Recipes for Living Carol Saddoris

My transition from Minnesota to Osceola, Iowa came about because I met Harold and we chose to live in his home town in order to provide an extended family experience for our son, Ben. I was born in 1951 and raised with two older brothers and two younger sisters on a dairy farm located four miles west of Ceylon, Minnesota.

My mother probably influenced my basic personality more than anyone else in these early years. I remember having discussions about people who were in trouble or seemed a bit unusual. She taught me never to judge a person's worth based on their behaviors but rather to seek to understand how a person might come to make certain choices or behaviors. I'm sure this lesson provided the foundation for my natural inclination to serve in helping professions.

Our family life was typical of the 50s and 60s - something I considered to be pretty boring as a child. We only went to town when we had to go for supplies or for school and church events. Only after several years in social work did I come to appreciate the stability and sense of security I had in a solid nuclear family - as "unexciting" as that seemed to me as a teen. I enjoyed our large extended family, with which we frequently spent our Sundays and holidays. Neighbors were friends, who often worked together, so I had a strong sense of community. This became a key theme for me in my adult life - people helping one another and being interdependent. When I was a senior in college, we all had to write a senior paper, and my chosen topic was "Community: A Study of the Factors that Create and Sustain Human Community."

From 1969 to 1973, I attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. I discovered I liked learning experientially more than through books, so I became involved in off-campus education. I spent a rural studies semester in Elkader, Iowa, and learned a lot about aspects specific to rural communities.

In the summer of 1972, I had the good fortune to go to Israel on an archaeological expedition! I worked as a student secretary for Richard Simon Hanson, who was the academic director of the dig. I jokingly said one day, "Do you need a secretary over there?" His answer was, "Yes, we are hiring one. Would you like to go?" In addition to earning my air fare, I earned academic credit for participating in the dig. I never dreamed this little farm girl from Minnesota would have a wonderful opportunity to learn and travel! As long as I was on that side of the ocean, I was determined I would not come back until my ticket expired. The opportunity coincided with the first year Luther had a program in Nottingham, England. Students lived in Nottingham and attended the University in addition to providing a community service. I volunteered in an adult day care center where I learned about neighborhood care groups and how social services for the elderly can be done primarily by volunteers supported by government funding. Lesson Learned: Don't let the unfamiliar hold you back. Jump in with a sense of adventure and self-assurance and see what life has to offer.

I graduated and returned to my parent's farm which was now in Estherville, Iowa. I helped prepare for my mother's transition to a nursing home. She was only 53 when her early onset Alzheimer’s disease had reached the point where she was difficult to manage and actually a danger to herself and others on the farm. Nothing like adult day care existed in northwest Iowa, so I went with her to some of the activities at the Good Samaritan nursing home to help her become accustomed to the environment where she would live until her death 3 years later in 1976. Lesson Learned: Do not put off all of your leisure and travel plans until retirement. You do not know how many tomorrows you will have together.

My youngest sister was at home to help Dad, and I was ready to begin my career. I had several stipulations: I wanted to work with people, and I wanted to be within an hour of Estherville so I could visit my mom and help at home. I was hired by Iowa State Extension in Algona as a Community Resource Development Youth Specialist. Harold was the 4-H and Youth Leader in Kossuth County, so we worked closely together, and developed a personal relationship, too. Although I don't actually remember either of us asking the other to marry, Harold's accepting a position in Des Moines compelled us to make a decision. I chose to join him and we were married in February 1975. Lesson Learned: There really is such a thing as love at first sight.

We lived in Des Moines from 1975 to November 1976, where I helped to research adult day care options for the Iowa Jewish Home as well as Wesley Acres. The timing just wasn't right for either of them to move into this kind of programming, so I turned my focus toward preparing for the birth of our son, Benjamin Clay in May of 1976. Lesson Learned: Just when you think nothing is working out as you hoped, something beautiful happens to give you a whole new purpose and direction if you'll just be open to it.

It was also during this time I had my first opportunity to meet Osceola people other than family at a Crossroad meeting, which was held at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, at that time in the 300 block on South Park. This was an ecumenical group, consisting mostly of lay people interested in ways to offer services that would better the community. I talked to them about adult day care and planted the seed that would finally come to fruition nearly 15 years later! Lesson Learned: One must be patient and persistent in the wait for the right mix of people, needs and resources, for an idea to fully germinate.

In November 1976, we moved to Osceola, Harold's home town, partially because we wanted Ben to have the experience of the extended family. Harold's parents were Leonard and Nora Saddoris, and four of his five siblings still live in the vicinity. They are Helen Allen, Louise Hart, Donna Saddoris, and Martha Snyder. He has a brother Stan who lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. They are all kind and good-hearted people, whom Ben would benefit from knowing.

It had also been Harold's dream to live on a farm and raise black Angus cattle. He had been building a herd with his nephew, Mike Allen, and finally had a large enough herd to warrant managing it himself. Luckily for us, Wesley Ford's goats got into Mike's pasture one day. In visiting with Mr. Ford, Mike discovered Wesley and Vaniece had been thinking of retiring and moving to town, which gave Mike the opportunity to say that his uncle might be interested in renting his farm. The farm provided lots of timber, pasture, and hay ground on this land, so it was a perfect solution. Lesson Learned: All you have to do is make the decision and the universe will take care of the details.

Harold commuted to Des Moines and I took a position when Ben was 15 months old. We did that for about four years and decided that there just wasn't enough time left for family life with this arrangement. The cattle market was taking a downturn, so we sold the cows and moved to an acreage north of town on Highway 152 for the next 10 years. Lesson Learned: There is more to life than work!

