by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
At the age of 88, Mary Lou Westra of Sartell sometimes feels a strong sense of sorrow, what with so many funerals, as many as three in one day recently – all three the funerals of dearly departed friends she’s known throughout the years.
But Westra, in conversation with the Newsleader, quickly brightened up:
“It’s not just all funerals,” she said. “There’s a couple of weddings soon. A granddaughter and a nephew. And a step-grandson is getting married, too. That’s coming up.”
Westra, heading for 90, doesn’t look or act like a day over – well, 60. Her memory for even the slightest details is extraordinary; her warm smile and jolly laugh are quick to appear; she keeps up with current events; she works with middle-school students; and she stays constantly busy, active and connected socially.
People now and then ask Westra the secret to a long life:
“Work,” she said. “Keep moving. Talk to people. Don’t get stuck in the mud. Don’t sit around and mope.”
‘Little Coborn’s’
Sometime, when Westra’s mood sags even slightly, she gets up and takes a trip to “Little Coborn’s” – the smaller Coborn’s store in Sartell that has been there for decades. She lives within a stone’s throw from that store – her favorite.
“I love to go to ‘Little Coborn’s,’” she said. “It’s like getting an instant attitude adjustment. I know so many people who work there or shop there, and I love to talk with them. Every time, I know a trip there will change my attitude.”
And sure enough. When a Newsleader reporter met her at “Little Coborn’s” to take her photo, Westra immediately spotted three young boys whom she knows from her job at Sartell Middle School. The three boys, with shy respect, gathered ‘round “Mary Lou,” as they call her, and began to chat, joke and shoot the breeze. Then, saying, “Goodbye, Mary Lou,” they dashed off on their skateboards.
“When I walk into Coborn’s everybody knows me,” she said. “I see people in the store who were kids when I first met them. They grow up; they get married. Just recently I met a girl I knew years ago who recently choreographed Hello, Dolly (school production). What a pleasure that was. They come up to me in Coborn’s and say, “Hi, Mary Lou! Remember me?”
“I love those kids,” she said. “And all the others I work with. They’re great people.”
Westra works at the middle school during the noon hour as a lunchroom lady, and she also works when needed with special-needs children. In previous years, she subbed for special-needs students at Sartell High School and other schools in the area. She has also worked with Somali children in a park program, and she taught confirmation at St. Francis Xavier Catholic School in Sartell.
Westra loves kids; she loves people, period.
She has a no-nonsense approach when dealing with children.
“I’m older and smarter,” she said. “More experienced, and I let them know that.”
But she let’s them know it in a kind and helpful way.
“One student was doing a paper about generals in World War II,” she said. “I told him the names of some of them, like Eisenhower, and he wasn’t sure about the names I gave him. He doubted me. Later, he told me, ‘Mary Lou, you were right about the generals!’“
Well, she should know. She told the doubting student she’d lived through the World War II years. Her husband had fought in it. Older, smarter, experienced.
“And when I’m working with students and I don’t know the answer to something, I tell them I will be sure to find the right answer,” she said. “And I tell them to do the same thing – always look for the right answer. Don’t guess.”
Bowling
Besides kids, another one of Westra’s passions is bowling. She bowls ever Tuesday morning at Great River Bowl, as a member of the Benton Trophy-sponsored team. She is an inductee in the Mid-Minnesota Bowling Hall of Fame and does a lot of work for that organization.
“Oh, I love bowling,” Westra said. “I’ve been bowling since 1947.”
Long life
Westra (nee Maile) was born and raised in St. Cloud and graduated from Cathedral High School.
She married Mike Bloom, a Jewish man who’d been born in Lithuania and had emigrated to the United States with his father because of the terrible persecutions of the Jewish people in the Baltic area. It took 10 years to get all of the children out of that dangerous country.
During World War II, Bloom served in the U.S. Army in the battles of North Africa, Sicily and Italy and in the invasion of Normandy. Bloom was wounded multiple times and was honored with a Purple Heart and four oak-leaf clusters. One of the wounds (bullet in his head) years later caused a brain tumor that led to Bloom’s death in 1967.
Bloom operated a scrap yard (iron and metal salvage) in St. Cloud, and Mary Lou served as a bookkeeper for the company. Later, she took an accounting course and became a freelance accountant for many companies in the area under the rubric of her own business, Mary Lou Bloom Accounting.
The Blooms had seven children: Maury of Nisswa; Michael of St. Augusta; Mark of St. Cloud; Marcel (deceased), who lived in St. Cloud; Mimi Vreeland of Sartell; Gigi McTaggert of Sartell; and Monica “Fifi” Mills of St. Cloud.
Mary Lou then married George Westra in 1983. Westra, who passed on in 2005, was the owner of Beeline Sports Center, St. Cloud. He brought his own six children to the marriage, children that Mary Lou learned quickly to love like her own.
She remembers with nostalgia and plenty of humor how George the golfing fanatic and stickler taught her to golf.
“Oh, he was so serious about it, and we had to follow all the rules like he did,” she said, laughing. “When he’d tee off, we all had to be totally quiet, not a word spoken. Not a word!”
One summer day, at Oak Hill Golf Course near Rice, Mary Lou got a hole-in-one using an 8-iron on the sixth hole on the very day of her 62nd birthday.
“YOU of all people?” asked George, flabbergasted.
“Well, honey it was only an accident,” she said. “Anyway, I’d rather get a 300 in bowling than a hole-in-one golfing.”
Her husband laughed, then later took the hole-in-one ball and had it worked into a trophy.
George Westra’s children – Mary Lou’s beloved stepchildren – are Leontyne Hollingsworth of Brainerd; Dr. Bonnie Westra, Blaine and soon-to-be Tucson, Ariz.; David Westra of Maryville, Tenn.; Kathy Deng of Olive Branch, Miss.; Julie Wands of Pueblo West, Colo.; and Eric Westra of Mascotte, Fla.
Mary Lou now has 20 grandchildren and 24.5 great-grandchildren.
“One’s on the way,” Westra said, excitement in her voice.
Another one of Westra’s hobbies is gardening. In her yard she has lots of flowers and herbs, although this year the rabbits ate most of the herbs and other plantings.
“Well, those bunnies are a nuisance, but they’re so cute,” she said. “Trouble is, they reproduce so rapidly. It’s a good thing they don’t like tomatoes.”
Some people ask Westra why she doesn’t decide to live in a nursing home or in a group-living arrangement somewhere.
Her mind made up, she fires back:
“Why? Why would I want to do that?” Westra says with a serious-but-mischievous twinkle. “Why would I want to live with a bunch of old people?”
Mary Lou Westra gets her photo taken with three of her buddies whom she happened to meet while shopping at her favorite store, “Little Coborn’s” in Sartell. Westra, who lives just a stone’s throw from the store, loves to visit it often because she often sees so many people she knows, people who have meaning in her life, like these boys she knows from her job at Sartell Middle School. From left to right are Landon Drew, Westra, Sean Evans and Colby Shaffer. The boys were out skateboarding when Westra spotted them.
