A shocker: Margie died
I was on Facebook tonight ... just fooling around to waste some time and checked some older posts when this one of Margie's daughter's came up: It said: "My mom passed away this morning." It floored me. This is my friend Margie from South Dakota who I talk about all the time, the woman who has been like a mother to me over the years. She had a kidney transplant a few years ago and as far as I knew was healthy. I don't know what happened.
I went online when I got home to check it out and confirm it (like the good reporter I am/was), and sure enough, there was an obituary with a funeral home in Redfield, S.D., where she lives. It's just a death notice now, and no cause of death listed. Margie was in her early 60s; she had diabetes, so who knows what could have gone wrong. Or she could have rejected the kidney after all these years (it had been three or four years ... I can't remember how many). She had ovarian cancer about 10 years ago; I don't know if something happened again with that.
I talked with her a couple of weeks ago and wanted to call her this week, but just didn't get around to it this week. Now I wish I had taken the time to do it. I'll never be able to talk to her again.
She was such a wise woman, so caring and giving. I don't think her daughters know how much she gave to them. She kept her family together at a great personal cost to herself (her husband cheat on her a couple of times and she stayed with him despite that ... I didn't find that out until after he was dead). She was all about caring for her family ... and then other people's kids, too ... and in that case, I was part of that family. When I moved to Montana to become the sports editor/photographer/general reporter at the Anaconda Leader, Margie welcomed me into her home. She invited me to all their holiday celebrations, gave me Christmas presents, invited me to picnics and family outings ... she even gave me my first two cats. I wouldn't have had a Christmas tree my first year out there without Margie, who made me a little 2-foot ceramic tree ... I don't have that one anymore (it broke), but I made my own, and she got me interested in doing ceramics. She'd send me food care packages. The first week I was in Anaconda, she and her husband, Wally, my editor, sent me a food basket to help me set up my home (knowing I was short on cash, of course, as always).
When I got the job in Aberdeen, S.D., Wally and Margie were already in Redfield, S.D., having bought a paper there a year before. I shipped out some of my stuff to their home first before I moved; they helped me once more set up my new apartment there. And again, they became my family in South Dakota. Whenever I needed someone to talk to, when things were bad (and when they were good), there was Margie ... I could cry to her like I couldn't cry to my own mom. She would listen, never judge, but often give me sound advice. She applaud my achievements (she was really proud of my weight loss, knowing how long and hard I'd worked for it), my new jobs and the journey in my career.
I know this is long and you folks don't know Margie; I know she's not my mom or even a relative. But Margie was such an important person in my life for so long. I can't begin to tell you what an impact she had in my life. She was more than just a friend; she was a sister/mother/friend/a piece of my heart. I know we all go on, but I feel the world is a little colder today without her around.
So please help me remember Margie Mundstock. She was a mother, a newspaper worker (although not a reporter, she helped produce newspapers in North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota ... she grew up in the industry as her father and uncle had weeklies in N.Dakota), a good friend, someone who always lent a hand and was there with a batch of good chimchangas or a casserole to feed the neighborhood kids, the starving newsroom or just a lonely flatlander far from home. She raised three kids, had two grandkids and two great-grandkids. She loved animals (had a dog and a cat).
I will miss her.
I went online when I got home to check it out and confirm it (like the good reporter I am/was), and sure enough, there was an obituary with a funeral home in Redfield, S.D., where she lives. It's just a death notice now, and no cause of death listed. Margie was in her early 60s; she had diabetes, so who knows what could have gone wrong. Or she could have rejected the kidney after all these years (it had been three or four years ... I can't remember how many). She had ovarian cancer about 10 years ago; I don't know if something happened again with that.
I talked with her a couple of weeks ago and wanted to call her this week, but just didn't get around to it this week. Now I wish I had taken the time to do it. I'll never be able to talk to her again.
She was such a wise woman, so caring and giving. I don't think her daughters know how much she gave to them. She kept her family together at a great personal cost to herself (her husband cheat on her a couple of times and she stayed with him despite that ... I didn't find that out until after he was dead). She was all about caring for her family ... and then other people's kids, too ... and in that case, I was part of that family. When I moved to Montana to become the sports editor/photographer/general reporter at the Anaconda Leader, Margie welcomed me into her home. She invited me to all their holiday celebrations, gave me Christmas presents, invited me to picnics and family outings ... she even gave me my first two cats. I wouldn't have had a Christmas tree my first year out there without Margie, who made me a little 2-foot ceramic tree ... I don't have that one anymore (it broke), but I made my own, and she got me interested in doing ceramics. She'd send me food care packages. The first week I was in Anaconda, she and her husband, Wally, my editor, sent me a food basket to help me set up my home (knowing I was short on cash, of course, as always).
When I got the job in Aberdeen, S.D., Wally and Margie were already in Redfield, S.D., having bought a paper there a year before. I shipped out some of my stuff to their home first before I moved; they helped me once more set up my new apartment there. And again, they became my family in South Dakota. Whenever I needed someone to talk to, when things were bad (and when they were good), there was Margie ... I could cry to her like I couldn't cry to my own mom. She would listen, never judge, but often give me sound advice. She applaud my achievements (she was really proud of my weight loss, knowing how long and hard I'd worked for it), my new jobs and the journey in my career.
I know this is long and you folks don't know Margie; I know she's not my mom or even a relative. But Margie was such an important person in my life for so long. I can't begin to tell you what an impact she had in my life. She was more than just a friend; she was a sister/mother/friend/a piece of my heart. I know we all go on, but I feel the world is a little colder today without her around.
So please help me remember Margie Mundstock. She was a mother, a newspaper worker (although not a reporter, she helped produce newspapers in North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota ... she grew up in the industry as her father and uncle had weeklies in N.Dakota), a good friend, someone who always lent a hand and was there with a batch of good chimchangas or a casserole to feed the neighborhood kids, the starving newsroom or just a lonely flatlander far from home. She raised three kids, had two grandkids and two great-grandkids. She loved animals (had a dog and a cat).
I will miss her.
eileen..i saw your facebook post this morning. i am truly sorry that you have suffered this loss...we don't often find a friend so wonderful as margie was to you...and to find out the way that you did is troubling. my thoughts and prayers are with you and with margie's family. they probably do not know how wonderful their mother truly was. you have written a wonderful tribute to your friend. i am sorry for the loss.
I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
- E. B. White
Eileen, I am so sorry for the loss of your dear friend Margie. I know that you and her shared a very special friendship, one that was deep and true. We often find only a few friends like that through our lives. You were very blessed and fortunate to have found that in Margie. You have many memories and they are good..they will see you through the rough times in the future when you will miss her at so many times in your life.
I know that when I loss my good friend Mary Lou I depended on the happy times that we spent together doing a lot of just fun things and the many conversations that we had discussing just about everything under the sun. I miss those times but I know that Mary Lou lives on in my heart and my soul just as Margie will and does in your heart and soul.
My prayers are with you, my dear friend and please know that I am here for you to talk to if and when you ever need me. In time things will go back to a new normal without Margie here but still here...living on through the wonderful and loving life that she lived.
I know that when I loss my good friend Mary Lou I depended on the happy times that we spent together doing a lot of just fun things and the many conversations that we had discussing just about everything under the sun. I miss those times but I know that Mary Lou lives on in my heart and my soul just as Margie will and does in your heart and soul.
My prayers are with you, my dear friend and please know that I am here for you to talk to if and when you ever need me. In time things will go back to a new normal without Margie here but still here...living on through the wonderful and loving life that she lived.
It's not what you gather, but what you scatter
that tells what kind of life you have lived.
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