By Mary Pannabecker Steiner
Some individuals walk into our lives quietly and unobtrusively, yet leave such an indelible impression that we feel their presence long after they are gone.
Helen James Minck was one of those individuals. When Helen died on Christmas Eve, I felt saddened that I'd never get to hear more of her stories, to hear her laugh. Yet her face and voice are so clear, so present.
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I met Helen about five or six years ago when she and her husband, Richard Minck, invited us to join them for dinner at the Shawnee Country Club in Lima. My husband and I had known Dick, a Bluffton native, for many years. In fact, he'd been my landlord when I'd lived in a tiny garage apartment at the back of his property.
On that first meeting, we met at their condo that bordered the golf course. Having never met Helen, I was nervous. In the few minutes, she put me at ease. My first impression of Helen was that she was a lovely, sweet woman who dearly loved to listen to her husband's stories of their extensive art collection.
It wasn't until later when we were sitting in the club dining room, which overlooks the golf course, that I began to understand just how accomplished this woman was.
We happened to be seated at a window from which we could see some young high school golfers teeing off. I knew little about golf, but it was clear that Helen was an old pro. Until back problems prevented her from participating in one of her favorite sports, she'd been a champion golfer at Lakewood Golf Course in St. Petersburg, Fla., where she'd lived with her first husband, the late Robert E. James.
Without a hint of snobbery, she began telling stories about golfing with so and so. But it was her mention of "Chi Chi" that caught my attention.
Chi Chi? Rodriguez? Yep, that's the one. She grinned and recounted a story he'd told. I've forgotten it, probably because my brain stuck on the name. She really did know her golf.
The old feature writer in me surfaced and I began asking questions. Pretty soon she'd told me about growing up first in Toledo, then Lima, before heading to Wellesley College, a women-only school in Massachusetts.
Then she really surprised me - she had majored in physics - one of only two physics majors in the class of 1941. I remember her saying she loved the sciences and math.
By that point, I was pretty much awestruck, although not by any fault of Helen's. Her stories were just that. Stories of a life lived fully.
On the wall in my office/sewing room, is a mounted photo that Dick Minck took while he and Helen were traveling. I think it's a scene of a fishing village in Alaska.
Dick will probably tell me I'm wrong. No matter. If I look at the photo just right, I can imagine Helen standing on the old pier, ready to tackle yet another of her favorite sports - fishing.
