Mary and Len Trudeau raised 8 kids in their little Alcester, South Dakota house and, Sunday, seven of those offspring gathered around the home kitchen table for what could be the last time. Len has been gone for a dozen years now and Mary..though still plenty feisty..has had to admit that she can no longer live alone so she\u2019ll be staying with daughter, Maria and son-in-law Paul on their Sioux Center farm until she gets better or needs full-time professional care.<\/p>\n
![\"(L](\"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/files\/2012\/05\/Mothers-Day-2012-006.jpg\" "\\"Mothers")
(L to R)At the table with mother mary are Chad, Linda, Maria, Renee, Cynthia, Shelle. Not picture are Jeff and Bill.<\/p><\/div>\n
But Sunday wasn\u2019t a sad occasion; never is when the Trudeau\u2019s get together..laughter abounds. Still there was the unmistakable sense of finality in everyone\u2019s glistening eyes at having to face and accept the reality of mortality. \u00a0It\u2019s tough to realize there\u2019ll be no more of Mary\u2019s roast beef or fried chicken dinners and home-made fruit pies served up from that tiny kitchen. But it will be tougher still when we lose the amazing lady who made that house a home.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"tom](\"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/files\/2012\/05\/tom-sullenberger.jpg\" "\\"tom")
Linda got\u00a0to hear Captain Sully Sullenberger speak for the Sanford nurses gathering a few nights ago. He\u2019s the U.S. Airways pilot who force landed his plane in New York\u2019s Hudson River when it hit a flock of geese on take-off\u00a0 conking out the engines. Everyone on board survived the ordeal and Sullenberger became a national hero.Linda said he was a marvelous speaker..and humble too..saying he was no different than any other pilot thanks to the rigorous and continuous training that all airlines require.<\/p>\n
Speaking of pilots. I found out this past week that my kid brother, Tom, has officially decided to give up the love of his life\u2026well, his first love after God and family, of course.<\/p>\n
Tom, like Sully, has made a career in the clouds. He graduated from SDSU in 1972 then joined the Air Force as a 2nd<\/sup> Lieutenant fresh out of ROTC. Before long he was training to fly jet fighters which he did for the next 8 years of active duty and 14 more in the Air Guard. It was during his time in the guard that Tom began searching for a job flying commercial airliners. After brief stints with the now defunct Air Florida and People Express, he landed a pilot\u2019s gig with Continental. On May 20th<\/sup>, he\u2019ll close out\u00a0 32 years\u00a0in the skies with\u00a0a final flight to Geneva. His wife, Ilene and daughter Erin will be among the passengers for that journey to Switzerland and back. \u00a0<\/p>\n Capt. Lund inspects the landing gear prior to flight<\/p><\/div>\n I wish I could tag along. I\u2019ve never been on an airplane flown by my brother and it would be great fun to sneak into the cockpit and visit with the co-pilot and navigator to tell them about what a terrible driver Tom used to be on the ground.<\/p>\n Actually, in all his years and all the hours in the left seat he\u2019s only had a couple emergencies i.e.: engine failures. But in both instances, Just like Capt. Sully said, the years of training and experience came to the forefront and he was able to bring the passengers, crew and aircraft to a safe landing.<\/p>\n Both my brother, Denny and I couldn\u2019t \u00a0be more proud of all Tom has accomplished..especially after he suffered a brain aneurism while jogging twelve years ago.\u00a0 Thanks to his ever present\u00a0guardian angel, though, Tom\u00a0not only survived but made a complete recovery.<\/p>\n May that same angel continue to be at your side as you safely soar\u00a0over the Alps and home again next week. And, may you find satisfaction and comfort in your retirement knowing that you have had the rare honor of actually living the life written about here in the poignant poem \u201cHigh Flight\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth In good hands<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hope you all had a pleasant Mother\u2019s Day. I got to spend some time with my mom on Sunday. (Okay..Mother-in-LAW) Mary Trudeau, the matriarch of my wife\u2019s clan, has had kind of a rough go of it in this, her 88th year. Her constant companion these days is an oxygen tank and a hose in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lund-at-large","category-60","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11720,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025\/revisions\/11720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Capt.](\"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/files\/2012\/05\/flat-stanley-pics-0051-199x300.jpg\" "\\"flat")
\nAnd danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
\nSunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
\nOf sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
\nYou have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
\nHigh in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
\nI’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
\nMy eager craft through footless halls of air.
\nUp, up the long delirious, burning blue,
\nI’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
\nWhere never lark, or even eagle flew –
\nAnd, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
\nThe high untresspassed sanctity of space,
\nPut out my hand and touched the face of God.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"In](\"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/files\/2012\/05\/flat-stanley-pics-010.jpg\" "\\"flat")