Most of my positions have been in human services with a few forays into the private sector. I worked as Planned Parenthood of Mid-Iowa's first full time community outreach worker, then as a family service worker in Clarke County for the Department of Social Services, and then as an outreach counselor for South Central Youth and Family Services out of Indianola. I realized I was needing a break from the social work field and decided to act on my dream of owning a specialty toy shop. My sister sent our son the most darling toys while living in Stuttgart, Germany and I believed others would love them, too. In July 1984, we purchased the Strawberry Patch and renamed it the Whistlestop Eatery and Toy Shop. In 1986, we split into two businesses.

The restaurant went to the old hotel, where the Mexican Food Store is located, and the toys went to Redfern's Mini-mall, which is now the south half of Clarke County State Bank.

We ran the specialty toy business separate from the restaurant for about a year or year and a half, and then decided to sell in August 1987, returning to the human service field as an employment specialist with the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) in Creston. In 1989, I accepted an offer to be the human resources manager at O'Bryan Brothers in Leon - just before Clarke County Hospital learned they had received a grant to provide Intergenerational Day Care. I was asked to manage the grant in the second and third years, during which time the west end of the extended care wing was remodeled into a dining room and adult day care setting. Second shift child care was established in the Head Start mobile classroom on hospital property. The children would arrive and interact with the elderly from 2:00 to 4:00, then spend the rest of the shift at the Head Start building. Second shift child care helped the hospital attract and retain nurses and aides, but it was an expensive service to provide.

When the nursing home north of town decided to offer 24-hour child care, the hospital decided to support their program and disbanded the child care program. Adult day care, for a number of reasons, was never able to gain enough clients to justify continuing the program. Both programs closed in 1995. Lessons Learned: Multi-purpose use of space is not simple, but it can be done if all the players really want it to work. Alternatives to nursing home care (adult day care) should not be located within a nursing home environment.

For the next seven years I worked as a quality assurance specialist for Iowa State University which involved reviewing records and training providers of family and group care services across the state. In 2002, the University of Iowa hired me to direct a pilot project for an eight-county region in southwest Iowa to provide intensive care coordination to children with complex behavioral health needs and their families. I was delighted to work with that until 2004 when funding to Child Health Specialty Clinics was severely cut and the pilot project terminated. Lessons Learned: Families who care for children with serious emotional disturbances deserve our respect, our support, and our encouragement. It takes incredible courage, energy, and commitment every day and every hour of their existence.

I decided at that point to pursue my passionate interest in complementary and alternative medicine which has been developing over the past fifteen years. I received training in Georgia and became a certified bioenergetics screening technician in October 2004. Using a biofeedback unit, I am able to measure a deficient or excessive energy readings on more than 30 acupuncture meridian points on the hands and feet. Based on these readings, an individualized program is developed that might include herbal extracts, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and other natural remedies to return balance to the flow of energy to an organ, gland, or system in the body.

People always ask how I learned about this approach. A friend of mine had been unable to find the root cause of her life-threatening health challenges until they were referred to a clinic that used bioenergetics screening and natural remedies to address the underlying causes to her health challenges. Her great success led me to seek out the same services to help me understand why I was feeling less and less healthy even though lab tests did not indicate a reason for my lack of vitality. I have been a client for five years and delight in never having to take sick leave for colds, the flu, or the latest "crud" going around. Along with that, I've learned a lot about nutrition as a consumer and distributor of Sunrider International products, an international wholesale company that markets concentrated whole foods that help the body regenerate at a higher level. Lesson Learned: Our bodies have the ability to repair and rebuild if we give them the nutrients they need to function properly, a positive outlook on life and a healthy life style.

Harold's career path didn't take quite so many twists and turns as mine. Before he worked for Iowa State Extension, he was assistant superintendent at the Girls' Training School in Mitchellville. When we met, he was 4-H and Youth Leader in Kossuth and Palo Alto Counties. He transferred to Polk County Extension and was still doing that part time when he became a magistrate judge in Clarke County. He was commuting to Des Moines three days and serving as magistrate judge two days a week and three out of four weekends. The Extension job concluded and he began working part-time for the Clarke County Board of Supervisors as board assistant three days a week, continuing to be a magistrate until he retired in 2001. During the first year of his retirement he followed his personal passion and researched the genealogy of his four grandparents' families. Feeling he had discovered the bulk of the information he needed, he decided to take a part-time job to keep himself active and meeting people. He drives the shuttle and helps with valet services at Terrible's Casino and enjoys the fact that he is outdoors and meeting new people every day. Harold's other favorite past time is to attend household auctions in his pursuit of the great finds and interesting treasures. I think he would agree that his involvement in bringing Bethphage, now known as Mosaic, to Osceola to meet the needs of our residents with mental retardation and developmental disabilities at home has been one of his most satisfying accomplishments.

Our shared pleasure has been that of raising our only child, Ben. He has been a delight and a source of wonderment for us over the years. At a very early age, he would ask the most thoughtful and profound questions. We were always careful to encourage his curiosity and let him know that sometimes there were different viewpoints and more than one answer to his questions depending on cultural and religious backgrounds and that there is value in understanding all of them. It has been interesting to see how his experience and studies have coalesced into a strong interest in the sustainability movement which strives for optimal living conditions while improving our natural environmental and social systems. He had the good fortune to intern several summers at Ft. Lewis for a contractor that focused on that base's sustainability plan which now serves as a model for other bases in the country. Ben continues to excel as a student and we know he will be an excellent college history professor. He hopes to complete his dissertation this fall for his PhD in Modern History and Literature from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.