EDITOR'S NOTE: In June 2004 I began a new venture as managing editor of both Northfield News and Faribault Daily News. This column originally appeared in the Northfield News on Jan. 12, 2007.
To believe in Sherri Bunch Quaas' story, one either has to have a strong belief that everything does indeed cosmically happen for a reason, or you have to be willing to write it off as one strong set of coincidences. In the days following August's historic hail storm I wrote a story about Bunch Quaas, who lives just south of town, finding a letter from St. Peter that had traveled on the winds and wound up in her yard. The letter was mailed from Lutheran Social Services in Mankato to a rural Cleveland man and the contents related the story of the elderly man making the transition to an assisted-living facility that, turns out, was wiped out by a tornado that tore through the St. Peter area the same day we were pounded with softball-sized hail. After finding the letter, Bunch Quaas had said she felt some inexplicable kinship with it and felt compelled to return it to its owner. So she set out on a quest to find the letter's owner. She started on the Internet but came up empty, and then tried the Lutheran Social Service office in Mankato where the letter originated. She learned from the office that the man's home had been leveled by the tornado, that he'd survived and that he now was living in a new facility in the Mankato area. Bunch Quaas dutifully sent the letter off to the man's social worker and it eventually was returned to its rightful owner, who she said was ecstatic to have the letter returned. Bunch Quaas later learned that this was the second home the man had lived in that had been demolished by a tornado; he'd also been a victim of the massive tornado that blew through St. Peter several years earlier. And so the man's social worker said, he was elated to receive the letter and he was grateful that Bunch Quaas was willing to go out of her way to ensure that the letter was returned. If Bunch Quaas' story stopped there, many would say that although it was heart-warming, it wasn't that remarkable. But here's where the story takes the twist. When I spoke with Bunch Quaas in late August, she was moved by receiving the letter. She was convinced there was a deeper meaning to it falling in her yard, and she seemed to think that it was her duty to return the letter to see what the event meant in her life. She in fact said she was on a quest. Well, it seems that maybe Bunch Quaas' quest is complete, but it was completed when the letter finally made it into the hands of its rightful owner. It turns out, we weren't the only media outlet to tell Bunch Quaas' story. Soon after it published here, the Mankato Free Press also wrote a story about Bunch Quaas' simple act of kindness. And reading that particular edition of the Free Press was a long lost friend that Bunch Quaas had lost track of six or seven years ago. After reading the story, the friend recognized Bunch Quaas' name and got a hold of her for the first time in years. Bunch Quaas said that she and the friend had met decades earlier when the two of them worked in the office at Sheldahl here in Northfield, and then the friend and her husband moved away. At first they stayed close and Bunch Quaas and her husband even traveled to Colorado to visit the couple. Then the contact became more periodic, including annual Christmas cards, but it lasted decades. And then one year ... poof ... Bunch Quaas heard no more from her friend. After re-connecting last year because of the Free Press story, Bunch Quaas' friend had explained that her husband had died from cancer a couple of years earlier and that she moved back to St. Peter where they first lived after getting married. And then one day she saw her friend's name in the paper and knew she had to re-establish the connection. Bunch Quaas now feels she knows why she felt such a strong connection to that simple letter that landed in her yard, which she very easily could have thrown in the trash as many would have done. But she's thankful that she didn't. So what life lesson has she learned through all of this? Bunch Quaas said Friday that it reaffirms her belief that you must simplify your life to a point that you're willing to take the time to commit simple acts of kindness, such as returning a letter you find in your yard. She said that by slowing down she's been able to concentrate on looking for the gift in everything that comes into her life. "I could have focused on the debris in my yard that day, but I didn't," she said. "I am a very intuitive person. ... I believe that we're all connected; I believe that what I do affects other people; I trust my intuition. And it led to my re-connection to my good friend. When we give anybody anything, whether it's time to talk to them, a smile, a wave, a gift always comes back to us. Whether it's from them, or someone else. It's not that we give to get back, but it's what happens. That's how the universe works. I got a lot of gifts in this." And obviously others must believe in that philosophy as much as Bunch Quaas does. She said that just the other day she was in the grocery store and another person with whom she hadn't connected with in a long time walked up to her and asked her to tell the story of her letter, four and a half months after it happened. "People want to hear about giving back. They want to hear stories like this," she said. Bunch Quaas has yet to meet the man who owned the letter, but says that one day when she gets to Mankato she is going to try. However, she said if that doesn't happen she won't be disappointed, as her quest already is complete: She's re-connected with a dear friend. - Devlyn Brooks is managing editor of the Northfield News. He can be reached at dbrooks@northfieldnews.com.
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