Health
Our uncle, Eddie Hein, was always a man you could count on. He was hard working and always willing to help someone in need. He would even travel to help. When my in-laws, Walt and Joann Schulenberg, were building their house in Homa Hills, Eddie came down from Forsyth, Montana to Casper, Wyoming to help lay the cinder blocks. It was a big job, and while the whole family helped out, we didn’t really know how to lay brick. My father-in-law and his brother, Eddie did. I suppose we would have finished the house one way or the other, but it would have taken a lot longer.
Eddie was that way with everyone. If people called, he did his best to help. I’m certain that when he passed 
away, on October 16, 2019, the loss to the town of Forsyth was deeply felt. I know it was deeply felt in our family…not because of what Eddie might do for us, but for who he was. Eddie wasn’t just the guy who could get the job done, he was kind and caring, a friend to all who knew him, and a wonderful family man. He was very close to his children, Larry Hein and Kim Arani, his grandkids, Dalton Hein and Destiny Wallace, and of course, his loving wife, Pearl, of 52 years at the time of his passing. His family always knew that they were his priority.
Eddie worked at Peabody coal mine in Colstrip, Montana until his retirement. He was well respected and loved by bosses and coworkers alike. They always knew that if Eddie Hein was on the job, he would give it his full 
attention and full effort. He worked hard, and very much earned his retirement. Anyone who worked in mining can attest to that for sure. After his retirement, Eddie and Pearl loved to relax at their home in Forsyth, visit their daughter Kim and her husband Michael, in Texas, and I’m sure Eddie pitched in at Larry’s shop too. Unfortunately, all that was cut short by a stroke, and later the heart attack that took Eddie’s life in 2019. That was such a sad day for all of us. Today would have been Eddie’s 81st birthday. Happy birthday in Heaven, Eddie. We love and miss you very much.
My nephew, Tucker Schulenberg has had a year beyond belief. The year started off good. Tucker was in school and had a girlfriend. He was a happy uncle his nieces and nephews. Life was getting better every day. Things had been really hard for Tucker since his mom, Rachel Schulenberg passed away on January 19, 2021, following a massive stroke. Tucker was in a really dark place for a while, but he was finally on the way out of it. He will never get over his mother’s loss, but he was healing.
Then, came July 4, 2024. Tucker, his brother, Riley Birky and a couple of friends were picking up fireworks for the Independence Day celebration. Someone, no one knows who, lit a cigarette without thinking, and suddenly, 
the car was engulfed in flames. The fireworks were on the floor at Tuckers feet, putting him in the worst possible place. Riley managed to pull the car over without hitting anything and began pulling the other boys out of the car. It was a lifesaving maneuver on his part, and while all the boys were burned, they were alive. The boys would spend differing lengths of time in the hospital, and have different treatments while they were there, with Tucker’s being the longest stay. Tucker also required much physical therapy to get the strength back in his legs. It’s been a long, hard road but Tucker was determined to get his life back, and he certainly did.
Two months to the day, Tucker left the hospital…on his own steam. He was determined to come all the way back too, and so he has been working on running with those legs that no one was sure would walk again. He is back to school, and the Rocky Mountain High School and Middle School student council held a fund raiser called the T-shirt Game, and even made t-shirts that said Tucker Tuff. It was great to see everyone rallying around him like that, and I’m sure it inspired him to push forward in his healing process. Tucker is a strong guy, and I know he can do anything he sets his mind to. His future is bright, and I am so proud of him for sticking to it and making such an amazing come back for such a terrible accident. Today is Tucker’s 17th birthday. Happy birthday Tucker!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My nephew, Riley Birky has had a rough year. Not like most people think of a rough year. He has had a really rough year. It started out good, but on July 4th, everything changed…everything. Riley; his little brother, Tucker Schulenberg; and a couple of friends, Landon and Dylan; had gone to pick up fireworks for the evening’s festivities. Little is known about wat happened from there, but it is suspected that someone lit a cigarette without thinking about the fireworks. Seconds later, the car was engulfed in flames. I read where they are crediting Riley with the saving of lives and preventing an accident, In the midst of driving a car that burst into flames, Riley had the presence of mind to pull over, even though he was being burned. He stopped safely and them assisted the other boys, so that all got out alive. Riley was a hero. 
The boys were taken to the hospital and quickly flown to Denver, where they remained for varying lengths of time, as each on had different burns. While the struggle to recover has really hard, Riley persevered and is now back home, as are the three other boys. Their story truly is a miracle. These young men were so close to death, but they had people who were praying for them. God is so good. These days all the boys are home, Tucker is back to school, and while Riley isn’t back to work yet, he is doing really well.
