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Morrie and Alice

Dedicated to the sunshine of truth,

the moonshine of meeting deadlines,

and the starshine of Victoria.

8661 Deer Run Dr. * Victoria

952-443-2351

The Victoria GAZETTE

Victoria’s Corner Bar.  Nightly Specials and Menus.  952-443-9944

by Sue Orsen/The Victoria Gazette

         “She one out of a million,” said Morrie Leuthner of his wife Alice, whom he chased, captured, and married in 1996.  At that time he was 68 and she was 66.

         Both Morrie and Alice had lived more than four decades with a first spouse, raised a family, worked hard, and then grieved to watch their beloved mates die.  Mary Lou Leuther died of an aneurism after triple bypass surgery.  Jim Goethke died of ataxia, a gradual degeneration of nerves in the spinal column.

         Why is Alice one out of a million?  “She moved into my house without making drastic changes,” said Morrie.  “That doesn’t happen with other people I know.  Alice put a big picture of Jim on the dresser and I put up a big picture of Mary Lou and that’s how it was.”

         Said the woman who did not envision nor intend to get married again, but is happy to have been chased and caught a second time, “It’s a page of life and you turn the page.”

***

         Morrie and Alice weren’t total strangers but they were also not connected.  Alice recalled that when Jim was sick, they needed a new well to be drilled at their place.

         “After the job was done, Morrie came to the door and asked to see Jim, so he came in and visited with him,” she said.  “Jim couldn’t talk so Morrie did all the talking.”

         Morrie recalled that he and Mary Lou always had a holy hour at St. John’s Catholic Church in Excelsior, as did the Goethkes’ and Alice’s mother.  It was their home parish.

         Then they got connected.

          “When I noticed in the paper that his wife had died," said Alice, "I sent him a sympathy card, knowing how painful it is to have a loved one pass away.  So it started with a sympathy card.  I knew what it was like to lose a spouse.  And he was kind to let me pay the well expense in installments.”

         “When I went through the cards,” said Morrie, “I set hers aside.  She writes so much!”

         “I like to write,” stated Alice.  “Then he called to see if I’d take his prayer time on Thursday night.  He knew I was on the sub list for Adoration.  We talked for at least an hour about losing our spouses.  And he asked if he could call again.  I felt bad for him and said that would be okay.  But I never thought about getting married again.  Then he drove over that same night!”

         “I had an hour to kill before I needed to pick up a prescription at the drug store,”  said Morrie.  “I knew it closed at 9 o’clock.”

         “So he came over and I gave him cookies and coffee,” said Alice.  “Then he said that he and Mary Lou had received gift tickets from their children to the Chanhassen Dinner Theater to see 42nd Street.  I told him I already saw it and it was so good but worth seeing again, and so I went because you couldn’t say no to him.”

         “Another time he called and asked what I was doing,” she continued.  “I thought to myself, ‘This man is not giving up!’  I told him I was going to a hockey game to watch my grandson play.  I wasn’t out the door and he called back and asked if anyone can go to that hockey game.  He said he liked all sports and he said he’d come and pick me up.”

         “Well, my family were all at the hockey game,” said Alice, “and I introduced Morrie as the man who has been calling me.  My family thought he was a really nice guy.  I never was interested in getting married again but I could tell he was never going to give up.  My whole family loved him.  My brothers knew him because Morrie drilled wells for them.”

         Morrie and Alice were married on June 21st, 1996, at St. John’s in Excelsior.  And, the “one out of a million” moved to Morrie’s home and hobby farm on Hwy 7.  “He needed a woman,” stated Alice.

         Were both of them retired at this time?  “Yes,” said Morrie, “from the well business but I still had the farm.”

         “You call that retired?” asked Alice.  “I’d call it tired.  I painted the whole house inside and the vegetable stand too, and I did all his piled up laundry and I learned how to mow the lawn using a riding mower.  Thank goodness I was used to the older kind.  There were four acres of grass to cut!”

         Said Morrie, “I showed her how to push on the pedal of the mower to make it go faster or else she’d never get the job done.”

         “And I can tell you that when I start a job,” said Alice, “I work until it’s done.  And he just has to wait even if it’s supper time and he’s standing at the door waiting for me.”

         After ten years on the farm, Morrie and Alice moved in 2006 to a Red Cedar Cove townhome, which is located in the city limits of Chanhassen but their address is Excelsior.  The location is within a few miles of where each of them was born, raised, married with children, and worked, which means they know the community well. 

         But their horizons extend far beyond the local community.  They’ve traveled to Medjugorie to visit a Marian shrine.  They’ve traveled to Mexico to help Fr. Pablo build a monastery for priests and a convent for 100 nuns. 

         “That was a wonderful trip,” said Alice, “but there were no luxuries.  I was one of three American women who did the cooking.”  On a similar note, Morrie and Alice are very involved with the St. John Vianney Seminary here in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they help support the seminarians.  “They come from all across the USA,” said Morrie.

         They are unusually generous in other ways as well.  Morrie keeps a big garden on his son Maurice’s property down on County Road 10 and delivers most all of the produce to the Food Shelf in Chaska.  “When I die, I don’t want more than a dollar in my pocket,” he said. 

 

THE REST OF THE STORY IS IN THE PAPER EDITION.

June 2018