Kristin Holtz of the Shakopee Valley News reports:

Oliver and Laura McConnell used to know how to cut a rug.
The couple could bop and hop their way around a dance floor like nobody’s business to polkas, waltzes, fox trots, you name it.
But age has brought its share of ailments and Oliver cannot dance anymore. A double amputee, Oliver is confined to a wheelchair; his dancing shoes are on the shelf.

Instead, every day, Laura drives the 20 miles from the Belle Plaine home the couple shared for nearly 60 years to Oliver’s new home — hopefully temporary, likely permanent — at St. Gertrude’s Health and Rehabilitation Center in Shakopee.

Here, Oliver, 82, and Laura, 83, spend the morning like they always did. Oliver shaves and they do light exercises. When Oliver naps, Laura likes to head over to the shopping district on Marschall Road to pick up any necessities. They share lunch and then they walk.

For nearly two years, Laura, who at her peak stood no taller than 4 feet, 11¾ inches tall, has pushed her husband on daily strolls around the St. Gertrude’s and St. Francis Regional Medical Center campus. They walk outside every day they can (when it gets below 60 degrees it’s a little chilly for Oliver). When it rains or in the winter when ice makes it difficult to navigate the sidewalks, Laura pushes Oliver’s wheelchair through the long halls of the complex, sometimes just stopping in the sunny atrium of St. Francis to enjoy the sunshine’s warmth.

To the McConnells, this daily, 30-minute act of love is just what they do.

“It only takes a half hour. It’s where he gets his tan from,” Laura said laughing. “And every day, you’d think I would have built up some muscles.”

LOVE, FAMILY, DANCING

Oliver McConnell grew up on the family’s Blakeley Township farm with six brothers and sisters. The youngest save one, Oliver attended the Salisbury School and later Belle Plaine High School. His father died when he was 6, but his older siblings kept the farm running.

On Aug. 3, 1945, Oliver enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He was stationed on the West Coast as a steam engineer in the boiler rooms of the great U.S. ships.

Laura Otto grew up in Blakeley Township, too. She came from a smaller family — two brothers and one sister. She attended District 39 country school while the family farmed. Eventually, her family moved to Jordan, but Laura wasn’t crazy about the school so she boarded with her grandfather in Belle Plaine to attend high school. She graduated from Belle Plaine High School in 1944 and worked odd office jobs.

Despite growing up in the same township and attending the same high school, though never at the same time, Oliver and Laura’s paths never crossed. It wasn’t until a cousin’s fifth wedding anniversary party at Jordan’s Mertz Dance Hall in 1947 that the two met.

“It’s one of those things,” Oliver said.

Oliver and Laura married on June 7, 1949. They lived in New Prague for a couple of years before Oliver got a job as a steam engineer at the milk-processing plant in Belle Plaine. They moved home and raised seven children — Joanne, Dave, Ron, Bonni, Keith and twins Lee and Jim — in the Cedar Street house they own to this day.

The McConnells lived a normal life. They raised their children in town while running Laura’s brother’s hobby farm outside of town. Taking up Oliver’s passion for music, they were all required to take piano lessons until eighth grade. The girls learned how to sew; the boys learned how to fix things.

After 20 years, the milk plant shut down, so Oliver got a new job
as a steam engineer at Metropolitan Medical Center, now known as Hennepin County Medical Center. For 28 years, he made the daily drive to Minneapolis.

“I didn’t mind it,” he said about the drive.

“He always said it was his time of peace and quiet,” Laura explained.

As the kids got older, the McConnells found themselves back on the dance floor — often. They joined the P.O.L.K. of A. Polka Lovers Club of America shortly after it was founded in 1973, traveling to weekly dances and festivals around the state.

The McConnells’ daughter, Joanne McConnell-Barnes, said dancing was a way for her father to exercise despite his rheumatoid arthritis, which he developed in his late 30s. It was also a good social outlet.

“Sometimes he could barely walk [because of the arthritis] but he could dance,” said McConnell-Barnes, who lives in Dubuque, Iowa.
After Oliver retired in the late 1990s at age 72, the couple started spending winters in Mesa, Ariz., where they — what else? — danced.

“You could go dancing there every day of the year in Mesa if you wanted to,” Laura said.

But after two hip replacements and two knee replacements, complications from Oliver’s arthritis caught up with him. In 2006, a blood clot forced doctors to amputate his right leg above the knee. He came home in fall 2007 but shortly after another blood clot led to the amputation of his left leg, too.

Oliver has been a resident of St. Gertrude’s ever since. While he’d like to go home, the level of care makes it difficult. At St. Gertrude’s, he’s within wheeling distance to St. Francis’ medical staff. There’s no worry about transporting him to appointments or getting him around the house.

So for now, the McConnells continue the daily routine. On their walk around the campus, one of their favorite spots is the holding pond at Marschall Road and 17th Avenue. For weeks they watched a duck family and six geese that swam in the water and fed on the grass, but now they are gone.

“They didn’t even say goodbye to us,” Laura said with a sad smile.
After the walk, the McConnells sit in the shade on the patio outside Oliver’s window. She reads him the paper and they watch people come and go. Around 2 p.m., Laura heads home.

“She’s amazing,” McConnell-Barnes said. “I call her the Energizer Bunny because she just goes and goes. She’s really dedicated her life, I guess you could say, to take care of my dad. That’s really amazing.”

The McConnells, who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a family party in June, have become somewhat of an institution around St. Gertrude’s. Nursing assistant Sherry Poppler said everyone knows the couple and their daily walk.

“For the little person she is, it’s a big job for her,” Poppler said. “She’s a strong-willed person.”

Oliver and Laura are easy people to get to know, Poppler said. They’re always happy and very caring about each another. It’s a good model of a happily married couple. “There’s love there,” she said.

“The devotion to each other, I think, is unique,” McConnell-Barnes agreed. “You just don’t see that in younger couples.”

A good sense of humor has helped his parents keep up spirits despite the separation, said Ron McConnell of Belle Plaine. Ron, who works at St. Francis, visits his dad daily during his morning break. He’s not surprised at all by his mother’s devotion. It’s just what you do when the cards are dealt that way.

“It’s not so much of a job. It’s just what she’s going to do right now,” he said.

As the lunch tray is cleared away — Oliver having nibbled and Laura having cleaned off the plate — Oliver puts on his cap and Laura wheels him into the hallway. She can’t really see over his head, so she must peek around his shoulder. She easily maneuvers through the hallway, an indication she has done this before.

Outside of St. Gertrude’s side door, the sun is bright, the day is warm.

A perfect day for a walk.

Kristin Holtz is a staff writer for the Shakopee Valley News. She can be reached at kholtz@swpub.com.