My dad was a factory worker for Viking Pump. Mom worked in the cafeteria in the junior high school. Neither were high paying jobs, and we didn't have a lot of extra money. I remember working a lot, beginning with baby sitting at a very young age. I used the money to buy my clothes, pay for school lunches, and other activities. When I was 16 or thereabouts, I "graduated" from baby sitting, and worked the concession stand at a drag race track. The couple of years I did that, I thought I was big stuff because I was around older people. I had a good time. During several summers I worked detasseling corn, which was a hard job but it paid well. I saved the money and that was how I was able to go to college.

I went to Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls. There I met more people and made more friends. I lived in a dorm and had a great time. I went one year and earned a secretarial degree. It was there I met Doug — at a college hang out called Crazy Eight. Doug added, "It was a bar." Doug was a farm boy, I was a city girl. He kept asking me out, I kept refusing to go. He kept calling and I kept turning him down until one weekend the cafeteria at the dorm was closed. I had very little money to eat on. Doug happened to call with a welcome invitation — to go to the park and get Kentucky Fried Chicken. I thought it through — "It's a Sunday afternoon, we will be at a park, I'm going to get Kentucky Fried Chicken, and I won't starve. What do I have to lose?" So we went. We had a very nice time and I discovered he wasn't as bad as I thought he was, so besides having a good time, I got my stomach full. That was our first date, with more to follow.

Doug

I was born in Denison, Iowa, Crawford County, in July 1950, to Otto and Leona Petersen. I have an older brother, Arlen. He was born in 1935. I was almost a fire cracker baby, being born the 6th of July, not the 4th. I grew up on a farm east of Denison near the town of Kenwood, which is no longer there. The reason for the town's existence was a railroad station where we brought our live-stock to be shipped to Chicago or elsewhere. There was a country store, which is still there. That is where we went on Wednesday nights in the summer time to sit on benches out front and eat homemade ice cream.

I enlisted in the Naval Air Force in 1968. My initial training was at Great Lakes Training Center in Chicago. I did my boot camp there and after graduating was sent to Patuxent Training station in Maryland, on Putax River for short. That river flows into Chesapeake Bay. We were trained in flying and other aspects of the Air Force. I was assigned to Aviation Ordance and went to school in Florida, then was sent back to Maryland in a division called Flight Test. It was all purpose attack aircraft. My part had to do with the various bombs, rockets, and missiles that were on the big fighter and bomber planes. In other words, I was in charge of stuff that went boom.

My service time was four years, two sea- and two land-duty. Those years were my land duty and when I finished, I had two years of sea duty. I went to VP-46 which was anti-submarine warfare. I had to go to three different schools to train — SIRE — Survival, Invasion, Resistance, and Escape. They simulated each one. For survival and invasion, they turned us loose in the mountains and hunted us down. The next step was to be like a POW (Prisoner of War) camp and we were POWs for three days. We were each put in a box barely larger than we were, to sit in there alone. Psychologically they wanted to give us the sensation of being in solitary, and trying to break us down to get information. About every two hours they put a hood over our heads so we couldn't see where we were, and took us out to keep our circulation going. They interrogated us and beat us up a little. They didn't draw blood but poked us and drug us around, again trying to get us to give them information. Then they put us back in. This went on for three days. I managed to survive that, got my certificate and went home.

I was then an air crewman, and went to Moffett Field in San Francisco — VP-46, vertical patrol. This is a pretty good sized aircraft, about the size of a small 747, but it has four turbo prop engines. With it you can circle around and drop sonic bombs and different stuff in the water. They sent signals back to the aircraft where it was plotted on a big graph. The sonar operators picked up all the signals coming back, and notified the submarine it had been spotted. Our claim to fame was we caught a Russian sub where he wasn't supposed to be. Once we found him, we dropped an instrument that sent out a signal indicating to the submarine they had been sighted. They did a direct turn-around and went straight back to Russia. We turned around over Russia and saw the good red clay soil like we have here. We weren't supposed to be there, either, so we left. We had a nice commendation from the Admiral.

