Linda (Walczynski) Louie
July 2009:
Dear classmates,
I am a little behind in my correspondence for let”s see….um, 30 years. I always told my mom I was a late bloomer.
I wish I could think of some witty bon mots to share in this bio, but in my head, I keep hearing the guy from Dragnet say “Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.” (My mom always told me I watched too much t.v.)
How or where does one begin to update a bio for 30 years? Without sounding too philosophical, everything about the years has been significant and yet when I look at milestones for others, I wonder how I look on paper.
After leaving Denfeld, I graduated from the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, MN. Also taking classes at St. John’s University, I earned a bachelor of arts in English Literature, with a minor in Education and a concentration in History and Humanities. During college, I enjoyed studying Theatre in London, England. My student teaching in Minnesota, however, taught me I loved education but wasn’t so sure I wanted to teach. I sort of sensed a change coming. I never would have predicted Columbine, but I wasn’t sure I was a good fit for the students to come, in high schools. Instead, I went into business. I worked at Dayton’s, then Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Then I decided I missed education, once again. I ended up in Admissions at the College of St. Scholastica. Although CSS is in Duluth, I opened the first office for the college in the twin cities. I also did my best to “shorten” the road between Duluth and Minneapolis/St. Paul, so I worked with alums and faculty to bring the college to the cities for info days. This ended up being a big success. Even though many people with more power than I ever had made the decisions to include the twin cities in the development plan for the college, I like to think I helped plant seeds that can now be linked to a strong connection with CSS’s many different campuses, including St. Paul.
I was discerning law school when I met a man who was (and still is) a successful lawyer. We were the first two persons at a function sponsored by the Minnesota Private College Council and the Asian American community in Minnesota. Instead of meeting with him to learn about law school, I married this lawyer! Terry and I have been married since 1991. I never went to law school, but I really hold my own in logic and oratory around our house—just ask him! Terry was employed by the US Department of Justice, then, and now they have switched his department to be under the Department of Homeland Security. He also teaches at William Mitchell School of Law. Terry is kind of shy, so he’ll never be a braggart. I watch in admiration for his many honors and accomplishments, although he will blush at me mentioning them. Let’s just say that I am really proud of my husband.
As to our mutual “accomplishments,” we have a beautiful home in Andover, MN and a camper which we call our second home in the warmer months. We were never blessed with children, but we really enjoy doting on all 11 nieces and nephews. I feel lucky to have been a second mother to these kids; they are really my life. Family has always been a big part of my life and remains so. My folks have now passed away and I still miss them every day. Mom died in 1994 (she was dying as the 15 year reunion was going on, thus that is why I missed it). My Dad died in 2008. They were such amazing people, but of course it took me many years to realize and appreciate that. Maybe many of you can relate to that with your own parents and families.
My Dad was a great guy with a million friends and a million great ideas as an entrepreneur! My Mom was more pragmatic and good at bookkeeping. They made a good team! I liked that model and hoped I’d always have that for myself.
Along the years I did combine what I learned from my parents, but one thing kept coming back to me as I tried to find my own path in life: their compassion and generosity for others was what impressed me most. They were genuine and concerned for others. Their generosity was practically infamous. I kept thinking, after my life was over, would people say half the nice things about me that people said about my mother and my father.
As I pondered that over the years, I tried to model some of their attributes. I worked selling jewelry and made a lot of money, but it had no real meaning in my soul. So I went to work helping people get off of welfare. That was rewarding, but barely paid my gas money for commuting. I then became a consultant to businesses for employee relations and productivity. This also led to a stint as a Loaned Executive with the Greater Minneapolis Area United Way. I helped large donors and companies with fundraising. This was a great fit for me. I was able to be creative and have fun, at the same time. I did quite a bit of speaking, too, and became a professional speaker, as well.
