A LIFE WELL LIVED

Darlene Oordt Dykema –85 and still going strong!

Story By Christina Heintzelman

cheintzelman@benchmarkmediallc.com Photos Submitted

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” — Maya Angelou

Darlene – please call her “Dar” - Dykema grew up in Orange City, Iowa, a very conservative and insular Dutch community. She was the oldest of the three Oordt siblings. Darwin, the owner of Harrisburg Magazine, was the youngest sibling and he has revered Dar all his life.

The reason Dar features prominently in this issue of Harrisburg Magazine is because she is a survivor of Hodgkins Lymphoma and this year the annual Simply The Best Gala’s fundraising focus will be on the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, with funds going to the local chapter here in Harrisburg.

But this story is about a life well lived and the propensity of Dar’s spirit to keep moving forward. Dar’s paternal grandfather came to America all by himself at the age of thirteen. He had sold firewood on the canal in Holland and worked hard with little money to spare and decided that America may offer more opportunities. He learned five languages along the way: German, French, English, Dutch, and Frisian, which is a native language consisting of sixty dialects of the people of Friesland.

Dar lived with her family in Orange City until the age of eighteen when she left for college at St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital, Sioux City, Iowa. “This was an entirely different culture for me, people were much more open, and I was exposed to Catholicism after having only known the Reformed religion of Robert Schuler my entire life. The school was very ridged with no vacation, but I learned a lot,” she says.

After nursing school in Sioux City, Dar returned to Orange City to

work in a small hospital. “I learned so much because I had to take care of many different patients with many different health problems, and it was necessary for me to re-learn the Dutch language.” She also met her future husband, Virgil. She worked at the hospital for one year and then moved to Willmar, Minnesota for a brief time with her husband. Again, she was exposed to different religious beliefs, this time Lutheranism.

The couple moved back to Orange City so Virgil could go back to school. In the meantime, the couple had two sons, David and Dan. Dar was hired as a nurse in the infirmary at the same college she had gone to earlier in life. She also went back to school for a teaching degree during the time of President Kennedy’s implementation of the New Frontier Program, which granted students a free education if they would agree to teach for three years after they received their teaching degree. “My husband was very helpful and supportive in my juggling of a full-time job, raising a family and going back to school,” she adds. Dar got her degree in secondary education and taught health at Orange City High School for three years. But her love of learning pushed her forward and she again went back to school to get a master’s degree in counseling (MSA), at the University of South Dakota. “For two summers I drove the seventy miles one way and went to night school the rest of the year in order to finish my courses.”

In between these times, tragedy struck and Dar and Virgil’s son, David, was gravely injured in a trampoline accident. His spine was severed, and he was paralyzed from the neck down. Although he received the best care possible, he died from his injuries.

But Dar’s faith and her early life lessons kept her firmly focused on her family and moving forward with life. The family moved to Rogers, Arkansas, and Dar went back to nursing at Mercy Hospital. While nursing, she met the superintendent of schools when he was a patient in the hospital. He was so impressed with Dar that he offered her a job as Dean of Women of the high school, a job she held for sixteen years.

Dar’s love of education was still strong, and she went on to become licensed as a clinical psychologist. She said, “I am a firm believer in public education, so I needed to keep learning – to keep going onward.” Because of her advanced degrees she was hired at the Arkansas State Department as a K-12 grade supervisor. “It was in this time that Hillary Clinton spearheaded a statewide program to upgrade the school system and I was hired to oversee this program because of my degree in administration.”

After a three-year position as a counselor for Bentonville Arkansas High School, she and Virgil decided to retire to Bella Vista, Arkansas. “I loved going to school but even after retiring I still needed to learn so I became active in a church bible study group,” she says.

Life was lovely for Dar and Virgil until he was diagnosed with lung cancer and Dar needed to care for him until he died five years later. Very shortly afterwards, Dar was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. “I wasn’t feeling well and went to the doctor for a check-up. He found a lump in my neck, and it was surgically removed. That was when I was diagnosed with cancer and immediately began chemotherapy.” But three-quarters through the treatment she was so sick that she could no longer walk. She entered Everest Rehab Center and stayed for three weeks, gaining strength, learning to walk and talk again. “Since chemo didn’t work, I am now doing immunotherapy every other week, getting a PET scan every other month and walking two miles every day!”

Prognosis for Dar is guarded because although she has no new lesions, her existing lesions are growing. But Dar is a strong and resolute woman and says, “I am so looking forward to visiting Harrisburg and attending the [Simply the Best] gala. My son and I already have our plane tickets to come to this wonderful event. It will be the first time in twenty years that I’ll be seeing my brother, Darwin.”

Dar also became a great grandmother recently when her grandson and his wife presented her with a beautiful great-granddaughter weighing in at 8 lbs., 14 oz. Her name is Haley Lee.

When asked what she would advise for younger people she didn’t hesitate a minute. She said, “Remember your value system – we used to value education, hard work, completing a job, and appreciating your parents. I also believe that taking the Lord seriously gives a moral structure to life.”

She closed with this, “I have no regrets in life. I have been very blessed. I live in a wonderful retirement village with wonderful neighbors and friends and a loving family close by. Life is a great thing if you sit back and enjoy it.” Dar may be sitting back and enjoying life now but her conscientious strides in education and commitment have certainly made her a positive force with her family and in her community. 7