Above is the last family photo of our Valley City High School (1961) classmate, Barbara (Sunde) Bernard, her husband, Dick, and their son, Tom. It was taken during 1964, about year or less before Barbara’s passing in 1965 at the age of 22, while awaiting a kidney transplant at the University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis.
As a result of a column by Bob Lind, published in 2010 by the Fargo Forum, I began an email conversation with Dick Bernard, who is now retired from a career in education and lives with his wife, Cathy, in the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury, Minn. Lind’s column was about Barbara’s brother, Michael “Mike” Lund, of Valley City, who passed away about three years ago at the age of 60, and included comments from Dick Bernard. Barbara’s passing at such a young age was also part of the article.
Thanks to the communication Lind’s column inspired, I asked Dick to send me some early photos of Barbara and current family photos as well that I could post here on the blog. Although I realized it could be painful for him, I asked Dick if he would share some memories of Barbara and their short life together, which included extremes of happiness and tragedy. He came through with a narrative you will find both interesting and poignant.
You’ll find the story of Dick and Barbara's promising but short marriage, her illness and death, and a number of family photos in a four-page PDF document entitled Remembering Barbara. To read, download and/or print simply click on that link (to read the column that inspired this memoir, click here.
NOTE: When the PDF opens, if you'd like to print the four-page document or download it, go to the "FILE" menu in the upper left-hand corner of the screen where the original PDF can be opened for printing. If you go to the PDF original (on the FILE menu), everything will display in a higher resolution. What Google display initially is a "replica" of the actual PDF document.
It is with heartfelt appreciation that I thank Dick for this contribution to our blog that I’m sure will touch many of our classmates, as it did me. - Larry Gauper, 12-13-2010
Note: Dick produces three very interesting website/blogs. You’ll find them
through the following links:
www.outsidethewalls.org/blog (philosophy and comment on a variety of subjects) www.amillioncopies.info (content and comment; a potpourri of ideas)
www.chez-nous.net (About his North Dakota family’s life in Sykeston; historical narrative and photographs)
Dick Bernard's email address is dick_bernard@msn.com
4 comments:
Thanks so much to Dick for sharing his memories of Barbara and telling us their brief love story. And thanks to Larry for pursuing this story for the Blog.
What a nice love story! Barbara certainly was a pretty girl. Thanks to Dick Bernard and to Larry for such a compelling story.
Thanks to Dick and Larry for taking the time to tell Barb's story. Through all of the pain and suffering I can imagine that wonderful smile stayed with her to the end.
Thank you, gang, for all the nice comments. Dick and I went through many emails, corrections, photos, etc., in getting to those four pages. He was wonderful to work with, as painful as I'm sure it must have been for him. Me, too, in a number of ways. I still see Barbara walking to the library in study hall at VCHS. She was the ideal of a 50's high school girl and a member of the Honor Society as well. Bob Lind, the Forum columnist, really started all this with his piece on Barbara's brother and Dick's contribution to that Forum article. Although I deleted the other posting on the blog with Barbara's yearbook photo, as you may have noticed, I included that wonderful photo with her handwriting in the PDF..AND also included Dennis Gillund's comment. Somehow, somewhere, Barbara must be smiling, realizing the rememberances we're sharing of her brief time with us. - Larry G.
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