Life after the storm
Six months after the Spencer tornado,
the Papendicks settle into their new home
 

Orthodontist retiring after 35 years of service 
 

Freeman to join state fiber optic ring
 

EDITORIAL
The sobering reality of miracles
 

Life after the storm
Six months after the Spencer tornado,
the Papendicks settle into their new home 
Editor’s note: The June 10, 1998, Courier reported on Mennonite Disaster Service and their efforts to help clean up Norm and Marilyn Papendick’s farm in rural Spencer. Their farm was destroyed by the May 30 tornado. Last week, we returned to Spencer to visit the Papendicks six months later. For the complete story, read this issue of the Courier.
When it starts to get dark, Norm and Marilyn Papendick can look out their front door and see the lights of Spencer shining. After living 40 years two and one-half miles west Spencer, it’s an unfamiliar sight.
It’s unfamiliar because there are no trees to block the view since the May 30, 1998 tornado that blew apart the tiny South Dakota town and took with it most of the trees. It’s also a sight the Papendicks will have to get used to, just like they are getting used to life after the tornado.
Six months ago, the Papendicks lost nearly everything on their rural Spencer farm. The tornado spared their lives, but it ripped apart their farm. They lost several cars, a camper and their new Ford pickup. The house they had lived in for 40 years was destroyed. The trailer adjacent to their house where Marilyn’s mother lived was also ruined.
But if the Papendicks have learned anything from their tornado experience, it is that life goes on.
Since the tornado, the Papendicks have celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary, Norm turned 65 and Rose, Marilyn’s mother, turned 92 a few weeks ago. Like some farmers, Papendick spent the week before Thanksgiving combining his corn and he took time on Sunday to catch the Vikings game on TV.
On Thursday, the Papendicks will be celebrating Thanksgiving with three of their five children. They will have turkey and all the trimmings around a new kitchen table in a new kitchen in a new house.
“I think it’s important for them to come here and to see that life does go on,” Marilyn said.
Their new house is closer to the road than the old house. Norm said they didn’t rebuild on the old foundation because it had crumbled in after the tornado. The steps leading up to the front door of the old two-story white house remain; Marilyn plans on planting flowers or a garden around them next spring. To them, the stairs are a reminder of the tornado and a way to look back at where things were before the tornado.
“It’s amazing how you can forget where things were after 40 years,” she said.

Horner to take over Louden’s practice
Orthodontist retiring after 35 years of service
In the early ’70s, Dr. Bill Louden gave something to Kevin Horner that changed his life — an improved smile.
“He left quite an impression — he’s the reason I went into dentistry,” Horner said. “I hold him in high regard.”
After 35 years of practicing orthodontics, Louden is retiring this year from his satellite office in Freeman, where he has been seeing patients every two weeks for more than 20 years. Louden will close his Sioux Falls practice in 2000. Instead of leaving his patients without treatment, however, Louden looked to his former patient to continue practicing orthodontics in Freeman and Sioux Falls.
Beginning Jan. 1, 1999, people in the Freeman area can continue to receive orthodontic treatment from Horner. To make the transition smooth, both Dr. Horner and Dr. Louden will be visiting with patients on Dec. 4 and Dec. 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
 

Freeman to join state fiber optic ring
Hair-thin pieces of fiber will make it possible for Freeman to be connected to the rest of the world clearer, faster and without interruption.
Freeman is one of 47 communities linked to Sioux Falls through fiber optic cables that will provide integrated voice, data and video traffic across South Dakota — a “path for the future,” said Harlan Brue, manager of Golden West Telephone Company.
This is part of a statewide effort involving South Dakota Network and 14 of South Dakota’s independent telephone companies, including Golden West. In the network ring, fiber cable connects to equipment at various locations, linking them to a circular or ring formation. A 500-mile ring, activated in October, connects the network operations center in Sioux Falls with 15 eastern South Dakota communities.
Freeman is a part of the second ring, which is intended to be live by the end of the year. The second ring will link Sioux Falls with an additional 32 communities across 1,325 miles.
Both rings use Fujitsu Network Communications’ Synchronous Optical Network, or SONET. It is designed for high-speed transmission over fiber-optic cable. The network can carry the digital voice, data and video signals at 2.5 gigabits per second; one single hair-thin piece of fiber can carry more than 32,000 simultaneous telephone calls. Two fibers carry the network in traffic in opposite directions. If the primary, traffic-carrying fiber is cut or fails, the backup fiber instantly goes into action so traffic is not interrupted. It’s so high-tech, it “won’t even drop the conversation,” Brue said.
 

EDITORIAL
The sobering reality of miracles
A year and a half ago, with Nelson Miller lying in a University of Minnesota Hospital bed, his family was praying for a miracle.
Heart disease had destroyed the heart of the Gregory, S.D., weekly newspaper publisher. His only hope was a transplant. His miracle came Sept. 18, 1997, when the heart of a Michigan 16-year-old killed in a traffic accident replaced Miller’s damaged heart. Today, Miller is back in Gregory, every bit as active as he was prior to his June 1997 heart attack.
A week and a half ago, an Armour family was praying for a miracle as well.
Blase, 12 years old and the youngest of Jim and Lori Ronspies’ three children, lay in an Avera McKennan Hospital bed. Massive head injuries sustained in a Nov. 12 traffic accident left him in a coma.
Their hopes for the miracle of his recovery were never realized; Blase died five days later.
However, prayers for a miracle on the lips of several other families were answered in the hours that followed Blase’s death.
They came true because Blase was an organ donor.
Like Jacob, the young man from Michigan who offered Nelson Miller a new chance at life, Blase gave the gift of his organs to someone else.
His mother, who is part of the Rocket staff that prints the Courier every week, says it was something Blase would have wanted. 
Those who knew him recall the seventh grader as a kind and gentle soul who loved children and horses. He worked with his family on the “Make a Wish Foundation” at the South Dakota Rodeo Finals. The idea of offering someone — even someone he did not know — a new chance at life, reflects his giving spirit.
In this season of thanksgiving and giving, it’s hard to image a more profound message of generosity and hope than that of Blase Ronspies.
The sobering reality of the miracle that came true for Nelson Miller is the fact that the miracle didn’t come for the Ronspies family. 
But the Ronspies’ know that others received miracles of their own because of Blase’s gift. And now they are praying for the families for whom those miracles came true.
This week has been designated Donor Decision Week in South Dakota. 
To become a donor, first talk to your family about your wishes and then indicate your wishes on your driver’s license.
If you haven’t yet made the decision to be a donor, consider doing so today. For more information call LifeSource toll-free at 1-888-5-DONATE (1-888-536-6283).
You could be part of a miracle.
tlw