Harriet Broberg passes away

Our condolences to the Broberg cousins on the passing of their Aunt Harriet. Our thoughts are especially with their Aunt Lavone, the last surviving sibling of that Broberg generation and caretaker to her beloved sisters Harriet and Dolores. Dolores died earlier this year. The funeral notice: Harriet Eileen Broberg, of Edina. Born Feb. 8, 1921 and passed away July 27, 2007 at the age of 86. Preceded in death by her parents, Martin and Minnie Anderson Broberg; sisters, Dolores Broberg and Janet Halverson, and brother, Wallace Broberg. She is survived by her sister, Lavone Broberg; niece, Sarah Broberg; three nephews, Daniel and Samuel (Bridget) Broberg and Harris (Sharon) Halverson; six grandnephews, Marty, Nick, Tyler, Alex and Zack Broberg, Blake Halverson; Becky Brodin, who is like a niece to Harriet; a dear friend, Janet Dunn; and cousins. Memorials may be given to Mount Olivet Lutheran Church or donor's choice. Funeral service 11 AM Friday, Aug. 3 at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church, W. 50th St. & Knox Ave. S., Minneapolis, with visitation one hour prior to service and reception to follow. Interment in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis. Arrangements by Washburn-McReavy's Edina Chapel, 952-920-3996.

Our Manhattan vacation, Day 7: Times Square

Friday, July 27, 2007: On this, our last full day in Manhattan, we shopped, which the girls were very, very excited about. The boys, not so much -- they did their thing, including "The Simpsons" movie. Auntie Pam, M. and H. went to stores all over Times Square and on Fifth Avenue and bought a few things from street vendors, too. They visited the Trump Tower, the Rockefeller Center, Abercrombie & Fitch (Auntie Pam's ears are still numb from the backbeat there), Tiffany's, F.A.O Schwarz, the Toys R Us with the Ferris wheel inside and many other Broadway/Times Square/nearby hot spots. Some of the best moments, once again, were on the street -- more wild urban dancers -- and in the subway, where we made friends with a mime all in white and a very good saxophonist who played M.'s theme song, "The Pink Panther."

Our Manhattan vacation, Day 6: Lady Liberty

Thursday, July 26, 2007: Today we took the 1 down to South Ferry and sailed past the Statue of Liberty on the Staten Island Ferry. In the afternoon, we walked around, took naps and ate cheesecake. This evening, Pam left the kids (safe in the hotel) and went out to dinner on Fulton Street with old friend Sofia (who is much more beauteous than Pam's goofy subway photo shows!). A delightful day.

Our Manhattan vacation, Day 5: M. turns 16!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007: M.'s 16th birthday was one New York minute after another. In the morning, the boys took off to play catch in Central Park and go to a Mets game. (The Mets beat the Pirates 6-3.) The girls spent most of the day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, seeing great works such as those above by Klimt and Mogdiliani, then walked 3 miles around Central Park, pausing to watch some terrific street dancers with "sweet moves," as M. put it. We had dinner at an elegant ristorante where the waiters sang to M. Then the girls went out and got groceries and hauled them back and put them away. The boys then arrived, and ate all the groceries.

Our Manhattan vacation, Day 4: We go everywhere

Tuesday, July 24, 2007: Brooklyn, Ground Zero, Chinatown, the Seinfeld restaurant, the Empire State Building -- we saw it all Tuesday. We walked across the great bridge, bought trinkets on Canal Street, ate bean curd and sesame chicken with chopsticks and stood in loooooooong lines to go to the top of the city.

Our Manhattan vacation, Day 3: Rain? What rain?

Monday, July 23, 2007: It rained all day, but we still walked all over Uptown and Midtown with our Milburn Hotel umbrellas or took the subways, on which the kids are now experts. After a room-service brunch, we went to the Museum of Modern Art, where C-Whiz sputtered over the very abstract pieces (the white canvas pictured above especially got him going). Moriah commented on a few, "Gosh! Elizabeth could paint this!" So we hustled them upstairs to the more familiar art, Van Gogh and Monet and Magritte, and they loved that. Tara would have been proud of Noah, who vigorously defended all the abstract art. Hannah's knowledge of art shone through as well. We then went to Grand Central Terminal to eat (Noah ate a "Seinfeld"-style black-and-white cookie) and gawk. Came back to the hotel in the early evening rain. The girls watched TV and movies, Aunt Pam read the New York Times and the boys zipped down to Greenwich Village to go to a gourmet peanut butter store they'd read about. Pam and the girls went out for a late-night walk up and down Broadway to H&H Bagels and Lincoln Center, where the fountain was glowing in the lights and beautiful 100-foot-tall videos of dancers in slow motion were playing in the dark. Very cool. We often invoked Grannie, whose 83rd birthday Monday would have been, by remarking that various things were either "huuuuuuuge!" or "bee-yoo-tee-full," as she would have.

