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Ryan Donabauer
Living with a Big heart – Ruth Donabauer

Becoming a grandparent is a stage in life that many people cherish. By the time most

people become grandparents, they’ve lived a lot of life, made many decisions and gained a lot of

wisdom. Grandparents are the center of many families and can be very influential to their

children and grandchildren. My grandmother, Ruth M. Donabauer, is an example of a wonderful

grandparent.

Ruth was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota in 1950 and raised in Clearwater, Minnesota, a

town about 10 miles from St. Cloud. In her 70 years, she has lived through some of the world’s

most intense times, like the JFK assassination, a few wars, terrorist attacks on the United States,

major technology advances, and even a global pandemic. It’s weird to think about how much the

world has changed in just 70 years. My grandma is considered to be in the baby boomer

generation, and they have lived through all these tough times and they’re still kicking it today.

My grandma has had great memories, like having four wonderful children with my

grandpa, Kevin, 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. When she lived in Clearwater,

she worked at Stearns Manufacturing, where she worked on an assembly line and made life

jackets. Then when she starting have kids, she changed jobs and worked in the shipping

department at Stearns Manufacturing. My grandpa, Kevin Donabauer was a big influence on her

life, showing her, they need to work hard for the things that you get in life. They lived in

Clearwater for many years, until a job opportunity came up in Fargo. Together, Kevin and Ruth

made a decision to move their family to Fargo. This was one of the hardest decisions they had to

make, but they are glad they did it.

When Ruth moved to Fargo, she worked at a hotel, but then switched to a job at Fargo

Assembly. She really disliked working at Fargo Assembly, so she looked for other
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Ryan Donabauer
opportunities. When Fargo got its first Walmart store in the early 1990s, Ruth took the

opportunity and she worked in the domestic’s department there for many years. After leaving

Walmart, Ruth worked at Sky Logistics in Fargo, where she was janitor and retired from there to

take care of her husband, Kevin. A few years later, after Kevin passed away, Ruth went back to

work at Sanford Health, where she preps meals for patients at their long-term care hospital.

Ruth feels that all of the choices she made in life influenced the person she is today. The

only thing she regrets is not making more of an effort to go to college. Looking back, she wishes

she would’ve tried a little bit harder in school so that she could’ve attended a university. Instead,

she went to beauty school, because it was a lot cheaper and made more sense at the time.

However, as it turned out, she didn’t work in the beauty industry after she graduated from beauty

school.

Ruth also likes to make people happy. Her favorite holiday is Christmas because she

enjoys seeing the happiness it brings to people. She also likes to make people feel as if they are

appreciated and she is very loving. She wants people to do the best that they can.

Ruth told me she gets these traits from her father. Her dad found joy in life even through

tough times. He enjoyed people, was a hard worker, but found ways to save money on himself

to be able to take care of his family. She told me that her father would have to travel for work,

but they didn’t have a lot of money. He would have to ride in the cargo parts of the train to get

to the places that he needed to go, because it was a lot cheaper to ride with the animals.

The quote that Ruth seems to be live by is “you only have one ride through life so make

the most of it and enjoy it”. She lives by this quote and she says that she’ll keep on moving

through life. She’ll enjoy the things that happen because life because it isn’t always perfect. Her

life has had its difficult moments, but Ruth seems to always find a way to persevere and keep
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Ryan Donabauer
moving on. My grandma believes that with an event like Covid-19, which caused a pandemic in

the world, she thinks we’ve learned to appreciate people more because of the isolation due to

social distancing. It’s hard to get through the isolation and the changes in the world from the

pandemic, but it’s needed to be done to keep our elders and people with health conditions safe.

Ruth also mentioned with the Covid-19 isolations and restrictions going on, we appreciate the

little things, like going shopping and seeing family. She’s hopeful that there will be a time in the

near future when we can visit our family without risk and when we won’t have to wear masks

around the people we care about.

My grandma is one of the kindest people you will ever meet and has one of the biggest

hearts. As I said before, she likes to make people happy. Sometimes she’ll try to make people

happy and sacrifice her time, because she has a hard time saying no. Most of the time she’ll say

yes and help you in any way she can. You could even ask her to do something weird or odd and

most likely, she will do it for you as long as it is something she can do and if it makes you

happier. I believe that Ruth Donabauer is one of the best people in the world.

All things considered; Ruth has lived a pretty full life. She has taught me some important

life lessons about kindness, taking care of others and the importance of hard work. Overall, Ruth

is happy with the choices she and Kevin made and feels like she’s had a good life. I know she’s

made my life better and I always enjoy spending time with her. I’m lucky to have someone like

Ruth as a grandparent in my life.

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Ryan Donabauer
Work cited

Donabauer, Ruth. Personal interview. 30 Jan 2021