Pauline Callahan

Pauline was born on April 19, 1938, the second of four children to Truman and Viola Gavle. She grew up on a farm a few miles north of Emmons, the Gateway to Minnesota. Always a good student and especially devoted to her family, even at a very young age, she made many life-long friends in Emmons. Pauline left for nurse's training in nearby Mason City at age seventeen. Shortly after becoming a nurse, she met Paul Callahan, the player-manager of her older brother's baseball team and they became an inseparable pair -- "Paul and Pauline" -- from then on. The couple moved to several towns in Iowa before settling long term in Fort Dodge, where they raised four kids and built a life based upon family, friends and faith. Pauline worked as both an ICU nurse and a college nursing instructor during her time in Fort Dodge. She also loved spending time with her family at her brother's cabin on Stone Lake in NW Wisconsin. So, when she was fifty years old and her brother informed her the "cabin" was for sale, she and Paul bought it and moved to Minneapolis for ten years to finish out their working lives and be closer to what would become their favorite place on planet earth. During this time, Pauline worked on the oncology floor at Fairview Southdale Hospital, and made many great friends there as well. In 2000, Pauline and Paul moved full time to Stone Lake where Pauline worked for Hospice in Hayward and continued to make more wonderful friends on Stone Lake and beyond. It was on Stone Lake where Pauline and Paul welcomed family and friends from near and far. She was diagnosed with COVID on December 19th and passed away on December 29, 2022 at her daughter Molly's home in Cottage Grove with Molly and her older son Matt at her side.

That is the where, what, when of Pauline's life. The who is much more difficult to describe as she led a life of extraordinary beauty, punctuated by unimaginable challenges. Due to extreme circumstances, she took over the stewardship of her family's farm at age twelve, but this made her an accomplished cook and baker for the rest of her life. She traveled widely across Europe and the United States. She was an avid walker and nature lover (with a special place in her heart for loons). She was a life-long reader of both fiction and nonfiction. She loved a glass of red wine in the evening, but always just one glass. She was a converted Catholic, who loved a kind, forgiving God. She was an exceptional nurse and nursing instructor. She was a proud Minnesotan, a reluctant Iowan and a devoted Wisconsinite. Late in life, Pauline endured the death of her husband and older daughter - the two most important people in her world -- to cancer within a month of each other. She was the coworker everyone hopes to have, the friend everyone dreams of, and the finest mother/grandmother a child will ever know. Truly. Along with her perfect partner Paul, Pauline never aspired to be the best, but to be good, in the most genuine sense of that word. Pauline's sharp mind, generous spirit and kind heart will be dearly missed by everyone who knew her, most of all her family.

Pauline is survived by her sons Matt (Teresa), Todd Sexe (son-in-law) and Mitch, her daughter Molly (Terry) Brooke, her grandchildren Cameron (Kendall), Morgan (Alex), Hannah (Ryan), Rose, Conrad (Molly), Mariah, Vince, April, Ellie, Charlie and Brady. Her great grandchildren Leonard and Maverick. Her sister Lola and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her daughter Angela and her husband Paul.

Memorial Mass will be Friday, January 20, 2023 at 11:00 AM with visitation one hour prior at St. Ambrose Catholic Church, 4125 Woodbury Dr., Woodbury.