After High School, Merle went to work for Western Electric. Carol worked for Northwestern National Life Insurance Company in Minneapolis. Merle served in the U. S. Army and we moved to Maryland for two years while he was stationed at Fort Ritchie. Carol worked for Jamison Cold Storage Door Company in Hagerstown, Md.

After his discharge from the Army, we moved back home and Merle went to work for Northwestern Bell, working in engineering for 35 years. He retired from U S West in 1995. Carol worked as bookkeeper for her Dad and brother at Community Market.

We moved into our home in Chisago City in 1965 and never moved again. Todd and Julie and their families live close to us, so we are fortunate to spend lots of time with our wonderful grandchildren.

We have been active members of Trinity Lutheran Church in Lindstrom. Carol has been the organist at Trinity for 50 years.

We enjoyed golfing and fishing. Our family loved spending as much time as we could at our cabin on Big Sandy Lake.

We were able to do quite a bit of traveling. We loved going to Florida or Arizona in the winter. Our trips to Hawaii, the Bahamas, England, Norway, Sweden and Denmark were wonderful.

Merle was first diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 1986. He had several recurrences over the years. When the cancer returned for the fourth time in 2002, he had a stem cell transplant at the Mayo Clinic, which put his cancer into remission again, but this time it took his kidneys and he had been on kidney dialysis ever since. He suffered a stroke in February of 2006 and fought back again. HealthEast picked a few special patients, and he was honored as a stroke survivor at the Twins game last June. He had a kidney transplant at the Mayo Clinic in July of 2006, but the surgery was not successful, due to complications, and he was in the hospital for 3 months. He died peacefully, surrounded by his family and friends at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester September 28, 2006.

Merle was the love of my life for over 50 years. I miss him!