I practiced loading a nuclear bomb but there were so many safety features there was no danger. Generally they don't hit the ground, but explode in the air. The cold war was going on then and we bluffed each other out all the time, but in case somebody would quit bluffing, we had to be ready. We flew over the coastal waters of Vietnam, where the Russians were. I also received a commendation for that.

I got out of the service and came back to Iowa. I drove home from San Francisco to Dows, Iowa in 26 hours. I had already arranged to go to Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls in the 2-year ag program. My brother lived there. He found me a place to live and made arrangements for me to go to school. I received my Associate's Degree in Agriculture in 1974.

Carole and Doug

Picking up our story after Doug returned and we were both in Ellsworth: We dated for awhile and he got an apartment. I lived in the dorm for a year and one year in an apartment with four girls. That was one of the best things I ever did. I learned to grow up in a hurry. Doug lived with a bunch of guys. He was a little bit older than I was, had been in the service, and was ready to get married. He kept asking me to marry him, and I kept refusing. It wasn't that I didn't love him, I just wasn't ready to settle down. Finally one night, he had prepared a candlelight steak supper at his apartment. We had a nice, romantic meal, at the end of which he said, "I have asked you several times to marry me, and this is it." As he pulled out a diamond, he said, "You accept this tonight, or I'm done with you." I decided probably it would be OK to accept.

We planned a date to be married — September 28, 1974. The church where the wedding was to take place was Bethlehem Lutheran, where I'd been baptized, confirmed, and attended all my life. It was convenient — just four blocks from our house. My mom never drove, never had a license. Dad took us until I was able to drive.

September 28 was a rainy day but I had a super neat feeling that I had chosen the right man. My sister was my maid-of-honor and all was as it should be. My sister and I, along with others, went to the church to get ready; but as the time for the ceremony was getting closer — we were getting ready for pictures, and no Doug. We began to get nervous. Did he back out; what happened? We called our house and discovered he was having his own crisis. He was on his way to the church with his best man, when, as he was getting into the car, the whole seat of his tuxedo ripped out. Luckily, his mom was a seamstress. She was still at our house, took out a needle and thread and got him ready. All was well.

We started our married life living in Iowa Falls, in an apartment above a garage. I have fond memories of it. It was very, very little but it was fun for us. I worked at the Iowa Falls State Bank, as a teller. Doug was a feed salesman at Sebert's Feed and Grain. We lived in that apartment a year or two, and an unusual situation came about. There was a street — School Street — that we used to take note of as we were riding around, and Doug always said, "If a house ever comes up for sale on this street, this is where I want to live." We happened to go by one day and sure enough there was a cute little white bungalow with a for-sale sign on it. We checked into it. Of course we didn't have a lot of money, but we had enough for a down payment. The older couple, who had the house, were willing to sell it along with all the furniture, appliances and everything. So we were able just to move into the house.

Shortly after that we decided we wanted to start a family. I had a miscarriage when I was about two months along, and that was devastating. But then Doug left Seberts and went with Golden Sun Feeds as a territory manager. I still worked at the bank. Fortunately I became pregnant again. I worked at the bank until about two months before our daughter, Staci, was born April 8, 1978.

I vividly remember the day. It was a beautiful spring day. Doug and I were out grilling. We liked to play Yatzee, and we were playing Yatzee about 10:00, when I said, "I don't feel good." My water broke, and we went to the hospital. Staci was born by 3:00 in the morning. No complications. She was a bundle of joy. We were very happy to have her in our household.

All was going well when Doug was offered a different territory with Golden Sun. The only problem was, we would have to move. It was a very hard decision, but the advantages outweighed our doubts and we decided to take the leap. When he first started, he was gone a lot. His territory was around Panora, Iowa and I was home with our newborn baby. It didn't take me long to know that yes, we would move. We moved to Panora and soon found it wasn't home to us. It was a small town and we found it hard to fit in.

