Meet Muriel

Meet Muriel.

Muriel is a delightful lady with a constant smile on her face. She can be heard singing a joyful tune while walking through the halls. Born in the small town of Ormsby, Minnesota, Muriel was the youngest of four children. Being the only girl, her dad liked to take her along to grain conventions in the Twin Cities and show her off, introducing her as “his little girl, the light of his life.” As a young girl she enjoyed playing Ante-I-Over in which players had to try to throw the ball over the shed and if it didn’t make it, players had to say “pigtail”. She graduated from St. James High School and went on to earn a two-year degree from Winona State Teacher’s College in teaching and then her bachelor’s from The University of Minnesota, Morris.

Muriel’s mother was a teacher and recalls her mother telling her, “I can’t see you as a teacher.” “I showed her otherwise,” she said with a smile. Her teaching career started at two, one-room school-houses and later she went on to teach many years in Benson where she was given the prestigious title of “Teacher of the Year”. She has received many letters of recognition from past students telling her what a positive effect she had on their lives.

Muriel was happily married to her husband Victor for an impressive 70 years. He sat by her in one of her high school classes but she said that they officially met when roller-skating. They didn’t have much money for their wedding so he wore a suit he had won and they used flowers from her mother’s garden. They had 3 children- two boys and one girl – and, 6 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

Muriel often likes to remember and look back on her time spent traveling. She talked about going to Japan with a local singing group and touring Europe with her daughter; Japan and China were her favorite. Along with traveling, some of her hobbies included gardening, golf, playing bridge and church activities. Her favorite thing to cook was a Norwegian soup and lefse. She also has a love of poetry and recited her favorite to me from memory. Today she mainly reads it, but she used to write her own along with keeping a journal. She still has all of her journals dating back to the 1950’s.

She moved to Good Shepherd in 2004 when her husband started having some memory issues. While in the apartments she was able to volunteer and liked having one-on-one visits with the residents and listening to their stories. She made the move to the Memory Cottages about a year and a half ago and she was very happy to be able to help promote Good Shepherd. “It’s been a great place,” she said. We are proud Muriel calls Good Shepherd home.