Our Manhattan vacation, Day 2: Hoofin' it

Sunday, July 22, 2007: We walked everywhere today, and tonight our feet are sore, but we are happy. We walked to Strawberry Fields, to and all over the American Museum of Natural History, up and down Columbus and Amsterdam to shops and flea markets and delis, then to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where M. and H. took mass and hobnobbed with the rector himself, Monsignor Robert Ritchie. Then we walked to the Empire State Building, but Auntie Pammie had only brought four tickets (one was still in the bottom of her suitcase), so we didn't go up. Instead, we strolled to Times Square, where we saw a million cool things and M. and H. got their caricatures done. It was a great day, despite Auntie Pammie's gaffes, which also included taking the express subway instead of the local one, but the kids never seem to get mad at Auntie Pammie, whew. Today's photos: 1. The kids at the "Imagine" spot at Strawberry Fields in Central Park where John Lennon and Yoko Ono hung out. 2. At the American Museum of Natural History. 3. C-Whiz and Pam after bashing heads at the museum cafeteria. 4. Noah and a Neanderthal ancestor (remarkable likeness!) in the Hall of Human Origins. 5. The girls do some intellectual reading in the museum bookstore. 6. H. at St. Patrick's Cathedral. 7. The Chrysler Building. 8. The girls with their caricatures in Times Square.

Our Manhattan vacation, Day 1: Excitement overload!

Saturday, July 21, 2007: Our first day of vacation in Manhattan has been happy and restful. It began with an early start, thanks to Uncle Chris, who is very opinionated early in the morning, if you ask us, although we still like him, especially when he gives us free rides to the airport. C-Whiz and Noah were sleepy on the bumpy flight, as you can see from the top photo of them bobble-heading as they snoozled. Among our travel adventures were Auntie Pammie losing her boarding pass as the plane was about to leave (they let her on anyway, and she later found it in her PURSE, of course), and enduring the nonstop shrieking of a baby behind us. (We could have been starring in a horror movie called "Baby on a Plane.") We arrived at LaGuardia about 3 p.m., were driven very fast by a brave taxi driver to the Upper West Side, checked into our beloved Milburn Hotel on W. 76th St. (we have two one-bedroom suites), ate large amounts of strange, large, delicious food at Big Nick's, got groceries and walked all over, including to Lincoln Center and Strawberry Fields. We were too sleepy to go to the Empire State Building just yet, so we spent the evening eating Junior's cheesecake and watching many episodes of "Hannah Montana," starring, Auntie Pammie couldn't help but note, the very handsome Billy Ray Cyrus. Auntie Pammie fell asleep on the couch and C-Whiz and Noah took a long nap too. (They were up most of Friday night.) Very relaxing with all those naps! Many adventures, and far fewer naps, coming tomorrow.

Cousin Chats' good work makes Page 1A

This story appeared on Page 1A of Saturday's Wichita Eagle. The online version has several comments from readers attached, many of them very annoying. The scrapblog editor wanted to weigh in there to skewer the homeless-bashers and praise the noble Rev. Northrup, but figgered it might be a conflict of interest. But here in the scrapblog, she's free to say, "There but for fortune" and "GO CHATS!" MINISTERS SEEK PLEDGES FOR 24/7 HOMELESS CENTER BY JOE RODRIGUEZ Wichita Eagle Six downtown Wichita ministers announced Friday an effort to raise $1.5 million in pledges for a "24/7" center for the homeless. The group hopes to collect the pledges by September or October, when a community task force working on a plan to end chronic homelessness in Sedgwick County could finish its work. "This is about saying, 'It's time to do something and it's time to work together -- all of us,' " said one of the group, the Rev. Cathy Northrup, pastor of First Presbyterian Church. Centers for the homeless can provide all sorts of services, from showers and laundry to substance abuse treatment, employment counseling and mental health services. The pastors have made no decisions on what services this center would offer, including whether it would have beds. They also do not know where it would be located. Instead, Northrup said, they wanted to wait until the task force completed its job. "When that report comes out," she said, "then we are ready to jump in and talk about it (and say) 'let's work together.' " They are taking pledges, not money, until plans are firmer, she said. The task force has been meeting regularly since last summer and could have a recommendation by September or October, said Jack Focht, its chairman. He added he was pleased to hear about the announcement. "I'm always glad to hear people willing to give money to good causes," he said. He also was pleased to hear that the ministers indicated their willingness to work with the task force. "I would hope they would keep an open mind as we will keep an open mind," he said. Northrup said they will -- even if the task force's recommendation does not call for a center open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If that happens, "then we sit around the table and we talk about it," Northrup said. "We don't say, 'We're taking our pledges and going home.... Let's sit down and talk about it and say, 'what can we do with this money?' " Northrup said the idea to raise the pledges came shortly after she and other Wichita religious leaders submitted a letter to The Eagle's editorial page. The letter, published June 8, focused on the issue of a winter overflow shelter for the homeless and conditions that the leaders said were important to running a successful shelter. After that letter appeared, Northrup said, one of her church members called her wanting to pledge $50,000 for a center that would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He later told Northrup he wanted to get friends to make a combined $250,000 in pledges for such a center. That invitation, Northrup said, was later issued to other downtown ministers. The ministers who made the announcement Friday were: Northrup; the Rev. Michael Gardner of First United Methodist Church; Rick Cline of Central Church of Christ; the Rev. Nicolette Papanek of St. John's Episcopal Church; the Rev. David Fulton of St. Paul's Lutheran Church; and the Rev. Sam Muyskens, executive director of Inter-Faith Ministries. Reach Joe Rodriguez at 316-268-6644 or mailto:jrodriguez@wichitaeagle.com

