Creative Spark:

SUE ENGELBRECHT

In more than two hundred interviews I did for the newspaper, I’d never seen someone come prepared the way Sue Engelbrecht did. Pulling a piece of paper out of her pocket, she began reading off a list she’d taken the time to compile the night before. Her tally of life’s most underrated pleasures included things like sun-dried sheets on the bed, the smell of freshly mown grass, the morning sun coming through the trees as she sat on the porch, a pair of comfy shoes, or that first cup of coffee of the day. Her eyes sparkled as she mentioned a restorative yoga class she attended and the gratitude journal she kept.

“When you have a grateful heart, it’s hard to be negative,” Sue said. “Surround yourself with positive people, with people who have the same passions. You can just feel the positive vibrations.”

Then she turned the tables on the interview, handing me a piece of paper and instructing me to compile my own list.

“Life is a gift. No one is guaranteed tomorrow,” Sue said when I reminded her of our first meeting. “We must always remind ourselves to live in the now.”

After graduating from high school, Sue attended dental school to become a certified teaching dental assistant at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry in Pedodontics, which was where she met her husband, Daniel. She went on to become a nurse after he completed his dental degree. The couple had three children. Sue worked part time most of her nursing career after giving birth to the first of their three children, even though some years she put in a lot of hours in the OR and Recovery Room (now known as PACU, or post-anesthesia care unit). During the last ten years of her nursing career, she worked in outpatient cardiac rehab. When I interviewed her in 2015, she was nearing retirement.

At the time, I wondered how a woman with such a demanding career managed to be mindful with a busy schedule. Later, she shared how some pivotal moments in her past led to her life philosophy.

In November 1964, eleven-year-old Sue was in a car accident that took the life of her oldest sister, Joan. Her mother’s example of faith in the face of grief helped Sue deal with the future losses of both her parents and two of her seven siblings.

“Saying goodbye to loved ones at an early age has shaped me and my spirit,” she says. “God gives us one moment at a time.”

Sue cherishes each and every one of those moments, appreciating the present.

“Every year on November 20th at 1:00 p.m., no matter what I’m doing, my world stops, and I feel my mom and Joan’s love and presence,” she says. “The tendency to live in the past can make one sad. Living in the future can cause anxiety.”

Sue conditioned herself for joy by doing little things she loves on a regular basis, allowing for and appreciating the smallest pleasures in each day. Her enthusiasm is evident as she discusses her varied passions: playing guitar, singing, studying essential oil blends.

“Do things that inspire you. Know what you love, what brings you joy,” Sue advises.

Two years after our initial interview, when I encountered Sue in the library where I worked, she mentioned her “Bucket List”: the top fifty things she wanted to accomplish after her impending retirement. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she related some of them: learn to play the violin, become a Master Gardener, take a weaving class, attend a music camp in Tennessee, get a rock tumbler to polish rocks, and take a train trip to the Canadian Rockies. She added “join the library’s lifelong learners group” when I told her about it.

Sue is one of the most vibrant of our group, exposing the rest of us to ukulele playing and hand-lettering. We have yet to introduce a topic that she hasn’t at least dabbled in. She brings an enthusiasm that energizes the rest of us. Her joy and appreciation for life is contagious.

Two years after retirement, Sue has managed to check off the list many of her desired goals. Of course, ever the lifelong learner, she’s also managed to add half a dozen new ones.

“The gift I treasure most is a good laugh. Laughter is the music of the soul,” Sue says. “I keep a digital photo journal of all the ‘wisdom gems’ I’ve gathered over the years.

“When I get my new Apple desktop, I’m going to design photo family books to leave for my children,” she muses, adding yet another goal to her growing list. “And a book filled with jokes and stories I’ve collected that have made me laugh out loud, for friends with terminal illness.”

She chuckles good-naturedly. “I think my list needs to be renamed ‘Sue’s Perpetual Bucket List.’”

 

“Creativity can manifest itself anywhere, doing anything. Baking love into bread. Putting life’s experiences into a novel. Singing in harmony. Going on stage. Growing a garden.

Working with children. Painting dreams on canvas.”

—EILEEN M. CLEGG