Humans of St. Norbert:

“I got diagnosed [with cancer] this summer. With COVID and everything, I was probably about six months behind in getting my mammogram cause I go in once a year and everything like that. I found the lump taking a shower and called right away and got in. At that appointment when they were doing the mammogram, they were suspicious and they did the biopsy and everything just went so fast and crazy. It hit me like a ton of bricks! When they diagnosed it, [my doctor] said it’s one that you probably don’t really want because it’s a more aggressive one. But because I caught it early, my prognosis was really good. I think the hardest thing was telling my kids and then telling my softball team. After going through a lot of stuff, I thought, ‘This isn’t going to get me. I’m just going to go and beat it.’ And that’s what I’ve been doing. It hasn’t really slowed me down too much. I don’t want to say [COVID is] a blessing in disguise because it’s not, but in my case it really helped because I was not as busy as I normally would’ve been being the equipment manager and taking care of all the athletes in the fall. So it really made me concentrate more on me, which I am not used to doing. I like taking care of everybody!

“The support in this area is just amazing! The support that I got from the school was amazing with all those t-shirts that got sold and things. And when we played Lawrence, they all bought shirts and wore them. Kate Geenen [assistant coach for Lawrence] is an alum and she used to coach for me and stuff like that and we are still friends. She was kind of the instigator of all that. So right before the game, all of the sudden they are out there and I see all the shirts on everybody and all the parents had shirts and my team had the shirts on. It brought more than tears to my eyes. My heart was just full of gratitude and love. It’s just crazy all of the support I’ve been getting from so many people.

I feel like I have the best family, the best softball family and the best place to work.” – Jo Ann Krueger, athletics equipment manager and head softball coach