Grandma Billie

submitted by Ellie Engelen - University of Minnesota

As I reflected on different experiences that shaped my path towards pursuing a DVM, some recent events in my life made it clear that there was one person in particular who had influenced that path the most; my grandma Billie.

 

I grew up in the heart of Minneapolis, in a city neighborhood full of pavement and cars. My mom had grown up on a farm in rural South Dakota raising beef cattle with her family. Every summer during my childhood, we would go stay there with my grandma for weeks at a time. My grandma was one of toughest, yet kindest people I have ever met. She had a no-nonsense type personality, but had a huge soft spot for her grandchildren. She also had a love of animals. Every time I'd go to her house, there would always be little bowls of milk or cat food sitting outside and an accompanying clan of stray cats from the neighborhood were always wandering over. She even tried to adopt a feral cat and brought it into her home. "Daisy" was the meanest cat you could imagine and terrified us kids, but nevertheless my grandma had no fear of her and would go pick her up and carry her around the house like a rag doll. She was a prized possession and my grandma loved her endlessly. 

As the activities director at the local nursing home, she had the idea to install a large bird cage and then bought several different types of birds for the residents to enjoy. You could always find her sitting by the bird cage cooing and singing to those little birds. Now, 30 years later, that bird cage has grown to taking up an entire corner of the activities room and houses several different species of birds.

She was also an avid state fair attendee, and every summer she'd fire up her motor home and take us kids to go camp out at the fair. We'd wake up every morning and go straight to the livestock barns, where we'd spend the rest of the day wandering around the animal pens. Our family dogs also worshiped my grandma. Whenever she was around, they became the loyal and devoted dogs we never thought they could be. They would follow her around and lay at her feet for hours, hoping to get a back scratch. Even into her old age when her memory started to get hazy, she would always remember our dog Pete whenever we brought him to visit and she would even ask for him by name when he wasn't there. 

I remember sitting in her living room listening to my mom and her family talk about riding their horses to school and herding cattle on their ranch. The minute we returned home, I would tirelessly beg my parents to sell our house in the city and move out to the farm so that I could ride horses to school just like my mom did. As I grew older, this romanticism about rural life and animals became a fascination with learning more about animal agriculture, and eventually led to my decision to pursue the mixed animal veterinary track, primarily focusing on food animals.

When I try to think back and reflect on when I first knew I wanted to be a veterinarian, it occurred to me that it had been an obvious career choice all along- I had grown up surrounded by my grandma and her love for animals. It was her lifestyle and her values that I looked up to the most and tried to emulate, even as a young child. She has been an incredible influence on my life and has instilled in me the same passion for animals that she herself always had. As I now sit in her nursing home room and spend what might be my final moments ever with her, I take consolation in the fact that I will be carrying on a little part of her through working with animals as a veterinarian. This legacy is something that will stay with me even after her physical presence is no longer.

Billie Blaseg passed away on August 19th, 2015.