Doug had an opportunity to be territory manager in Osceola, Iowa. We had never heard of the town, we had nobody around here at all, and no idea what the town was like. Staci was 1 1/2 years old. We were fortunate to fmd a little house at 505 South Lincoln Street, which is where we still live. It wasn't long before we started meeting people. We joined the Immanuel Lutheran Church and met people that way, and we also joined a card club.

While we lived in Osceola our second daughter was born in Clarke County Hospital —Angie. Her name is actually Angela but she has always been known as Angie. Her arrival helped us know we liked it here, and we began making some good friends. To this day, our special friends are Joyce and Orville Turner. Since we had no relatives around and lived two houses away from them, they became the girls' adopted Grandma and Grandpa. They went to school activities for the kids when they were little and they are still very special to us.

About this time, Doug got the idea he didn't want to be a territory manager anymore. He had an opportunity to go to Shellrock, Iowa to be a salesman for Brant Elevator. Doug is a farm boy and this job sounded appealing. We moved to Shellrock, and had trouble finding a place to live, so we rented an old drafty farm house clear out in the country, in the middle of nowhere. That winter it was very cold and one night we were lying in bed laughing, singing "Jingle Bells," because snow was coming in everywhere.

We lived there about a year that included a really rough winter. There was a time when we went to visit some friends, and they insisted we have supper with them. There was a terrible blizzard, and we got stuck trying to get home. Here we were with a six-month old baby and a three-year-old. We finally were taken to our house by snowmobile. By that time Doug had discovered he didn't like his job at all, and I was miserable. I was home all day with four children — our two and our neighbors' two children, all the same age. So I was babysitting for four little girls under the age of three. This was not bliss.

There is a story about the house we lived in. I never thought I believed in ghosts and I still am not sure. The house we lived in was very old, we were told the lady who lived there died in the farmhouse. Her husband kept all her possessions and they were still as she left them. Our neighbors told us, "Strange things happen in that house." We didn't believe them, even when they said they would occasionally see a lady at the top of the steps. One night Doug was gone, I turned everything off and went up to bed with the girls, when I heard something downstairs. I went to investigate and found the radio, TV, and all the lights on. That was not the way I had left them. I told the girls, "This can't be real." I turned everything off, went back upstairs and pretty soon everything was back on again.

This happened a couple times when Doug was gone. He didn't believe me until an incident happened when he was home. It was a very cold night. We didn't have heat upstairs, but we had a heater in the girl's room, with a little crib and a bed for them. I kept going in and checking on them and both were always covered up. The next morning I said to Staci, who then was three, "Honey, were you cold in the night?" She said. "I woke up and I was cold but the nice lady with gray hair covered me up." It makes us wonder. She was the Grandma type and I don't think she would do any harm. I mentioned that to Staci and she said, "Oh, Mom, she is such a nice lady. She comes in and visits me several times during the night." She was very calm, and for what reason would a-three-year-old dream up something like that?

So here we were. Doug's job wasn't working out, and he came home one day and told me he had quit. I thought, "Oh goodness, here we are with two little girls and no job." We moved in with my parents in Cedar Falls for awhile and Doug started job-hunting again. Luckily, when we moved, we hadn't sold our house in Osceola, so we came back here, which was the best thing we ever did. Charlie Woods had the Golden Sun Feed Store, and Doug worked for him for awhile. We picked up our old friends. Our house was the same. We moved our furniture back. It was like we were never gone. I was lucky to be a stay-at-home-mom, which I'll never regret.

