Weekly News: Pickling, New Adventures and A Great Lady's Passing

Loved This!

It has been a week of pickles,  pickles and more pickles! Pickled beans, pickled kosher dills and pickled spicy bread and butter cucumbers were canned. What a pickle puss I have turned out to be.

While picking the cherry tomatoes I must have irritated a bumble bee. To my dismay I now have a salad plate sized hive that itches like the devil on the inside of my right thigh. I am certainly thankful that the bee did not fly up my shorts or into my bonnet.  Fortunately my other tomatoes are finally starting to turn, late this year for sure. Hopefully I will be able to get salsa and some tomatoes sauce put up. I also want to dry some herbs and get stocked for our family's winter supply of goodies. Have grapes ready again that need to be picked this year. More juice to freeze until I decide to make more jelly. Still have some jelly from last year harvest. I feel very blessed!

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More newsy news is in store. Taylen got his braces off and now has a new handsome smile. No more lip locking with the girly girls. Linda and I have new clients that we are consulting with. We are RN support and consultants for the Franciscan order of sisters. They have a home here in Alliance where they take care of their elderly sisters who have served their order. A very interesting history that's involved, their order was founded in the 1800's.


Sadness has befallen the Lafler clan once again. Chuck Lafler's oldest sister Doris Monahan from Sterling passed away. She was one of Brian's favorite Aunts. Jessamyn and I drove to Sterling last night and met Paqui, Marc and kids. We met family friends Vicki and Donn Folkerts and enjoyed a fun evening at the Old Town Bistro. The funeral was very nice and quite appropriate for the very talented, interesting, strong woman Doris was.


Doris (Lafler) Monahan, 90, died Sunday August 14 at Sterling Regional Medical Center. Visitation will be at Tennant Funeral Home on Thursday 10-6 and a funeral service 10:30 Friday, August 29 at the First Presbyterian Church with Rev. Michelle Witherspoon officiating. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery.

Born in 1923 in Lincoln, Nebraska, Doris Lafler grew up on a farm near Sidney. She was educated in country schools and at Sidney High School. After graduating, she attended Doane College, and then moved to New York City where she worked for a costume-making company and was a camera girl at the Copacabana. She returned to Nebraska and at the University of Nebraska she met Rex Monahan, to whom she was married for 61 years until his death in 2009. In the early fifties Doris and Rex moved to Sterling, Colorado where Rex entered the oil business and Doris raised their four children: Susan, Kathleen, Melissa and Bill.

Doris not only drew and painted, but also studied art history and was an expert on everything from Romanesque Cathedrals to Van Gogh. Her love of northeastern Colorado history led her to write two books on the subject. A lifelong learner herself, she with her husband Rex were supporters of the Literacy Coalition in Sterling and established and maintained the Monahan Second Chance Academy, which provides college courses for inmates at the Sterling Correctional Facility. All who knew her admired Doris for her extensive knowledge and her willingness to share it. She presented numerous programs for Sterling Reviewers and her work as an historian were recognized by the Logan County Historical Society

She was preceded in death by her husband Rex. She is survived by her children: Susan Monahan (Mark Brucks), Kathleen Monahan, Melissa Jankovsky (Rob) and Bill Monahan (Linda); grandchildren: Cailan Matthews, Meagan Schmidt, Rex Monahan, Tess Jankovsky and Molly Jankovsky, and eight great grand children. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Doris Monahan Memorial Fund.