Riley is a great dad to his son Ryder and bonus son, Jace. He is a great fiancé to his fiancée, Sierah Martin, and he is a great brother to Tucker. His presence in their lives is not only important…it’s vital. They rely on him so much, and Riley has stepped up to be the man they need him to be. He didn’t have to be this kind of man, but 
Riley has proven himself to be just exactly that…a step up when needed kind of man!! I am so roud of the man Riley has become, and I know that he will continue to make his family proud.
Riley has a long way to go in his recovery, as do Tucker, Landon, and Dylan. The boys were all blessed in that their faces were not scarred. Nevertheless, their arms and legs will have a long road to recovery. Still, these boys are fighters, and they have many people praying for them behind the scenes. I know they will recover well and lead amazing lives. Today is Riley’s 24th birthday. Happy birthday Riley!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My aunt, Dixie Richards has always been a caregiver, in one capacity or another. She took care of a number of Uncle Jim Richards’ family members when they needed help, and his mother lived with them for a number of years. As her own parents grew older, she also took care of them, spending many hours at their home to make sure they had what they needed. She was so important to their health and happy life, because not everyone was able to be there as much as she was…and her hard work was greatly appreciated by all of her siblings. I remember my mom, Collene Spencer and aunt, Sandy Pattan telling me all about how important her loving care was to their parents and to her siblings too. A person who have the heart of a caregiver, is a precious gem indeed.
As a child, like her siblings, rock hunting was a great family outing. They all loved picking up a pretty rock and taking it to their dad to see if this one was a special one. Grandpa could look and a rock and have a pretty good idea of what the inside looked like. These family outings were the highlight of their lives. There were no computers back then, and I don’t think they owned a television set either. Nevertheless, every night all the siblings gathered around the floor of the living room, to listen to Grandma, Hattie Byer read to the family. It was the best part of the evening, but to be sure, if Grandma read anything in the book that seemed to be “off color” the offending book was never finished and never seen again. It’s possible, I suppose that the offending book became kindling for the wood stove.
For a while now, it have been harder for Aunt Dixie and Uncle Jim to get out and about, so a I decided that it’s important for siblings to see each other. With that in mind, I have been working to get Aunt Sandy in touch with 
her siblings and her sister-in-law. We have been to see Aunt Dixie and Uncle Jim three times, and everyone had a great time. We were able to get hooked up with Aunt Jeanette Byer once and look forward to going again. We are also trying to get her with Uncle Wayne Byer and Aunt Bonnie McDaniels. Time will tell on those, but we are hopeful. The visits with Aunt Dixie and Uncle Jim have been so wonderful, and the people who have joined us have really enjoyed being able to see them again. Here’s to the next visit. Today is Aunt Dixie’s 81st birthday. Happy birthday Aunt Dixie!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My sister, Alena Stevens has had a wonderful year. In October, her daughter, Lacey married Chris Killinger, and with that union came two new bonus grandchildren, Brooklyn and Jaxon Killinger. They joined the two granddaughters, Elliott and Maya Stevens, that Alena and her husband, Mike already had. Brooklyn and Jaxon have been such a great blessing to the whole family. Elliott and Maya absolutely love their new cousins, and the feeling is mutual for sure.
The past six months, have found our aunt, Sandy Pattan needing several surgeries, and facing several crisis situations. She is doing so much better now, and that is partly due to the caregiver’s heart that Alena has. I was taking care of Aunt Sandy, when Alena came to me and said that she wanted to take several days. It was such a blessing. Caregiving is a big job. It takes a village, and having my sister there to share that workload 
has been awesome. Neither of us would consider taking care of Aunt Sandy to be a burden, because it isn’t. Aunt Sandy is a big blessing to our family, and it is very important that she be ok. Alena has been instrumental in making that happen, and now that Aunt Sandy is doing so well, she and Alena have a friendship that is very precious to both of them. They love to do jigsaw puzzles, and so they have been spending hours working on them, and Aunt Sandy has been loving it. The friendship that Alena and I had has grown much deeper too. She is a huge blessing to me as well. Of course, there are others who have helped, and their importance cannot be overstated. We have grown close to Jim and Deb Pattan, as well as Steve and Wanda Beadle, all of whom were very helpful. It truly takes a village to care for someone who has gone through all that Aunt Sandy did. Alena has always had a heart for those in need. her job as a Refocus Room teacher helped so many students who were having difficulties. Now, she is helping in a new way, and that has really presented itself in these hard days. I will be forever grateful to Alena for her help. She has been absolutely amazing.
