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as told by Robyn Tanke
In my work at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation I am blessed by the lasting friendships I have made. One of my newest friends is a lovely 84-year-young widow named Lucy Harris. Lucy has a fun-loving spirit and great sense of humor—the kind of person we all like to be around. The first time I met Lucy was when she welcomed me into her home for a special appointment. Hours later, after a visit filled with laughter and a few tears, I knew I had made a special friend. Until that day, Lucy had been a stranger to me, but not to Gundersen Lutheran.
 Lucy is a volunteer in Cardiology, a department where she spent many years bringing her husband as a patient. Desmond (Scotty) Harris had heart disease, undergoing three open-heart surgeries prior to his death in 2005. Lucy adored her husband and felt the last 20 years of his life were a gift resulting from the care he received from the heart teams at Gundersen Lutheran. After his death she began to devote her time volunteering along side the caring cardiology staff that she had gotten to know over the years.
She also decided she wanted to give something back by making a gift to the Foundation in Scotty’s memory. That’s how I came to know Lucy. She was taking steps to include Gundersen Lutheran Heart Institute in her will. In addition to that gift, together we were able to look at another way to keep Scotty’s memory alive. She knew first-hand a program that beckoned for support: the Summer Research Fellows program. Creating an endowed fellowship in Cardiology was a natural fit for Lucy’s interest in giving back to the department that had extended her husband’s life. Her decision to establish the Desmond J. and Lucille M. Harris Fellow in Cardiology means there will be a perpetual source of funding. Better still, the 2006 Cardiology fellows, Mark Vig (pictured above with Mrs. Harris) and Virginia Thayer, got to know their benefactor personally and thank her for the experience. The rewards to donor and recipient were both immediate and heartfelt.
Lucy Harris is a wonderful example of why we do what we do here at the Foundation. She has made an enormous impact that will be felt for years, and she gets to see the results of her generosity today. Perhaps most meaningful is the satisfaction she feels in knowing that Scotty would be proud.
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