After Doug had worked for Charlie Woods for awhile, he came home one night and told me, "I would really like to start a business with Golden Sun." Once again I felt overwhelmed. I thought "Oh, my gosh, what are we doing? A young couple with two little kids and taking such a leap?" Doug started looking around for a building. I'll never forget that whole experience. He came home and said, "Carole, I've found the perfect place for our business! Let's go look at it." It was an elevator located near the railroad tracks behind the fire station — in bad shape. Old, unoccupied for years, dirty, dusty, dead mice, dead rats. We walked into the office area — dead mice and rats were in there, too. In his excitement, Doug saw none of that. "It is going to be a Mom and Pop operation. I am going to sell the feed, you will stay in the office and we can do this." I am thinking, "Oh, my goodness, my husband has lost it!"

We started our business in 1983, and Doug went out to sell feed. As he planned, I stayed in the office and our girls were practically raised there. We had an extra room with a cot and toys for them. They played there and customers came and made over them. They were part of the feed store. During that time Darrell Mateer began coming by. He was selling chemicals out of another area. He kept coming around and began storing his things there, helping us, and sort of having his business out of our store.

The Mateers and Petersens became very close friends. We hired Vicky's son, Dan Busick. Brian Mateer, Darrell and Vicky's little boy, was 2 1/2 and Angie and Brian became good friends. They used to go out with Doug in their booster seats and fall asleep in the truck. Staci would come back from school and they all played together outside by the feed store.

In 1988, Grace Fertilizer came up for sale. The guys had talked about being into business together, becoming partners, starting a corporation, and moving over to Grace on Highway 69. It was a very big move, but after a lot of talk, we decided to do this. The business became Circle D Ag, incorporated by Darrell, Dan, and Doug. Darrell was the president and Doug vice president. That was the beginning of what I call our little Circle D family. The guys worked very hard, very long hours. Through our business, I came to know lots more people in Osceola, and we formed a lot of long-lasting friendships.

Then tragedy struck! On the night before Mother's Day, we had a phone call telling us there had been a terrible accident. Dan, a painter and dear friend, was in a head-on accident near Murray and was killed instantly. It was a very sad time for us all. We went through it together with Darrell and Vicky, and became even closer. We supported them as much as we could, and got through it somehow. We took trips, went to Okiboji and other places in the summer, and did lots of things together as close families do. We continued our business. There are people who say when family members or close friends become partners in a business, it will never work. We proved them wrong. We had some ups and downs but we've stayed very close.

We made more friends. We formed a club we call our No Name Card Club, which has continued for 25 years. There were Ed and Jan White, Bret and Donna Taylor, Jim and Ronda Audlehelm, John and Deb Sullivan, Dan and Kim White, and Judy Barber. We have come to know and become close friends with their families, also. We play cards in the wintertime, and in the summer we've taken trips together.

Through the years, both of our girls were involved in school activities, including sports and band, and Doug and I tried very hard to support them and attend as many of their activities as possible. There were many times when we had to split up — I would go with one daughter and Doug with the other.

Life seemed good. Our daughters graduated from high school. Staci went on to school at Mt. Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, where she majored in criminal justice. She really liked it. She married and moved to Wisconsin. Angie finished high school and went on to Northwest Missouri State University, where she majored in Public Relations and also liked her choice.

Then in July 2001, our life changed forever. Doug and Darrell had been working very hard, as was always the case in spring. There were late hours and days too full to think about food. Doug lived on Mountain Dew and cigarettes. Vicky and I were worried about Doug because he was losing a lot of weight. His excuse was he was working hard and not eating. He wasn't home very much, but on a particular Sunday, he came home and out of the clear blue sky said, "I think I need to spend more time with my family. Come on, let's do something."

We hadn't had a moment to ourselves for a long time and this sounded great! We went to East Lake Park, and walked around. There was planned entertainment — they were reliving Civil War battles. We watched that awhile and walked around the lake. We sat on the picnic table, Doug took my hand and put his arm around me. He told me how much he loved me and that he could never live without me. We had a very nice conversation. When we went back to the house, Angie was home, we sat in the back yard and Doug said, "I'm going to grill steaks for you girls." So he grilled steaks, we sat and visited. We talked about our lives and how much we meant to each other, how good life was and how happy we were as a family. It was wonderful!