Since her retirement, Alena has had the opportunity to spend more time in Sheridan, where her son, Garrett, his wife, Kayla, and their girls, Elliott and Maya live. Kayla has to go out of town for work periodically, and Garrett has to work. So, Alena and Mike have been going up to watch the girls for them. I can’t think of anything that Alena loves more. Spending time with her grandchildren is the top thing on her list of favorite activities. It is a win-win for everyone. Today is Alena’s birthday. Happy birthday Alena!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
Our aunt, Charlys Schulenberg has been through a lot in the past year. She began having some Neuropathy in her legs and feet. Uncle Butch took her to several neurologists trying to find out if there’s a cure for her. The doctors all say they know of none when it gets that bad. One doctor believes that it all started a couple years ago when her red and white blood cells dropped to a seriously low level. She was very weak. They put her in the hospital and found out that she had no cooper in her blood. So, they gave her copper via IVs. This brought her blood back up, but not high enough. They believe the low copper caused her Neuropathy. They also think that there was too much Zinc in the vitamins she was taking. Apparently, too much Zinc can deplete the copper in your system. So, they got rid of all vitamins that had Zinc in them. Meanwhile, she was home waiting to go back to Billings for another week of IV copper infusions. While she was home however, she, being a very determined lady, refused to take this lying down. She was getting around with a walker, but she was really shaky.
Because of all that, she wasn’t supposed to be cooking. Uncle Butch was doing the cooking. They were going to have spaghetti, but they needed French bread and other groceries, so he went down to store. When he came back 45 minutes later, Aunt Charlys was laying on the floor. She had decided to start the spaghetti, and as she was boiling the spaghetti, her feet went out from under her. She hit the pan of boiling water as she fell, and the pan fell on her, spilling the boiling water and hot spaghetti in her lap causing 3rd, 4th, and 5th degree burns from her knees to her chest. Uncle Butch called an ambulance, and they got her to the hospital, and then, she was flown to the University of Colorado Burn Center. While her burns must have kept her in excruciating pain, Aunt Charlys never lost her sense of humor. She joked with the nurses, even though she was the one in so much pain. She has proven herself to be one tough lady.
After a month in the burn center, she was transferred to the hospital in Forsyth, Montana where they live. She spent another month in the Forsyth Hospital. While she was there, she continued joking and just being herself…always positive and happy. I’m sure that like me, the nurses, doctors, and other staff couldn’t believe that this lady, who was in obvious pain was so cheerful and positive. She has never lost her positive attitude. Her burns soon healed and all that’s left is the scars. Uncle Butch is very proud of her, and so is the rest of her family. Charlys is such a sweet, loving person, and I am so thankful that she is still with us.
Because the Neuropathy in her legs is so bad, she came home in a wheelchair. She couldn’t walk. Uncle Butch got the house set up so she can do things herself. They pulled the carpet up and installed posts by the bed and in bathroom and grab bars in the shower area. When she first came home, Uncle Butch had to help her with bath and bathroom needs, but in true Charlys style, she was determined to do things herself. She worked very hard to make a way for herself. Now, with help of a special chair and the bars on wall, she does many things by herself. All Uncle Butch has to do is stand by to make sure she’s alright. She can pull Herself up out of wheelchair and get things out of the low cabinets. She has one of those two wheeled walkers with solid back legs, and she gets a little further walking with it each day. Uncle Butch says that at times her feet and legs just jump all over the place.
They were scheduled to start copper treatment a couple days before the accident, but they had to cancel that. Meanwhile, their daughter, Andi Kay got a hold of the doctors at the burn center and told them about her copper deficiency. They didn’t want that to continue, so they placed a tube in her nose, that went to her stomach, and fed her copper and drugs straight into the stomach., finally bringing her copper and her red and white cells to normal, Praise God!! With the excellent treatment she was given, she was very soon back to being her old spunky self. Unfortunately, they don’t believe that the damage is done in her feet and legs from the Neuropathy, is reversable. So, she’s in a wheelchair or walking a little with her walker. Meanwhile, being the culinary expert that she is, she has the up the task of “teaching” Uncle Butch to cook, with her supervision, of course. She makes sure to tell him what to do next, even if he probably already knows, but that leaves her basically running the show, and that what is most important. She has been struggling with Macular Degeneration in her eyes, so Uncle Butch reads her the recipes, as well as a lot of articles from papers, a true mark of his love for her. She also has a magnifying glass, that has a small light, and she uses that a lot too.
