phone, “How did we get old so fast?”

APRIL 29 AND MAY, 6 2001 – JULIA MUELLER’S GRADUATION AND CONFIRMATION

There were seven graduates from Immanuel Lutheran School. One of them was “Julie”, Sue and Tim’s daughter and our granddaughter. There was a wonderful delicious banquet served in their honor. The class verse was: Romans 5:2-5: “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” What a beautiful verse! And what a blessed event it was, too, in May when Julie was confirmed in her faith with her parents, sisters, brothers, grandparents, sponsors, other relatives, and friends attending the service.

MAY 15, 2001 – CASSIE’S 3rd BIRTHDAY AND MAY 21, 2001 – EMMA’S 1st BIRTHDAY

How fast the years go by! We can hardly believe that Cassie is three years old.! It seems like yesterday when we were all together at her Baptism at Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hustisford, Wisconsin. And we can hardly believe that Emma is one year old! What beautiful great-granddaughters we are blessed with (now at this date, May 6, 2009, we have 22 great grandchildren – four in heaven – three in the womb, two to be born in August and one in November. We now have 62 people in our God-given family – how richly we are blessed, and how thankful we are!)

JUNE 3, 2001 – DICK AND TIM ARE THANKED FOR SERVING AS VACANCY PASTORS

Dick and our Tim helped serve as vacancy pastors at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rib Lake and Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church of Spirit, Wisconsin, until Pastor Roger Sloan was called as pastor of both churches. They were thanked in the June 3rd bulletin. Zion Lutheran celebrated its 100th Anniversary on July 22nd. What a blessed day it was!

JUNE 5, 2001 – “MA” (FRANCES (FRANZISKA) KUCKKAN, MY MOTHER), AT WATERTOWN REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER AFTER SHE HAD A STROKE

My mother did not ever want to get old, so her grandchildren called her “Ma”, as she requested. But the years go by and the clock cannot be stopped. She was 87 years old and had numerous truck accidents (Yes, she had a truck). The last one had injured her left arm. We were in Medford, Wisconsin, when my sister, Beatrice, called from Watertown and said that Ma had a stroke. A lady was visiting her and suddenly we were told she stopped talking. It turned out that the left side of her body was paralyzed so that her words were not easily understood and she couldn’t walk. We went to be with her, but then went back to Medford because Dick had been asked to preach for our granddaughter, Jenny’s, wedding on June 9th, at our son’s (Timothy’s) church, Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran in Medford. We were sad to leave Ma. We could not be in two places at one time. In life we have our sorrows and our joys (as soon as the wedding was over, we headed back to Watertown).

JUNE 9, 2001 – JENNIFER LYNN MUELLER AND KEVIN SCOTT POSTON’S WEDDING

What a wonderful blessed wedding they had! The bride especially looked beautiful and the groom looked very handsome (when I first met Kevin, I kidded him and told him that he reminded me of Trevor Howard, a very debonair British actor who was in movies at the Classic (now Towne) Theatre in Watertown when I was growing up). Pastor James Weiland, uncle of the bride (our Sue’s husband) conducted the first portion of the service. Jenny’s grandfather Mueller (Dick) preached the sermon, the text being Joshua 24:15 – “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” And Jenny’s father, Pastor Timothy Mueller (our son) performed the marriage rite. The wedding reception and dinner were held at Immanuel Lutheran Church and were unforgettable, as all the gatherings are when our families are present.

BACK TO WATERTOWN WHERE “MA’S” HOME WAS NOW MARQUARDT MANOR

Yes, we have our sorrows as well as our joys, as all families have. Ma was now in a wheelchair in a nursing home. How sad it was to see how helpless she was. All of her life she had been so active, independent, and hard-working. And how sad it was to hear her voice coming from her room all the way to the nurses’ station when all of us went to visit her. She would be there until the Lord carried her soul home to heaven on September 24, 2002. She was 88 years old. Ma and Pa’s home at 1419 Prospect Street, Watertown, Wisconsin, was put up for sale, and there was an estate sale. How we all learn to accept changes in our lives.

She, my mother, was the woman who pleaded with Professor E. Kowalke, President of Northwestern Preparatory School and College to allow me, a GIRL, to attend Northwestern Prep. In that year, 1944, they were not happy to accept girls. The school was primarily for boys. My mother told him that my marks at St. Mark’s Evangelical School were excellent and why could I not be accepted. She and Pa wanted me to continue my Christian education. Finally Mrs. Kowalke intervened and told her husband, “let her come”. At that time I was a shy 14 year old girl. But Dick, my future husband, who was 15 years old, spotted me and I spotted him, and what a blessing it was! It was love at first sight! On June 7th of this year, 2009, we will be married 56 years! Thank you, Ma and Mrs. Kowalke. The hand of the Lord guides everything.

DICK, MY HUSBAND, DEVELOPS BELL’S PALSY ON THE LEFT SIDE OF HIS FACE

Dick and I tried to travel from Medford every week to see Ma. One morning Dick noticed that we had a flat tire on our car. He fixed the tire, but acquired Bell’s Palsy on his face; we think because the temperature was ten degrees below zero. Thank God his face was not affected as much as we hear faces of some people who acquire Bell’s Palsy are. He told me that he had Bell’s Palsy before, in Medford where his father was pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, after he skied in very cold weather. Our daughter, Stephanie also had it after a dentist struck a nerve in her face. We didn’t think her face was affected, but she thought her eye was affected. She is as beautiful as ever. God is with us in everything we do.

SEPEMBER 8, 2001 – CHEYENNE JDRF WALK FOR THE CURE

Again our son-in-law, Pastor Jeffrey Heitsch, wrote a letter to family and friends. He said it had been five years (on Mitchell’s birthday July 24, 1996) ago when Samantha was diagnosed with Type l Diabetes. A part of his letter says: “Five years ago we started out with giving Sammy two injections of insulin a day. From those two shots five years ago we progressed up to as many as five shots a day. For a little over a year now Sammy has been on the insulin pump. We now only have to give her one BIG shot every three days. That one big shot inserts the catheter tube into her body and the pump delivers the insulin on a more steady regular basis. Her blood sugar control has been better, but still there are those days and weeks where nothing we do seems to work and she bounces all over the place.

“Five years ago Diabetes came invading into our lives. In this struggle God has been there with us, helping us to see and enjoy some of the “silver lining” in this dark cloud. For that we are so thankful and strive to honor and praise Him every day by doing all we can to help Sammy to control and deal with this Diabetes. In those five years she has grown and matured. She has been regularly involved in talking about Diabetes with everyone from her classmates to executives of corporations. For five years Sammy, Steph, and the rest of the family have been active in the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation – especially their annual WALK FOR THE CURE on our family team, to support Sammy and to help raise funds to help find a cure. We thank all of those who in the past have given their support.

“This year things are a bit different. Steph is serving as the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) president for the Cheyenne branch. She is heading up the walk this year, getting things organized and working with a great board of volunteers to make the Cheyenne Walk a wonderful success.”