By Sherry Nicholson of Elk River John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. As Don and I approached retirement, we talked about what we wanted to do in our retirement years. Fishing, traveling, and spending more time with our kids and grandkids made the list. Exactly one week after Don retired, I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive breast cancer.

By Rachel Barduson of Alexandria Music has a remarkable influence on emotions – at least on mine. There are songs for seasons and holidays, songs that bring us back to high school, songs that show our faith, and songs that bring us peace. Songs celebrate life, or at the very least, allow us to take pause in parts of our emotions of where we might be “at” on any given day. TAPS is perhaps not a song we think of as part of a Fourth of July celebration, but for some reason, it’s

By Michelle Tweed of Dalton I tip the box and the pieces pour out. Colors and patterns emerge as I flip each one face up and lay it back on the table. The maker of the puzzle hasn’t included a picture of what the end result will look like. All I can do is start. Attempting to make sense of a thousand pieces, I begin to match all the straight edges until a frame is assembled. A glimmer of possibilities lies before me and gives me something to build upon. Now, what next? I pick

Today's Wisdom: When children reach the age of sixteen, they discover the meaning of life: car keys. - Erma Bombeck By Bill D. Ward One of my cars is an older model that was once driven by an elderly relative. There are seven dings on the car, somewhat evenly dispersed around the perimeter. I know the history of most of those dings, and I know there are matching scrapes on garage door frames, carport posts, and various other items around town. Each of those was self-inflicted

By Larry Kiewel of St. Peter The Buffalo Round Up in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota has been on my list of things to see ever since a saddle club friend came back with stories of riding his own horse at the event. Sometimes it seemed like I was the last person in the county to make the trip, as everyone seemed to have a story and advice. The buffalo Photo by Larry Kiewel Get there early. Bring your own chairs. Wear a big hat. Be ready to wait. We got in

By Elaine Haala of New Ulm Can you remember, as little girls we wore undershirts and slips? We had rubber overshoes with a zipper and fake fur cuffs. We got home perms – with really curly hair. The only people with a tattoo was a sailor – not everybody and their grandmother. We had the Watkins, Fuller Brush, Jewel T, and Stanley Brush salesmen calling door-to-door to sell their wares to our mothers. Grandpa hung his arm out the car window to signal a turn or stop. Then came b

By Carl Gadow of Eagan My grandchildren call me Chupa. It wasn’t the name I had planned. In fact, I had something much more distinguished in mind. “Why am I looking at a turtle?” I asked when my wife showed me the sonogram. “It’s not a turtle! It’s your grandbaby.” “Are they supposed to look like turtles?” It was clearly a turtle, but I wasn’t going to disillusion her. She was excited about her first grandchild, and she needed me to be at least as excited as she was. “I’m too

WWII Navy veteran turns 100 By Jillian Kellerman World War II Navy Veteran Bert Rudie, currently of Albertville, turned 100 years old on April 18, 2026. On his birthday, a party was held in Rudie’s honor at the Albertville City Hall in Albertville. Approximately 55 guests attended, including five members of the St. Michael American Legion Post. World War II Navy Veteran Bert Rudie at his 100th birthday party at the Albertville City Hall in Albertville. Contributed photo Rudi

By Jim Palmer On July 4, our country will celebrate its 250th anniversary. And what a 250 years it has been! If you took a time machine back 250 years to 1776 and spend a few weeks living in just about any community in the new United States, your impression might be, “It’s an interesting place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” 1776 - Life in 1776 was slower, harder, and centered mainly on survival. A typical day for nearly all of the population was to rise with th

By Jim Palmer Every year or so we like to give our readers a little writing assignment. We ask a question and give readers the opportunity to answer the question in the form of a submitted article. Earlier this spring, we asked readers the following question: “What did you do the summer after graduation?” We had a good response. Submissions can be found in each edition of the Senior Perspective. There are a wide variety of stories in all five editions and there are different