How I treasure the memories of that day because the very next day everything changed. At that time I was working at Mosaic (renamed from Bethphage) where I worked for 16 years. I needed to run a few errands uptown, and parked behind Robinsons store. All of a sudden Darrell and Vicky pulled up right in front of me in their pickup truck. Darrell said, "Carole, come quick. Doug has had a heart attack." Darrell is a jester, so I thought he was kidding. I said, "Darrell, this is not funny. Don't do this." He said, "No, I'm serious." Then I saw Vicky was crying, so I knew it was serious. I got into the pickup and didn't think too much about it. Lots of people have heart attacks, so in my mind I was thinking, OK, he's had a little heart attack, we're going to the hospital and everything is going to be fine. But all of a sudden Darrell didn't turn toward the hospital. He turned the other direction, and I thought, "What is going on?"

Doug had gone out in a cornfield near New Virginia to help Larry Redman. Suddenly he said, "Larry, what does it feel like to have a heart attack?" He clutched his chest and went down to the ground just like that. Larry had his cell phone and called 911. They told him how to do CPR. He started CPR but Doug wasn't responding, so when Larry called Darrell, he thought Doug was dead. When Darrell came to get me, he thought we were going to get Doug's body, although he didn't tell me this until awhile later.

Just then, Darrell's cell phone rang. Larry told him life flight was there and they were taking him right out of the cornfield. I thought, "This is not good. They don't take someone out of the cornfield." Come to find out later, they had resuscitated him 10 times, but to all appearances, Doug was gone. I had no doubt the Lord was with him and it was in his hands.

I called my girls on the phone to let them know. Brian and Angie being such close fiends, we called Brian and he went to get Angie. Darrell and Vicky took me to Des Moines. I won't ever forget the trip up there. We arrived at the hospital, Darrell dropped Vicky and me off. I went to the front desk thinking they were going to tell us to sit down and wait, but when I told them my husband was being brought by helicopter, in seconds they took Vicky and me to a small room. Unfortunately, there was a Chaplain of the hospital in the room and my mind jumped to the conclusion Doug was gone. He didn't make it. He was only 50 years old, far too young to die! Everything goes through our minds at such a time.

The next report was he had a very massive heart attack and there would be consequences because his brain had been without oxygen for a period of time. They also told us we needed to go in to see him because they were going to take him to the CATH lab, and he might not make it through that procedure. Angie and I went in. The poor child was beside herself. His color was terrible, he had tubes everywhere, and his whole body was jumping up and down. I recognized that. It is called posturing, which means he'd had lack of oxygen to the brain. I realized then that besides the heart attack, this was going on.

They took him to the CATH lab, even though they really didn't think he was going to make it. He had blockages which meant he was going to need open heart surgery. They knew he wouldn't be up to that so they just put in a stent. At that time he was in a coma. They took him upstairs to the Coronary Care Unit.

This was a good and bad time. In the midst of all we were going through, I never will forget the outpouring of love and concern from people of Osceola and surrounding areas. Here were all our family and friends, customers and acquaintances asking what they could do. I had never seen anything like that!. Lots of times, when I have heard of a tragedy, I think, "What if that would happen to me?" and when it does, it is overwhelming To this day it is like a miracle — all the prayers and prayer chains in several churches here in town. I know that had a bearing on Doug's living through all of this. To the doctors it was just one of those things. They didn't know if he would come out of the coma, they didn't know if he would be a vegetable the rest of his life, they had no idea what the outcome would be. Only the Lord knew that.

Doug was in a coma for about a week. I will never forget! I spent all of my time at the hospital with him, holding his hand and doing a lot of praying. On the night of July 2nd before his birthday on July 6th, 2001, when Doug would turn 51, I couldn't sleep. Of course, I didn't do much sleeping any night, but on this one I went down to the chapel of Mercy Hospital. I was there alone and I prayed, "Lord, I don't want to lose him but he is in your hands. He wouldn't like to be this way. I don't know what the plan is, so please, if you want to take him, I am ready. If not, give us some kind of sign that things are going to be OK."

