So, as Jennifer and I drove back from Monticello, Iowa, earlier this week, we filled the nine hours in the van talking about all the things we could write about to follow up on our trip:
• The incredible accommodations and hospitality we received at Camp Courageous
• Our featured presentation hosted by the Ross and Elizabeth Baty Monticello Public Library
• The unexpected invitation to speak at the Monticello Rotary Club meeting
• Why we consider this our best trip back to my hometown
Stay tuned to our Web site, as we will foll0w up with these topics. But first, one topic we didn’t address – because we never saw it coming – was the follow-up column written by Steve Lerch, editor of the Monticello Express. Steve had featured us in an a two-part Q-and-A in the weeks leading up to our scheduled presentation. Sure, he attended the event and took several pictures, but I truly thought at most we’d be featured in a standalone photo with an extended caption describing our program.
Instead, I wanted to share with you what Steve wrote, and I still am humbled to hear what he thought about us, our presentation, and our life with MS:
Digmanns show amazing strength in battle with MS
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Mindless Banter
By Steven Lerch Express Editor |
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It’s hard to find a team anywhere as strong, determined and focused as the one in the marriage of Dan and Jennifer Digmann.
The couple held their public discussion to promote awareness for multiple sclerosis Saturday, April 11 at the renaissance center here in Monticello.
Dan and Jennifer are living with multiple sclerosis and have been doing so for about a decade. Dan is a graduate from the Monticello High School. He was even the sports editor for the Anamosa Journal Eureka for a short stint in 1995.
It was there at the AJE that I first met Dan. My mother was working there at the time. Back in those days I would stop by the newspaper to skulk about and see what that crazy world of newspapers was all about– that and to get my mom to buy me a Pepsi and Snickers Bar. Hey, I was 13 and my priorities were clear. These visits became known as “Lerch Alert.” Well, according to Dan anyway.
Years later I found myself having conversations with Dan’s mother Nancy at the library. She informed me that Dan was on his way back to the community to give a discussion about he and his wife’s fight with MS.
Fast forward to Saturday at the renaissance center where more than 30 area residents were in attendance. My mom and little sister Kelly even showed up. Enter Dan and Jennifer Digmann stage left.
Jennifer is now confined to a motorized wheelchair due to her MS. She opened the discussion by stating that she and Dan, her husband of four years, serve as an example of the differences of how MS affects people– some are confined to a wheelchair while others, like Dan, battle numbness in their hands and feet but are still able to walk.
After the facts and figures were discussed, a charming story about how the couple came to be Mr. and Mrs. was given. And then it was amazingly clear that these two were born for each other as they flirted a bit in between questions.
They are living with MS, not dying they said and doing the best they can. Dan, with the assistance of a certified caregiver, works hard to ensure that Jennifer wants for nothing. He works 40 hours a week as Assistant Director of Public Relations/editorial at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich., where they reside.
Dan has even taken to the streets as a budding 5k runner while Jennifer participates in MS awareness walks. She said that she always has to tell Dan to pick up his feet when he runs– occasionally, Dan’s left leg drags a bit due to the MS.
They are their strongest support system. Jennifer lifts Dan’s spirits when he’s exhausted and cranky from a long day living with MS. Dan lifts Jennifer, literally, in and out of her wheelchair when she needs to use the restroom or to go to bed.
Their story is inspirational to everyone. My hope is that they return to Monticello again next year and that more than 100 area residents show up in support of the fight against multiple sclerosis. Maybe it could become an annual event, which could also serve as my opportunity to use the term “Digmann alert.”