Stories

I came in early today so I could revisit my journey in Otsego. I went right back to the first place I could think of, which is Orleans Street. There used to be a grocery store there called Harding's that was the meeting place for everybody to have coffee. The Church of God is right there. My son-in-law, brand new son-in-law in those days, had become the youth pastor, and their family had purchased a home on the river right around the corner from the old grade school on West Orleans. They had a child who is now the school counselor for Plainwell High School. She is a product of Otsego. She graduated from Otsego. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was the song when she graduated.

I was a substitute teacher in Allegan County, so I visited all the surrounding areas. I was so lucky to have done that because I got to know so many communities. I was there with my husband. I said, "We have to buy a house here." He was just so happy about life and everything that he said, "Hey, whatever you want, girl. You pick the house out." So, I picked an old home, a Victorian home, with a big road. The road is still so wide from the carriages. There's so much history in this area. I remember thinking: "How did I not know there was an Otsego, Michigan?" I'm a Michigan girl, but I had been living in North Carolina. We moved on Valentine’s Day in the year 2000. There was the biggest ice storm you’d ever seen in your life the day we moved in. We drove through, and we didn't have four-wheel drive.

I was here for three years. I got involved with the church, and I got involved with the gym because I'm a gym rat from way back and got to know the community and the families. My husband ended up being in the fire department. When you're around the fire department and the churches and in the gym, it's like going to the nearest barber shop—you're going to find out everything you need to know. Cancer was just rampant. Every time I turned around, I said, "Oh dear Lord, no, no, no, we can't have that."  

I remember going and visiting everyone as they were going through what they were going through. I remember being at this hospital in Allegan with Alice Hummel, someone who has to be remembered because she was one of the first. This gal had ovarian cancer. I kept coming to her because we always had tea together. She taught me how to properly have tea and how to never throw anything away, to find a use for everything, and how to love a man. She lived in Otsego her whole life.  

I became a nurse while I lived in Otsego, and my husband worked in Grand Rapids. I was watching all of this happen: breast cancer, brain cancer, ovarian cancer, you name it. Then I started seeing birth defects. I saw them in my own family. I had a relative who was in and out of the hospital at the University of Michigan because of a birth defect that we think was caused from the waters. It was corrected when they were a child, but they are fully grown now and just had surgery again. They want to work in the medical field because of all they have been through. We have another child in our family who is one year old and will be going and having a very similar surgery. They were born that way, too. The whole time their family lived on the river right behind where the tires are. They're all in the city and on city water.

I've always cared about the environment, and I always knew people were doing things they shouldn't be doing. I learned as a firefighter that you can’t dump gasoline in your yard and imagine that nobody will find out. I think there's some forever chemicals in the water that have possibly changed the DNA.

There's an antidote for everything on the Earth. We just have to think of it that way. That's why I want to be a part of this, because I know we can fix this.

It's in everything. There's metals in the water. There's stuff in the air. I'm a farmer now and I've been noticing, especially in Michigan. It has been so dry here that I would not want anyone to light a match because of all the stuff that's left over from the dust. I live on a real farm, and none of these city women would want to live there because the house is always dirty, I swear it just spits dust, and it's filled with whatever from the past was there.

I myself have been tested by the state of Michigan. I'm one of the 196. They drew my blood; they sampled my hair. I know exactly what I have. I'd be stupid to think there was no PFAS in my body, I was a firefighter for eight years. One molecule of anything up your nose goes into your bloodstream and lands in your body somewhere. You either buy a filter or you become a filter. That's where we're at. A lot of people have told me, "You're really brave to even know that. I don't even want to know." The gal I talked to on the phone about my lab results was just telling me, "I would never get myself tested." And that's a bad thing. With all that we know, we still don't know. We're still not being warned. Something has to change with us. I am not afraid. I am going to speak the truth. I have suspected, and I have knowledge.  

My children won't talk to me because they don't want to know. They say: “Please don't tell me. I don't want to know. I don't want to know anything." They're the ones who hooked me up with Mary Zack. It's been tough, but I'm learning to put it in a box because there isn't time. There's work to be done. I need to think about my great-grandchildren. I’ve got five of them. FIVE. I know Mary wanted a baby. She was a tiger and I feel her spirit. I planted some flowers in the winter for her the day that I went to her mass. I'd see them and think of her. Another one came out this week. I’ve got some flowers all over my farm now. I didn't get to meet her in person. She just knew me from her Facebook page, if she even knew me. That poor girl—the stuff she went through is horrific. So anytime I think I can't do anything, I get my strength from her. She was something.

Sure, we could use some help from our government or our state, and some people need to be spanked. I give myself a spanking. Before I can judge, I have to say, "What have you done? Are you making a difference?" I care about my children, and your children, and the children of the future. When you're in the dark—and I feel like we have been in the dark on a lot of this stuff—it's enough to just make you just angry. So, what do we need? What do you do with all that anger when you find out? I can't imagine how Mary's family feels, but I don't think we need to leave this sad. I think we need to take what we've learned and apply it. If you turned it on, you need to turn it off. If that's your garbage, you need to clean it up. Let's go after the people that are doing it and continuing to do it.

I live in Ada now. I'm up there with Cascade and the airport, with all that water. I drove to Portland the other day and watched the sunrise. I saw the deer crossing the river when the sun came up. It was just the most beautiful thing.