It wasn't long before I returned to Doug's room. He had pulled his vent tubes out, and he sat up in bed. I didn't know what was going on. I looked at him and he said, "Honey, I love you," and gave me a hug. It was a miracle! I was hysterical! I couldn't believe it. He talked to the girls. Of course, looking back now, I realize he wasn't quite right. The doctors explained it to me in their terms but I see it as a miracle — the Lord's sign I had asked for. I will always cherish that moment.

They kept him in CCU for another day then moved him down to the next level. We don't know why, but he slipped back into a semi-coma state. He went in and out of that state. He would be sleeping and become combative. When he woke up he didn't know me or the girls. He knew some people but not others.

The nurses came in and suggested we begin to think about long term care, or putting him in a nursing home. I was thinking, "This is my 50 year old. husband. I can't do this." Finally, I found out you have to fight through people and I asked, "Isn't there something else we can do?" They said they had a rehab at Mercy. He could be there awhile.

We did put him there and he slowly learned how to eat and walk again. Other things I think he remembered had to be relearned, but he still had a long way to come. He was very confused. The process was slow. Tons and tons of people came to see him. We put pictures all over the walls. Every day when I went, I started from our marriage and talked about when the kids were born and their growing up. He learned everything, and the doctors said it really helped. There were some funny things — he would make jokes and in the beginning he called me Priscilla. I still don't know who Priscilla is but that may be our third child because he kept telling everybody he had three children, but we only had two. So we had some laughs.

Doug fought very hard. He had such a will to live! But this is only the beginning of a very long road for Doug and for us. He was at Mercy, then their nursing home, and I began looking for some place else. There is a facility in Ankeny, Iowa called On With Life, just for brain injured people — people who have had strokes, heart attacks, car accidents, or the like. The place is simply unreal! Arrangements were made and we transferred Doug from Mercy to On With Life.

That is where Doug actually got his life back. They had very intense therapy. They worked their patients from early morning until late at night. They worked on every skill the patient could do. They took them out in the community to try to accustom them to on-going activity. It was an eye-opener and I recommend it highly! They help people move beyond their disabilities. One boy had severe brain injuries from unsuccessfully trying to commit suicide. As we talked with people, we realized things could be so much worse. This entire experience has changed me. I always had faith but I have even more now. I have always tried to help other people. If something happened, I would say to the family, "I understand." No, you don't understand until you have been through something similar. Once we have gone through something like it, then we understand.

Between the hospital and On With Life, Doug was in a facility for over three months. I was still trying to work. I did take a leave of absence but I couldn't always stay with him. I worked all day and tried every night to go up and see him. There again, if for some reason I couldn't go, so many good friends and neighbors pitched in. One of the moving times when he was at On With Life and could come home weekends, our church wanted to have a benefit party. I tried to object but they did it. The event was at our Feed Store. I thought, "What if nobody shows up?" Doug was still having memory problems. He was what the doctors called the Walking-Talking-Wounded because he looked so good. It was harder for people to understand with brain injuries, the victim might say things or do things differently. There is more reality if they use a walker or wheel chair.

The fund raiser turned out very well. I thank the Lord every day for that because the funds we received from so many loving people helped us get through all of this. We had enough worries about Doug and the extra expenses, but with the fund raiser we were all right. So whenever there is a fund raiser in town, I try to go because it helps financially and in other ways.

On With Life said they were going to release him but they added he wasn't quite ready to be home by himself. I knew I had to work and support our family so I thought of B & B Guest Home. I've known Barb Versteegt for a long time and knew she had gone through some rough times in her life. I talked to her and we were very fortunate that she was willing to let Doug come during the daytime. We also arranged for a speech therapist and an occupational therapist to work with Doug two or three times a week.

