TUESDAY NOVEMBER 24, 2015
A year-round Thanksgiving
INSIDE
MSU student is thankful for a second chance at life.
NEWS:
GABE HEWITT Staff Writer MSU student Mark Aune knows what it’s like to be on the verge of death. At one point, he and his wife had picked out a grave at a nearby cemetery where they walked their dogs. But then came his second chance. Looking death in the eyes Aune, 64, was diagnosed with a life-threatening liver disease in 2005. The disease, sclerosing cholangitis, slowly damages the liver’s inner and outer bile ducts. These ducts help carry liquid from the liver to the small intestine. The disease can lead to tumors and possibly liver failure. Aune would need a transplant in order to live. “I was told that I was literally dying,” he said. “No ifs or buts. You don’t survive this disease.” Aune’s wife Kathie saw her
Give back during the holiday season.
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Photo by Yohanes Ashenafi said. “It was the most peaceful time of my life. You make your peace with your maker.” Aune received another call in November 2009 saying there was a liver available after an 18-year-old had died in a car accident. This time the liver transplant was a go and Aune was soon under the knife, ready to receive the organ of a stranger. “Fate was saying, ‘now you understand death–let’s see what you can do with life’,” he said. Back to school with a purpose
“Fate was saying, ‘now you understand death–let’s see what you can do with life’.” husband deteriorate as he waited longer and longer for a transplant. “It’s not the easiest thing in the world to watch someone you love die, but I knew I had to stay positive so he would stay positive,” she said. Aune received a call from the University of Minnesota’s transplant center in 2009 and was told there was a donor available. Upon arrival and after he was prepped for surgery, he was told that the donor’s liver would not work. It was at this point where Aune knew his mortality was hanging by a thread. “I had given up. I decided that this was my fate and that I was going to be dead,” he
Life had given Aune a second chance and he wondered what he was going to do with it. In the recovery following his transplant surgery, he experienced a lot of survivor’s guilt. The guilt revolved around knowing his 18-yearold donor’s opportunity to live a full life was cut short. Part of that full life, he thought, was attending college. “I wanted to honor the donor’s family and go back to college,” he said. “The young guy never got a chance so in a way, I wanted to give him that chance.” Aune began attending MSU in 2011 for a degree in English. Having not been in school for over 30 years, re-
turning to the classroom was definitely an experience for Aune. The most challenging part was, as a nontraditional student, was learning a new culture from students a third his age. He describes himself as a “walk in history.” He’s been asked on more than one occasion if he was ever a hippy. “Returning to school at my age, you have a wealth of knowledge,” he said. “Or in my case, historical knowledge.” Volunteering his time with youth It was at MSU where learned in an English course about the positive effect of literature on youth. It inspired him to want to join the Minnesota Reading Corps and help struggling children learn how to read better. Doing this has given his second life even more purpose. “Each kid is different and you have to unlock them. When they come around and their cognitive skills catch up, it’s really neat to see,” he said. Aune spends 40 to 45 hours a week tutoring youth at Park Elementary in Le Seur. He’s one of over 1,000 volunteers with the Minnesota Reading Corps. The key to helping them read better is making reading fun, he said. He tutors from kindergarteners to third-graders and each one is grateful for what he does for them. “He comes home a lot and says he gets lots of hugs,” Kathie said. Living life for another Aune believes that he was given another chance at life so
that he could do something positive with it and make a difference. He’s done that by going back to school at the ripe age of 64 and spending the rest of his time tutoring youth in reading. “MSU has molded me to want to become an educator,” he said. “If there’s anything to be thankful for, it’s MSU’s role in my second life.” He wrote a letter to his donor’s family stating his appreciation for their son giving him another life and that he would be going to school to do something positive with it. This first letter received no response and he plans on sending another. This second letter will be attached with drawings that he’s asked his reading students to draw for him. In the time following his transplant surgery, Aune wrote a play titled “Hey…Old Man!” It’s about a conversation between an old man and an 18-year-old male in a hospital room. In the final scene of the play, the old man tells the young male: “…You and I share two souls, yours and mine. We are one now. I live because of you and a part of you lives within me. I thank you for this gift. I mourn your death. I think of your mother. I am truly humble in every way. I promise you that with the gift of life you gave me, I will honor your memory. I will do good the rest of my life. When that life is over and I share it with others, I will see you. And we will walk that path that is now our future together.”
SPORTS:
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A&E:
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INDEX: EDITORIAL...............4 SPORTS....................9 A&E...........................13
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