By Tedi Schmoll of Ogilvie By Tedi Schmoll of Ogilvie I’m not too sure of the exact date, but I remember the event like yesterday. Just think how many times there has been a trauma in your own life, you know you can recall it vividly. We were over at the blue farm, Martin and I, and we intended to put in some corner posts. “Mom,” the kids had said to me, “if you want to raise sheep, you have to put up fence ‘cuz we are not going to chase sheep anymore, we’re done being sheep

By Rachel Barduson of Alexandria I remember one particular “first day of summer” when I had just finished the second or third grade. Of course, the first day of summer was the last day of school. On this particular day I remember that I had decided that it would be the summer that I would start digging a hole to China. You know, where all of the starving children were. You see, any time I was stubborn about not cleaning my plate at the dinner table, mom or dad would remind me

By Tim King Perhaps I shouldn’t be writing about this now. After all, winter is finished and summer is just over the horizon. I should, instead, write about Beardsly, in Big Stone County, rather than Tower and Embarrass in St. Louis County. But the subject has been nagging me since a friendly mechanic at my favorite gas station had the courtesy to pump the gas for my car last Feb. 2, Groundhog Day of 2026. “I was there,” he told me. “It was like a party.” It’s hard to imagine

By Nancy Leasman of Long Prairie I lost the Turkish puzzle ring I had worn on my right pinky finger for about 20 years. It was a gift from my middle child. It had replaced one my brother had given me in high school – one I had also lost. A Turkish puzzle ring is made of interlocking rings, usually four but sometimes eight, that when assembled form one ring. Legend has it that a ring such as this was also a loyalty or fidelity ring. Given by a man to a woman who, if she remove

Article written and provided by Jessica Landucci, Au.D., CCC-A, at St. Cloud ENT Jessica Landucci, Au.D., CCC-A, at St. Cloud ENT. Contributed photo Patients often ask whether wearing hearing aids will make their hearing worse over time. The good news is that when hearing aids are properly evaluated, fit and programmed specifically for an individual’s hearing loss, they do not cause further damage to hearing. In fact, hearing aids are designed to amplify sounds comfortably an

By Jan Stadtherr Dear fellow golden-agers! If you’re over 65, you may have entered a new chapter of your life as I did in April. Are you squinting as you read this and the letters look like hieroglyphics? Can’t see the road signs as you drive, especially at night? Those are some of the first signs you may need to have your cataracts removed. Ah, yes! Many of my friends have had the procedure done and they say, “There’s nothing to it! Everything will be brighter!” The surgery

Today’s Wisdom: “Wounds heal; the memory of them fuels her journey.” –Virginia Woolf By Bill D. Ward I have a very old memory of a night back in my police days. I was dispatched to a bar late in the evening. Arriving, I found a few folks milling around a car parked on the street in front. As I approached, I noted that the car windshield had a three-foot gash down its center. It didn’t take a trained detective to figure out that the pool cue laying by the car was the likely we

Old Course redesigned to provide easier recreational opportunities, experiences By Jim Palmer Late last year, The Old Course in Sauk Centre unveiled its new executive 18-hole course, starting a new chapter in the course’s 105-year history. The golf course is now open for its first full season, which will include some new features, new improvements and a new general manager. “We’ve had positive feedback on the course which was great to hear,” said Steve Klick, who has owned Th

By Larry Kiewel of St. Peter I learned a lot of things from my dad. That was how the world worked in the 1950s when I was growing from one to 10 years of age. It was a little different in the 1960s. In those years of my growing from 10 to 20 years of age, I added teachers from all over that were not my dad. But now I am as old as my father’s oldest age. What I learned and who I learned it from seems important. Larry Kiewel with his dad Bob, son Christopher, and grandson Benja

By Bernadette Stein of St. Cloud “June is bustin’ out all over! All over the meadows and the hills!” was first heard in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Carousel’ in April 1945. It became very popular and introduced the season of summer. The whole summer – June, July, and August – were one big season to me as a child. I remember Sunday nights walking with Mom and Dad and siblings out to the fields to check the crops. Uncle George, my Dad’s older brother who was a business owner,