22 - Heidi
Laura: Heidi was easy on me. She came so fast that the nurses didn’t even put me in a labor room. Daddy barely got the paperwork signed at the front desk and she was here. She was long and thin and shy and sweet from day one Little did we know what that quiet little angel had ahead of her.
I don’t want to remember the spinal taps, the nasty tests, the ice mattress, the scares of comas, and brain damage. The kids later would kid Heidi about a phone call I made after a brain scan. I reported that they found nothing. The fact is that her illnesses really bound our family together. I left the rest of the children at home a lot of time to spend time with Heidi when she was in the hospital. And they tried in so many ways to keep the house running without me there. After many wonderful dinners arrived at our door, and Heidi was bombarded with cards and presents, I remember asking her one Sunday night when Grandpa Jansa was preaching at Fuller if she would get up at prayer and share time and say something to the church who had been so kind to us. I went with her and she just stood up there for a long time looking at all the people quietly, looking at the floor and finally barely said, thanks.
How did Heidi ever get the nickname hideous?
Sounds like some brutal brothers to me. Heidi was also one to write notes when she wanted to say something. I’d find them in my bed or next to it. Notes like, tell Betsy to stay out of my stuff.
She was always apologizing and to this day she’s still that way. She’s so careful not to hurt feelings.
Heidi went to Oakdale Public School for kindergarten as a cheap substitute for a preschool program.
That was because after illnesses, we were worried about whether she was perky enough to be a full-time school student. I remember worrying that she’d find a black boyfriend because that school was primarily black students.
I also remember a pink plastic pony that she rode down the driveway on Underwood and a navy blue coat and white hat with an elastic under the chin that she wore one Easter. She was always going through the knees of her overalls and the toes of her socks. Probably that was because she was the third girl in our family who had worn them. Grandma Bartleson had a really soft spot in her heart for Heidi. I think her gentleness, her shy smile, and her big brown eyes made her irresistible to lots of people, not just Grandma B. To this day, it’s hard to get mad at Heidi. That’s probably why The black teammates who were sitting in the back seat of her car after a basketball practice didn’t get mad and actually howled when someone cut her off on Division Avenue and she yelled, dumb nigger.
I’m so thankful that God didn’t take my third daughter. Little did I know then that I would find such a wonderful companion to share my secrets with. when Heidi became an adult.
Now, Heidi is at my house every week. She walks in the door and she says, what do you need done?
Jonathan: She opens the microwave to see if it needs to be washed. She’ll vacuum.
She’s just thoughtful in a hundred different ways. Not only that, She and her husband have become real outreach missionaries to people living in the government housing, mostly Muslim communities. In fact, he started a little library for the Muslim children, and when they would come every week, and she would bring her kids. They’d go door to door and ask if the children could please come to the all-purpose room. And there they had a little library and she would read books to them. But not only that, she would witness to them.
And I think, in fact, she was instrumental in the baptism and the membership of some Muslim family into a little church that was right on the campus with that government housing program. Now, because that whole housing community was leveled and all those people were moved and scattered, many of them would still keep touch with Heidi. I’d be at her house and her phone would ring and it would be one of the Muslim kids. This whole week I left my shoes on the bus, can you help me? And she’d go to her store and find a pair of shoes for them. So even when she wasn’t the leader in that little Muslim community anymore, they still attached themselves to her She was there to help them if they had to go to court, if they had to deal with policemen, if they had to deal with landlords.
Heidi has been a servant in her community as an adult, as has her wonderful husband.
They now have them. her first grandchild, and she takes care of her every Thursday all day. And so every Thursday night, I get a phone call with all the funny descriptions of what happened to that little girl. Anyway, that’s my memories of Heidi.