The Northview
By Brenda Winter, columnistApril 24, 2024Not Our Cat has lived in our backyard for eight years. She is calico, fat and grumpy. In the dark of winter she moves into the garage where she remains Not Our Cat until warm weather returns. Melvin, a young orange Tom, staggered onto our deck a few weeks ago seriously injured and unlikely to live. But with shelter, a soft blanket, and food and water placed near his mouth, he pulled through.…
By Brenda Winter, columnistApril 03, 2024One of the last pictures of my mom is of her in the garden picking zinnias. We actually used it for the cover of her funeral folder. She’s smiling at the camera, clippers in one hand and a bunch of fresh-cut zinnias in the other. We had no idea that 12 short weeks later, cancer would take her from the garden and from us. Her beautiful silver hair glistens in the sunshine. Her blue eyes twinkle…
By Brenda Winter, columnistMarch 13, 2024A year ago, from atop a 10-foot snow pile in the field next to our house, I took an “aerial” picture of 5 feet of snow covering our backyard. I’m not usually 10 feet above the yard, so I thought the angle was interesting. It was March 12 and the day’s high was 39 degrees. Yesterday, wearing T-shirts, we burned the grass off the asparagus bed at the farm and cleared out the flower bed. The tulips…
By Brenda Winter, columnistFebruary 21, 2024On May 9 the “elderly spinster sisters from Leota, Minnesota,” Marlene and Darlene, played by DJ Luethje and me, will take the stage at the Palace Theatre for the annual Generations spring fundraiser. This year’s show is called “Without George.” When George Bonnema died unexpectedly in December 2023, he left a void bigger than most. One of the many positions he vacated was being the “Life Force…
By Brenda Winter, columnistJanuary 31, 2024It was just after the Big Chill a few weeks ago that Melvin appeared by our back door. The big orange tabby was also a few feet from death’s door. He had a cut on his face, a bent tail, a gimpy leg and hadn’t had a bath in weeks. He looked like he’d had a close encounter with a car, or maybe a snow plow. His coat was a mess and his eyes were watery and sad. Melvin was in tough, tough shape. I…
By Brenda Winter, columnistJanuary 10, 2024(If you haven’t yet read Lori Sorenson’s Jan. 4th column, “Be Like George,” do it now. Then read this one.) A week and a half before he died, Flower George Bonnema marched into my living room. Observing the wilting leaves on my Peace Lily plant, he poked the dry dirt. “This needs water.” He paused. “And it needs to be repotted. It’s root-bound.” George was at my house to drop off a Christmas…
By Brenda Winter, columnistDecember 13, 2023Watching Dianne and Rodger Ossenfort play the role of Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the annual Winterfest “Photos with Santa” event is a wonder to behold. Both have the solid emotional core required to press on in spite of being the reason several small children have become sobbing, weeping banshees clinging to their mothers. Undaunted, each child is asked what he or she wants for Christmas.…
By Brenda Winter, columnistNovember 26, 2023Peeking over my folded hands, I watched Mom and Dad pray the blessing spoken at our family’s meals for more than 60 years. “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen.” It was November 2022, just a few days before Mom passed away. One end of the large table held our meal, the other end a pile of newspapers, magazines and papers pertaining to the diagnosis. Dad’s…
By Brenda Winter, columnistNovember 01, 2023With eyes big as saucers, our granddaughters surveyed the scene before them. We were at The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky, about an hour from where the girls live. Grandpa and I had set aside time for this very adventure – a day trip to this “one-of-a-kind theme park attraction that showcases a full-size replica of Noah's Ark, the vessel that saved his family and all the animals…
By Brenda Winter, columnistOctober 11, 2023After Mom’s passing last November, we were left with the massive garden she’d always tended. Dad had even added four new raised beds to the garden in the summer of 2022. So there we were last spring with lots of garden and no gardener. Dad and I adopted the family motto when facing a challenge – “How hard can it be?” – and decided to fill the raised beds. We’d plant one bag of potatoes. One “…
By Brenda Winter, columnistSeptember 20, 2023With just a short distance to go, Blondie, pushing her bike up the last hill, looked accusingly at me and said, “I can’t even believe you are making us do this.” Stirring together a bowl of flower petals and dill seed she collected from the garden, my 6-year-old niece beamed at me and announced, “You’re the best auntie ever!” Every family has one, and this one is the one in our family. With…
By Brenda Winter, columnistSeptember 01, 2023“How about zip lining?!” I said with the confidence of a person who did not know what she was talking about. My three besties and I all turned 60 this year. To celebrate, we took our second “significant decade birthday trip.” This time we went to Montana – land of big skies, grizzly bears and zip lines. I didn’t actually want to go zip lining. I just wanted to be the kind of person that other…
By Brenda Winter, columnistAugust 01, 2023Dad and I hold our forks in mid air, staring into space the way people do when they sample food. We’re trying to figure out Mom’s potato salad recipe. Potato salad was Mom’s premier dish. Her barbecued chicken was good, and so was her apple crisp, but nothing compared to the potato salad. It was the German version – heavy on the mustard and onions. She used Miracle Whip, not mayo. A little salt…
By Brenda Winter, columnistJuly 11, 2023Because my husband and I no longer have children of our own to subject to long, unbearable car trips, we borrowed a niece and a nephew for a drive to Denver to visit our daughter and their cousin. Technology has lessened the misery of car trips considerably, but even technology has its limits. We were nine hours into the 10-hour drive back home. Both kids, ages 12 and 8, had traveled like rock…
By Brenda Winter, columnistApril 25, 2023A year ago at this time my family celebrated my mom’s 80th birthday, which was May 11. We pulled out all the stops and had a day-long party concluding with Mom serving cake to 34 of her favorite descendants. This year, we will not celebrate Mom’s 81st birthday on earth but will rejoice that she is celebrating her first birthday in heaven. A few weeks back, I announced an April date for the next “…
By Brenda Winter, columnistApril 04, 2023Like most of you, I have an opinion about the proposed 75-foot-tall plastic nutcracker intended to enhance tourism by drawing travelers off I-90. My opinion is, “Not in my back yard!” However, I live on the north end of Luverne and the nutcracker will be on the south end of Luverne, so it won’t be in my backyard. Therefore, I’m good with the whole plan. I’ve learned a great coping skill from my…
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