It is impossible to say everything I want to say about Johanna, but I will say I lucked
out and got the best sister in the world who also happened to be my best friend.
Growing up Johanna and I had so much fun together. We also NEVER fought. In fact,
people used to tell us all the time that we couldn’t be sisters because we got along
too well. My mom even took a picture of us when we were little and we were
“fighting” because it was the first time I didn’t let Johanna have what she wanted. It
must have worked, because pretty much from then on Johanna let me always have
my way.
In the car I had two thirds of the backseat and Johanna never complained. In high
school Johanna would pick out my clothes for me in the morning and bring me
breakfast in bed. If my toast wasn’t toasted perfectly she would eat it and make me a
fresh piece. She really was the best sister!
Growing up we were the only kids in our neighborhood so we played together
constantly. We were never ever bored. We played outside a lot but we also were
pretty creative. We would play library and make our own library cards with a potato
stamp. We wrote plays and charged our parents admission and also made them
provide and pay for the refreshments. We also enjoyed doing a lot of things as a
family. We biked, hiked, camped, skied, and everyone in our family loved to run,
with the exception of me.
Johanna and I were together all the time. We were in the same sports, took piano
lessons together, really liked hanging out together, and also babysat together.
In high school Johanna and I were both in cross country, gymnastics and track. We
got to spend a lot of quality time with our dad since he was our coach. Our mom was
at every meet so we saw plenty of her, too. I remember when Johanna was a seventh
grader and already beating me. People would ask me if it bothered me that my little
sister was faster than me. She was faster than almost every runner in the state, so of
course it didn’t bother me. I was so proud of her.
One year at an indoor track meet Johanna and I went outside to run our cool down.
It was dark and we got lost and I just about started to cry when Johanna said
“Marney, if you cry I’m going to slap you”. As you probably know, Johanna was
pretty short and looked really young. But she was tough! Instead of crying I started
to laugh and of course Johanna laughed, too. This was a running joke for years as we
dealt with a lot of really sad things including her brain tumor. At the last doctors
appointment I went to with Johanna right before Christmas she found out her tumor
was growing again. Johanna and her doctor both looked at me and because I was
near tears her doctor said “do I have to slap you”. We quickly found out that Johanna
told her friends and doctors a lot about our family!
I was so happy when Johanna decided to attend Luther. It was great to have her at
school with me. We ate lunch several days a week together and we even took an
anthropology class together my senior year. One advantage to Johanna having a
brain tumor is that our parents let Johanna go with my friends and me on spring
break to South Padre Island as a freshman. Of course by this time Johanna had
recovered from brain surgery and was back to training for track so they really had
nothing to worry about. About the worst thing Johanna did at Luther was make my
friends and me laugh so hard at a McDonalds that they asked us to leave. Well, that’s
the worst thing I know about. When she wasn’t running or studying she was usually
hanging out with the Luther wrestlers, so who knows.
I loved watching Johanna run and she always told me how great I was at cheering.
So when she wanted to run the Twin Cities Marathon this past October she called
me up and said she wasn’t going to ask me to run, but instead put me in charge of
planning her post marathon party and organizing her cheering team. Team Joha
included my mom, dad, cousin Tim, and many of her amazing friends.
Even though Johanna lived in a lot of places after college, we always stayed
incredibly close. We talked daily and visited each other often. I am thankful she
always lived in really great places to visit. Because of Johanna I got to go skiing in
Sun Valley, hiking in Oregon, snow shoeing in Washington and also got to go to some
pretty great places to watch her race. After Colin died in October Johanna told me
that if we could figure out her insurance she would come and live with me – and
clean my house for her rent. She loved living out West but she told me in December
that she loved me more than the mountains so she wanted to move back to help me.
This is just one example of what a caring, selfless person Johanna was. She always
put others ahead of herself and every time she got bad news about her brain she
was most concerned about how we were going to handle it and would tell us how
sorry she was that her tumor came back. As an athlete she cared more about her
team than herself and she made it very clear to her running friends that even though
she couldn’t race the way she used to she wanted them to race hard and tell her
about their accomplishments, and she was genuinely happy for them. Johanna also
reminded us that even when times are tough you still have to find joy in life.
A lot of people have told me how great it was that I could be with Johanna and help
her when she needed it. Well, I was lucky because she was always there for me, too.
Johanna was always taking care of us and I am so thankful that we could be with
Johanna in her final weeks and days.
We miss Johanna and love her so much. Our cousin Kristi said it best – Our family
will never be the same without Johanna.