Doug stayed at Barb's two or three years during the daytime. I can't say enough about Barb and Larry. They were God's answer. If it hadn't been for them, Doug probably would have had to go to a nursing home. This is something our community is lacking. There is no place for people like Doug to spend the day. Some day I would really like to set up an Adult Day Care. I've checked into it, and it is not impossible.

We finally came to a point when Doug said, "Carole, I don't want to just sit here. Nothing against Barb and Larry but I want to stay at home." He does stay home now. We still have our ups and downs with memory problems. Some confusion still lingers. It has been hard because he hasn't been able to drive or work. But the hardest part, even though it was inevitable, was we could not continue the business.

We kept knowing we had to do something. We couldn't go on this way, and finally we made the hard decision. Again we were blessed to have Darrell and Vicky willing and able to go ahead. Basically, they took over the business hoping maybe Doug would get to the point where he could come back, although deep in our hearts we knew that would never happen We tried to sell the Feed Store. Nobody wanted to buy it, so in March 2003, we dissolved our partnership with Darrell and Vicky, and had an auction. It was like selling my life away. Doug had said the Feed Store was to be our retirement. It shows how fast things can change.

We made all the arrangements, and got the auctioneer. It was a bitterly cold day. We worried about nobody showing up, but we had a very good turnout. We dissolved the partnership of 20-some years of Circle D family. The business was gone, but not the relationship. Darrell and Vicky are still our family. We have made a point of it. To make sure we won't part ways, we made a pact that every Sunday morning after church, we would have breakfast together. That's been important to us.

Things could be better but things they could be so much worse. Doug still does have some problems, but he's a miracle man. He has regular doctor visits and every time he sees his heart doctor, the doctor says, "I don't know what you are doing but keep on doing it." They are afraid to do open heart surgery because of a possibility he would lose everything he has gained. I thank the Lord every day for the eight years we have had, because that might not have been the case. No one knows how long we have on earth, but in Doug's case, the doctors said, "He really should not be here." But he is!
Most important in our lives: Number One is the Lord, and then our family and friends. We have been so blessed! We've had so much support! Sometimes I feel almost guilty that we have so much — so much life and so much love. My sister is living, as is Doug's older brother. Then we have aunts and uncles to whom we are very close, many loving friends, and our girls! I can't thank our girls enough! Angie wanted to quit school to be home. She would have done that, but between us and our friends, we convinced Angie her dad had worked hard all these years so she could go to college, which she did. Although living in Wisconsin, Staci it always just a phone call away.

I worked for Mosaic or Bethphage 16 years, which was a good experience for me; but I decided 16 years was enough. It was hard to leave because I loved and still love the clients. I felt I needed to do something different. However, as I look back on it now, I see that employment may have been one way the Lord was preparing me for what was to come. Working with Mosaic people helped me know what I could do for Doug. Although he was getting better, he wasn't himself. He went through some hard stages. The man I married was not there. His whole personality changed.

I quit my job, not knowing what I was going to do, and realized I wasn't really qualified for anything. One day when I was sitting at home, I noticed the newspaper lying on the floor. There was a job opening at Clarke County Hospital. New position — surgery coordinator. It looked very interesting but I thought, I can't do that. I have no background or qualifications for it. However, I applied anyway.

One day I was in my car crying, feeling so fearful about my situation, and the telephone rang. I picked up and a voice said, "Carole, we want you to come in for an interview." I went, of course, and had the interview. Then I heard nothing. I knew there were a lot of more qualified people, but I called and said, "I realize this is a pay cut but I am still very interested in the job." They asked me to come in for a second interview. Later, I came to find out I was not one of the top applicants, but the one who would hire me said, "It was the strangest thing. I was sitting there and all of a sudden I looked at your résumé, which was right on top, and I had the feeling, 'hire her.'" She called and said, "I'd like you to work at Clarke County Hospital."

