Nicole Brodeur
Iditarod
champion's widower says thanks
Seattle
Times
September
24, 2006
Just
weeks ago, they were surrounded by the brightest stars: Bill and Melinda Gates.
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas. Politicians.
But
it is quiet now around the Fairbanks home of the late Susan Butcher. The
four-time Iditarod champion, 51, succumbed to leukemia Aug. 5 at the University
of Washington Medical Center, where she was being treated through the Seattle
Cancer Care Alliance. Butcher's husband, David Monson, 54, is adjusting to life
without his wife, who may have set records in the cold challenge of the
Iditarod, but was before anything, a Boston girl who loved the outdoors.
"I
am ... functioning," Monson told me. "It is hard not having anyone to
talk to when you need to. It is eye-opening."
Monson
is also learning to be a single parent to the couple's two daughters, Tekla,
11, and Chisana, 6. He makes their lunches. Gets them to school. And he helps
them remember the good things.
Seattle
should know that while Butcher mushed a wide swath through Alaska, the sports
world and history books (she was the first person to win four Iditarods in five
years), Seattle was a warm refuge from the brutal elements of her illness.
And
while Monson's mourning fog hangs on, it's clear that he wants to give thanks.
"People
in Seattle should be proud as a city," he said.
There
was the Hutch School, full of compassionate teachers "who prepared my
daughters for the possibility of Susan's death in a really awful, wonderful
way," Monson said.
There
were the friends who let them stay in their Queen Anne home. The neighbors who
brought food — just left it on the doorstep, no words or thanks
necessary.
There
were the people who, after Monson's bike was stolen from in front of the
hospital, offered their own bikes and cars.
"There
are not a lot of cities where you would have that kind of generosity and love
for people you don't even know."
And
then there were the friends who held them all up.
"Their
help can never be repaid," he said.
Among
them, Melinda Gates, whom Butcher and Monson taught to dog-sled, along with her
husband.
"Melinda
spent more time in the hospital with Susan than anyone in Seattle," Monson
said. "[The Gateses] can give you anything in the world, but there's only
one thing that everyone has an equal amount of, and that's time."
Monson
has been running to stay fit and clear-headed, and recently completed a leg of
the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks. There is talk of organizing a group from
Seattle to run it next year, in Susan's name.
And
Monson is finishing "Granite," a book Butcher started about her
legendary lead sled dog. Proceeds from the book, set for release this winter,
will go to the girls' education.
Their
life lessons have already begun — who their mother was, and how they will
continue without her.
It
is an endurance race of their very own.
"And,
hopefully," their father said, "it is the worst thing that will
happen to them in their lives."
Reach
Nicole Brodeur at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.
She'd
like to run in the Equinox.