Five chairs for five graduates lost
BY AMY BECKER
Pioneer Press
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Anne Erickson climbed three flights of wooden stairs into the attic of the campus building known as Old Main last week to scribble her name and class year in the time-honored tradition of St. Olaf seniors.
Before she chalked her name on a rafter, she wrote the name of her friend, Tim Cashin, who died in a boating accident.
Erickson's private memorial will be echoed on a far larger scale today, when almost 700 St.OlafCollege seniors graduate. At ceremonies, five chairs will be empty but for a flower to remember classmates killed in car crashes and accidents during the past four years.
Many of the parents of those five students also will be on campus to share in the success of the graduates and the sadness of the St. Olaf community. It's another way to say goodbye to those who won't proceed to the next chapter of their lives:
• Anna Bonde, Sally Heitman and Chris Hoppe who died March 17, 2001, near Springfield, Ill., in a car crash. Bonde was from Livonia, Mich.; Heitman from O'Fallon, Ill.; and Hoppe from Milford, Mass.
• Tim "Timmy" Cashin, who died Aug. 19, 2001, in a boating accident near Deerwood, Minn.
• Meredith Reynolds, who died Feb. 6, 2002, when the car she was riding in was broadsided at an intersection near Ada, Minn.
The graduating students began e-mailing Greg Kneser, dean of students, last January to ask how those lost would be remembered.
"This class has been marked almost. To have five students die, when it's not a time of war or influenza, is kind of unusual," Kneser said.
Erickson, from Northfield, said during an on-campus interview Saturday that everyone at the college has been touched by the losses.
"Every time there's a big transition you think, 'Oh, this person should be doing this also,' " Erickson said.
Seniors Sarah Capelle, Mercedes Gabse and Katherine Welch planned and created six memorial quilts for the families (Anna Bonde's parents live in different states). Friends and even the college president wrote messages on white cloth, and Capelle stitched the quilts up "amongst finals, packing, job applications, saying goodbye," she said. "It was hard, but it was closure — a time to reflect and a time to remember."
"All these kids, you just want to grab them in your arms and make the hurt go away,'' said Debra Bonde. She and Bruce Nieman came in part to see their daughter's friends graduate.
"For the last couple of years we could picture what Anna would have been doing here," Nieman said as he looked around the campus Saturday afternoon.
"Now it's a question mark," Debra Bonde added.
David Bonde, Anna's father, described the bond with the college.
"The people here made us a part of their community, both sharing in our grief and in asking us to share in theirs. We can't not be here," he said.
"We are honored by the way the school is honoring our children," added Mary Heitman.
"We're looking forward to being there because it's a celebration, both of those students and our daughter, Meredith," said Charles Reynolds, in a phone interview from Crookston, Minn., on Saturday.
Parents and others will be able to celebrate their loved ones in another memorial the class of 2003 set in motion, Kneser said. More than a dozen St. Olaf officials will travel to Grand Marais this summer to build a tower in Norwegian stave church style. The tower will be prominently placed on campus. Inside will be more than 120 chimes, commemorating people who died while part of St. Olaf.
"The neatest idea of all is this wind chime. Their presence is still on campus and every time there's a breeze, their chime will clink a bit," said Holly Cashin, whose family was traveling to Northfield today to receive the flower from Timmy's chair and say one more goodbye.
Amy Becker covers WashingtonCounty. She can be reached at or (651) 228-5465.