Their grandson, Christian is living with them and working as a CNA at the Forsyth Hospital. That has been such an amazing blessing. He has been a great help to them. He loves his grandma “to pieces” and gives her all his attention, and the love is “reversed” to him too. Uncle Butch thinks that she wouldn’t be as happy, if Christian wasn’t there. Uncle Butch thinks through all that has happened these last few years, it has only served to bring 
them closer to one another. They got Aunt Charlys a small electric wheelchair that folds down and is real light. I didn’t know they made folding electric wheelchairs, but it is awesome!! It slides into a trunk or a pickup. She can go shopping with it now. They went to Walmart in Miles City last week, and she had a blast!! Uncle Butch says that you have to watch her, or she’ll run over your feet…kind of like a fifteen-year-old with a driver’s permit, hahaha!! The good news is that now that she has it, she can get out more. Charlys is full of life yet, even with all the problems. Uncle Butch says, “She’s a fighter and she dang sure doesn’t give up.” It’s a miracle that could only be God and the excellent people He placed at the hospitals and at home to care for her. Today is Aunt Charlys’ 82nd birthday. Happy birthday Aunt Charlys!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
As is the case with many chemicals, Radium started out as a supposedly harmless chemical, that would later prove to be horrifically dangerous and even deadly. In the early 1920s, a company called U.S. Radium Corp was hiring girls to paint watch faces with radium. It was considered a “plum new gig” because the work was easy, and it paid well for the times. The purpose of painting the watch faces was to make them glow, which the chemical Radium did quite well. No one thought about exposure to Radium might do to the people doing this work. I’m sure it was like the exposure to lead in paint.
In the end, the easy work came at terrible price. As the girls worked on the watch faces, they licked their paint brushes in between watches. This was to give the brush a sharper point. Each time they did this, they swallowed a tiny bit of the chemical. I can’t say that I would be inclined to lick the tip of a paintbrush, but at that time, no one gave it a second thought. To them, it made sense to get the best point on their brush, and thereby, do the best job on the face of the watch.
At first, everything was going along well. The girls made good money, and the glow in the dark watches were a big hit. Still, as often happens with dangerous chemicals, the side effects began to present themselves in the form of horrifying health conditions. “There was one woman who the dentist went to pull a tooth and he pulled her entire jaw out when he did it,” explained Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook. “Their legs broke underneath them. Their spines collapsed.” Unfortunately, many of the so-called Radium Girls died young, and U.S. Radium Corp tried to dodge responsibility.
The U.S. Radium Corp was founded in 1914 in New York City, by Dr Sabin Arnold von Sochocky and Dr George S Willis, as the Radium Luminous Material Corporation. In essence, the company produced uranium from carnotite ore. Eventually, they moved into the business of producing radioluminescent paint, and then to the application of that paint. As the business grew, they opened facilities in Newark, Jersey City, and Orange. In August 1921, in a hostile action, von Sochocky was forced from the presidency, and the company was renamed the United States Radium Corporation, Arthur Roeder became the president of the company. The company was 
highly successful. In Orange, where radium was extracted from 1917 to 1926, the U.S. Radium facility processed half a ton of ore per day. The ore was obtained from “Undark mines” in Paradox Valley, Colorado and in Utah. Of course, these days, we know that uranium ore and most of its components are deadly, but back then, these innocent Radium Girls simply placed their trust in the wrong people, and it cost them their lives.
When my husband’s grandfather, Andy Schulenberg began his life, it was in perfect health. He was the oldest child of his parents Max and Julia Schulenberg. For the next fourteen years, siblings arrived on a regular basis, and Andy became the big brother to all of them. As with all big brothers, the younger nine kids looked up to their big brother….even the ones who were born after the incident that changed everything. When Andy was about 14 years old, he was out hunting, when something went terribly wrong. I don’t know exactly how, and maybe nobody does, but Andy was shot in the leg, and it was very serious. 
I can’t imagine how worried his parents were when they got the news. You never want to get bad news concerning your child, and this was some of the worst news there is. I’m sure that hearing that he would live was a huge relief, but the loss of his leg…just devastating. No one really knows how a person will be able to recuperate from such a loss. It affects not only the body, but the mind too. Our bodies aren’t designed to lose a limb. Can we survive that? Yes, but it will take time. For Andy, that meant a year in the hospital. He had to be fitted with a peg. They might have had a primitive form of a prosthetic leg, but probably not. So, for Andy, it would be a peg. Andy was a determined young man, and he refused to let this beat him. He was only 14 years old, and he had a life he wanted to live, yes, was determined to live.
