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as told by Caitlin Kolb
 There are moments in every girl’s life that she wants to treasure and share with the people she loves. My graduation from West Salem High School in the spring of 2007 was one of those moments. It turned out, however, to be a bittersweet time in my life.
I loved my time in high school and was proud of my accomplishments in cross-country, soccer and as an honor student. But my father, Dr. Kenneth Kolb, a pediatrician at the Gundersen Lutheran Onalaska Clinic, was fighting what we feared was a losing battle with cancer. He was so ill that it was doubtful he’d be able to come to my graduation ceremony.
That’s when some very special people stepped in. Annalisa Johnson, a registered nurse who worked with my dad, also had a child graduating in my class. She contacted Troy Gunderson, the principal at my school and my school counselor, Lynn Brown, and arranged for a special graduation ceremony in my dad’s hospital room.
So on May 18, dressed in my graduation cap and gown, surrounded by people who loved me—my dad, my stepmother, Darci, and Aunt Vicki—Mr. Gunderson shared a few kind words and then presented me with my high school diploma. I was so happy and proud at that moment. Despite his illness and the heavy medication, I knew my dad was, too.
If that wasn’t enough, they had a wonderful graduation cake for me, and Gundersen Lutheran’s Medical Media had a photographer there to take pictures to commemorate this special day for us. In an amazingly short time, they even had the pictures printed and presented to us to look at and for me to cherish forever.
My dad died just three days later...and a lifetime too soon. I am so thankful to the warm, wonderful people at Gundersen Lutheran for going out of their way to make this a memorable moment for my family and me. They’ll never know just how much this meant to me.
Inspired by my father’s compassion for his patients and love of medicine, today I’m a student at Winona State studying nursing. I know my father would be proud.
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