Caring Relationships - Gundersen Health System
Caring Relationships - Gundersen Health System
Caring Relationships - Gundersen Health System
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A Legacy of Love<br />
Betty Ann MacPhetridge is remembered by her<br />
husband Don, and many others, as a person who<br />
always had a smile on her face and a gift for helping<br />
people. “She turned me into a giving person,” says<br />
Don. “She’d go without eating to help someone else.”<br />
In 2005, nearly a year after Betty<br />
Ann MacPhetridge had passed<br />
away, her husband Don made a<br />
surprising discovery. Tucked away<br />
in the bottom of a drawer where his<br />
wife collected receipts was a letter<br />
to Don, from Betty Ann, along with<br />
a life insurance policy naming him<br />
as beneficiary. In her letter, Betty<br />
Ann told Don how she wanted him to<br />
make gifts to their favorite charities,<br />
which include <strong>Gundersen</strong> Lutheran<br />
Medical Foundation. She also wanted<br />
him to have some fun money to enjoy<br />
at their favorite casino. It’s a perfect<br />
example of the generosity and sense<br />
of humor that defined Betty Ann<br />
MacPhetridge in life. “She was a<br />
giving person always,” says the man<br />
who was married to her for nearly<br />
50 years. “And she turned me into a<br />
giving person, too.”<br />
Don MacPhetridge cherishes the<br />
memories of Betty Ann’s giving<br />
ways. How she lent him a dime when<br />
they ran out of gas on their first date.<br />
How she sent a monthly check to<br />
help support a woman whose children<br />
refused to. “If someone needed<br />
money, she would give it to them,”<br />
says Don. “She’d go without eating to<br />
help someone else. There were some<br />
weeks when she would come home<br />
on pay day without a paycheck left.<br />
That’s how she was.”<br />
{continued on page 4}<br />
Pathfinders Year-End 2008 3