A wonderful father and grandfather

We are sad to report that Al Heisler, dad to Sarah Sprick, dad-in-law to cousin Davy and grandpa to A., C. and K., passed away this week after a valiant struggle with cancer. He was a wonderful dad and grandpa, and will be missed. His obit and funeral info:

Allison James Heisler, age 77, of Lake City, Minn., died Tuesday, July 17, 2007, at home. He was born to John and Marie Heisler on Aug. 31, 1929, on the White Earth Indian Reservation. He attended many grade schools in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, and graduated from Caledonia Loretto High School in 1948. He entered into the Air Force in 1948 and was honorably discharged in 1949. He attended La Crosse State College in 1949. He was recalled into the service in 1950. He married Jeannine Staats on Nov. 14, 1951, in La Crosse, Wis. He owned and operated the Coffee Shop in Hokah, Minn.

In 1955, Heisler joined the Minnesota State Highway Patrol. He was on the Executive Patrol Council for several years and was a School Patrol Safety Officer. He was a life member of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. He retired from the patrol in 1967. He then owned and operated two Country Kitchens in Rochester, Minn., until 1970. In 1971, he opened The Galley restaurant in Lake City. He served on the Lake City Public Safety Board and was on the Hiawatha Valley Mental Health Center Board. He was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lake City. He owned and operated Frontenac Surplus in Frontenac, Minn. He retired from there in 1993. He then enjoyed going to his home in Mesa, Ariz., for the winters. He was a good friend of Dr. Bob and Bill W. for 37 years.

He is survived by his wife; six children, Delrae (Tim) Wolter of Cresco, Iowa ; John (Sandy) Heisler of Lime Springs, Iowa ; Sarah (David) Sprick of Eau Claire, Wis.; Jeff (Lanette) Heisler of Lake City; Allyson "Dolly" (Jay) Nibbe of Lake City; Amy (Kent) Burdick Elgin, Minn.; 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; two sisters, Carol Walhovd of Brownsville, Minn., and Nancy Warren of Detroit Lakes, Minn. He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, Charles and Gerald, and one great-grandson, Jayden Andrew Heisler.

A mass of Christian burial will be held 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lake City with Father James Russell officiating. Burial will be in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Lake City. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Mahn Family Funeral Home Anderson-Peterson Chapel in Lake City. Friends may also call one hour before the service at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorials are requested to be made to Mayo Hospice Wabasha Office and St. Mary of the Lake Building Fund.

In the wilds of Canada

Cousin Dan and his woodsman sons spent last week in the Canadian wilderness. Here, M., whose wilderness skills are second to none, fried up some hot cuisine.

Sunday afternoon at the Dome

Pam and Noah watched the Twins beat the A's 4-3 Sunday afternoon. A great game.

Ready to schuss

Alverna got ready for some winter rec one snowy day in the 1970s. Note her famous kukumall hat.

Christmas in Lake City in the 1950s

Mavis and Annette opened gifts at a 1950s Christmas in Lake City.

At the Linds'

Anna, Annette, Chris, Pam and Chatsie posed for a photo at the fishhouse at Linds' Castle Haven Resort on the North Shore in the 1960s.