The hard part of trying to impart many of the lessons my parents taught me was that I couldn’t mention God or faith in such strictly secular settings. And that was what basically drove me and still does: my faith. In the last years, I have become active in many efforts with nonprofits and religious organizations, focusing on spirituality. In the last 6 years or so, I have begun efforts to see that there is full inclusion in faith practices for persons with disabilities. I have met so many amazing and successful people over the years, but none that taught me more about humanity and humility than people working to get off of welfare and persons with all kinds of disabilities. Learning from the persons with disabilities has been a tremendous help to me more and more as I age. My own health is not getting better with age, let’s just put it that way. Mobility is becoming more of a concern with each season. Some of you maybe knew I had two artificial legs since childhood. Along the way, I now also have a few concerns from complications of the birth defects, as well as arthritis and two forms of Lupus. Maybe because stress is not good for these conditions, I seek a life more contemplative than in my earlier years.
I am still discerning whether God wants me to return for my Master’s degree in Pastoral Ministry. It is a tough call. As my brother puts it, “Let me get this straight: you need to get a master’s from a private university in ministry and pay $80,000 for the degree, only to compete as a layperson with qualified nuns and priests and ministers for a job that will pay you $25,000?” Ah, he went to Denfeld, too. Makes sense what he says, yet I know the work needs to be done. Where do we all belong? I am trusting God to see if my learning needs to be verified with a degree or if He will send me where He needs me. That seems to be working, as long as I keep listening. And praying. Part of what I pray for is clearer signs and fewer distractions. The older I get, the better I like the idea of the cloistered life. I imagine many of you might be laughing out loud, now, knowing that I am such an extrovert! Ah, no worries. They wouldn’t take me in a cloister, I think. I’ll have to find a middle path. God will show me the way.
Currently I am editor for a magazine called The CUSAN. It is part of CUSA, which is a Christian advocacy group for persons with disabilities, world wide, with 8,000 members. My husband and I discuss all the time how an issue for “immigrants” or “women” or vulnerable persons all boil down to basically one thing: they are all issues of human rights. Some days I see so much to be optimistic about in how this world is progressing. Other days I lean heavily on my faith and wonder how the heck we seem to take two steps forward then three backward in humanity. When we were kids watching the gas shortages lines in 1973, I remember thinking “when I’m grown up, we’ll be driving electric cars and there won’t be problems with foreign oil.” Sigh. I guess we do have hybrid cars now. But we still go to war and we still are dependent on foreign oil. What will change and what will stay the same? As you can see, I am better at asking questions than providing answers.
With apologies for offending anyone with my pondering, I want to end by saying that I think we’ll all be okay. It doesn’t mean we do not have to be good stewards or not be vigilant, but I remain optimistic that humanity will get a clue (maybe over and over) and take care of all of us and our planet. It always took me a few times to learn some lessons. I like to think that eventually we get it right.
Finally, I want to say that I was always so impressed with so many of my Denfeld classmates. I do not know what all of you “became,” on paper, but I do recall all the fun and kind hearts I was able to become friends with over those three (important) years. Some of you I feel sad about losing touch with, as I am not very good at phone calling or getting together as much as I’d like. I pray you understand. Just know that I think we were meant to be on our journey together in many ways or maybe only a few. But they have all been important and memorable to me. YOU remain important and memorable to me, always.
My email is LinFromMinn@Gmail.com. I was on Face Book for a while, but with some privacy and security issues, I had to suddenly suspend my account. I am not sure how I will resume it, but I’ll try. Emails are welcome, however! I do love to write responses. If you can put up with long discourses, I tend to be more about deeper letters rather than notes on Twitter, but enjoy hearing from people all the same!
I wish you a good reunion, whether we get to visit face to face or not. I do want to thank Julie Jezierski Gross and Cynthia Thompson Zuk, as well as Jeff Lee, for the work on the reunion and this website! Julie and Cynthia, your faithfulness and integrity to care about all of us, with little or no thanks or rewards, often, is a gift that I wish I could pay you for—with like maybe a couple million dollars. I might be able to swing a couple of lottery tickets for you, but then you’re on your own luck! As blessed as I have been in this life, I have not really been super lucky! (Unless you count the green light I got when I was running REALLY late the other day!) I think it is safe to say that of all our classmates, your devotion and help is valued IMMENSELY by all of us! From the bottom of our hearts, our deepest gratitude to you, Julie and Cynthia.
With my gratitude and best wishes to each of you,
Linda Walczynski Louie