So, he persevered and worked hard to recover and to learn how to maneuver. These days, a person who has suffered an amputation would see, not only a doctor, buy also a psychiatrist as well. It is a well-known fact, 
these days anyway, that such an injury affects the mind as much as the body. That was not as well known in those days, so Andy had to dig deep inside himself and pull out the fortitude and reshape his own life, and later became the sheriff of Rosebud County Montana. I think that the way he pulled himself up and got on with the business of life was just amazing. Today is the 118th anniversary of Grandpa Andy’s birth. Happy birthday in Heaven, Grandpa. We love and miss you very much.
Miracles happen every day, whether we realize it or not. Each and every day, people’s lives are changed, people are healed, and circumstances are corrected, in ways that have no logical, scientific, medical, or financial reason. One such case occurred in 2007. A man went to the hospital because he was experiencing minor weakness in his left leg. Of course, as hospitals do, they ran a battery of tests. When they did a CT scan and an MRI, they were shocked to find that the man had an unusually tiny brain. When I say unusually tiny, I don’t mean a little smaller than normal, I mean a lot smaller than normal. Even more amazing was the fact that the man was more or less normal and functional.
Lionel Feuillet, the neurologist handling the case, at the Mediterranean University in Marseille, France, told New Scientist that “visually, it is more than a 50% to 75% reduction.” Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words, but even the pictures are beyond belief. I don’t know how he was even alive, much less functional. The mystery immediately demanded the full attention of all the doctors and quite likely doctors worldwide. In researching the case, they found that the man had a childhood condition called hydrocephalus, commonly called water on the brain. Left untreated, the condition can be deadly. The treatment is fairly simple. A stent is placed to drain the water. This was the treatment the man had received as a boy.
Then, when he was 14 years old, the stent was removed. No specific reason for the removal was stated, but apparently, they decided that he didn’t need the stent any longer. From the situation at the time, he went into the hospital, it’s a logical assumption that his childhood condition continued to affect the man’s brain after the stent was removed, slowly filling over time. Slow enough that the brain was able to remap itself in an amazing 
display of the brain’s adaptability, which enabled him to live a normal life. His IQ was reported to be 75, which is below the average of 100, but not low enough to be deemed mentally retarded or disabled. I suppose some would call that “the amazing brain” and nothing more, but the brain was created by God, and so could be fixed by God. In fact, I believe that this man’s brain could continue to improve over time. Still, he has led a good life. He is even married and has two children. For a man who is missing up to 75% of his brain, that is amazing.
My husband, Bob and I were in Montana recently, and we had the opportunity to visit with his uncle, Butch Schulenberg. It had been a while since we had seen Butch and his sweet wife, Charlys. It was such a nice visit. We sat and talked about how life had been treating us all. Things change as the years go by, but they have had some challenges this year. Nevertheless, they are weathering the storms well. Uncle Butch always has taken life with a little grain of salt and a whole lot of humor. It’s a great way to view the things life brings us, and it makes their home a happy one.
With things that happened this year with Charlys, their grandson, Christian Schulenberg, who is a CNA at the 
nursing home in Forsyth, Montana, is living with them now, so they have extra help when he isn’t working. We are so grateful to Christian for being there for his grandparents. Charlys will be ok, and this situation is temporary. She is in great spirits, and we had a great time visiting with her and Butch while we were there. Butch says he is the chief cook and bottle washer now, and that is ok, because he loves his bride very much. While he may have a few more “duties” these days, for Butch anyway, caregiving has given him time at a slower pace. Where he might have been out and about in town, he is home much more. It isn’t that Charlys needs so much now, but he likes to stick a little closer to her, just in case. Butch is also a great fan of Forsyth school sports. He can’t always make the games, but he always cheers them on, and he wants to know the outcome of the games.
Butch loves taking care of his yard, and it always looks beautiful. Probably its greatest feature is the one that Butch doesn’t have to do anything with…the view of the Yellowstone River. They have a totally unobstructed view of it, and they are above it, so the view looking down on the river is stunning, as his many pictures will show. Butch works pretty tirelessly on his little flower gardens too, and they are really pretty. The only problem he had this year is that he added chickens, and the darned things just wouldn’t lay any eggs. I think he got a bum deal, and he should probably ask for a refund, but that’s just my opinion. Today is Butch’s 83rd birthday. Happy birthday Uncle Butch. We are so glad we got to visit you guys. Have a great day!! We love you!!