One of the better things that happened to me was going there. I absolutely love it! I have helped with some of the clients who didn't know the doctors, and I can relate to their feeling strange and more than a little frightened not knowing what was going to happen. I've been there. I have a super manager named Sue Stouts. She has been wonderful and an inspiration to me. She understands our situation and has given me time off to be with the family. The girls in the surgery department are super. We call it our little family. Clarke County Hospital has been growing and a lot of wonderful things are happening there.

I used to think my house had to be fairly clean and I needed to be doing things around the house, but now I have found that isn't important. Doug is at home all day long and when I get home, he loves to go somewhere. He loves to eat out, so we eat out a lot. We go to Des Moines, or just drive around town. We do things together that we couldn't do when I worked all the time, or when both of us worked, we didn't have that opportunity.

In a lot of ways things are different. Doug's personality has changed. But we get through it as a couple and my love for Doug has grown in a different way. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. The Lord says there are far better things ahead of us and I firmly believe that. Good things come from bad things. All through this I have never said, "Why me, Lord?" If anything, I have said, "Why not me, Lord?" It says in the Bible different things about tribulations and we all have our ups and downs. I would advise people going through such times, the main thing is to keep your faith and your hope and your family and friends. We try very hard to do that.

Every Wednesday night, Doug and Scott Busick have a "boys' night out." They eat at Cross Roads and spend the night however they want to. Doug looks forward to that a lot.

We like to travel so we have taken some trips. Before Doug got sick, we weren't able to do that. The first trip we took was a year or two after his heart attack, and we were kind of worried about his health. We had never taken a big family trip. At that time both the girls were single. We went on a 7-day Carribean cruise — surely one of the biggest vacations we will ever have. We had a wonderful time. Doug got along fine! It brought us very close as a family. The only thing we might have done differently — we tried to have one cabin for four of us. We had some laughs from that. The girls bring up this trip often. It will be a long-lasting memory.

This coming September, we have planned our second cruise — a New England/Canada cruise, and we are very happy our good friends, Ed and Jan White are joining us to celebrate our 35thth anniversary. There was a time when I wouldn't have expected to have a 35th anniversary.

Another good thing that has come from this: Through the years, Doug and his brother had little disagreements and hadn't talked for years. When Doug has his heart attack, I decided to call and let them know. They came from Webster City that very night and stayed in a motel. They just went on from where we are now and they have become very close. They've established a good brotherly relationship. It confirms what I believe, good things happen out of bad. I am so thankful. There is one sad situation — we have lost contact with some friends who say, "We just can't handle it." Doug is still here and they are missing the relationship they could have with us. They are the ones who are losing out.

At this time (summer 2009), both our girls are married. Staci is married to Jason Kestner from Austin, Minnesota, and she has a step-daughter, Madeline, 10, a daughter, Olivia, 2, and they are expecting another bundle of joy the first of January, 2010. They currently live in Necedah, Wisconsin, and will be moving in the near future to an area near Milwaukee, where Jason has accepted a job as assistant principal, and hopefully Staci will be able to be a stay-at-home mom after the baby is born.

Angie is married to Nathan Boyce of Osceola and has two step-children, Jagger, 7, and Aliyah, 5. They both have good jobs in Des Moines and have a home in the Valley Junction area. We are so happy to live close and get to see them often.
My sister, Mary, and her husband, Butch, have three sons — Ryon, Travis, and Christopher — daughter-in-law Rachel, and new grandson Austin. We get together as often as possible.

Doug's brother, Arlen, and wife Lois, have two sons, a daughter-in-law, and five grand­children. The boys both live in California. A highlight of this year was that we all got together for Arlen's and Lois' 50th anniversary. What a wonderful reunion!

On-going is our chance to help Darrell and Vicky spoil their grandchild Sydney, who is with us every Sunday morning for breakfast. In closing, Lord willing, I look forward to many more wonderful years with all my precious family and friends.

Return to main page for Recipes for Living 2009 by Fern Underwood

Last Revised December 8, 2014