Ramona: Tajchman granddaughters claim three homecoming crowns
By JESSICA GILBERT
Ramona correspondent
(785) 965-2621
This week's lead story is a bit like an eclipse — it might happen every hundred years or so, or maybe never again.
Three granddaughters of one-time Ramona residents, Joseph and Mary Tajchman, were crowned homecoming queens in three different high schools in Lost Springs, Marion, and White City.
Close to home, Raschelle Jirak of Ramona, was crowned homecoming queen at Centre High School on Friday evening and her cousins, Emily Morgan of White City and Amy Tajchman of Marion also were homecoming queens in their respective high schools.
Raschelle and Emily are great-great-granddaughters of Joseph and Mary Tajchman and Amy Tajchman is a great-granddaughter.
Joseph and Mary Tajchman established their home on a farm two miles south and one-half mile east of Ramona in the early 1900s. Joseph was the oldest son of Vaclav and Antonia Tajchman who emigrated to America from Bohemia in 1882.
Although the Tajchmans are no longer living, their progeny are deeply rooted in the Ramona area. "We live on my great-grandparent's old farm place," said Vickie Tajchman Jirak. It was Vickie and Steve Jirak's daughter, Raschelle, who reigned over homecoming festivities at Centre High School.
Now the Jiraks and Tajchmans had quite a contingency at Centre High School last Friday evening. Even Vickie's twin sister, Jackie Jirak and her family were here from Oakley. (Yes, twin sisters married brothers — quite unusual!)
I met up with part of the family on Sunday afternoon at the Ramona park where they'd gathered for a barbecue in honor of Raschelle and also to celebrate several birthdays in the family.
"Four of my five kids had birthdays in the last couple of months," said Jackie Jirak. Then she named them: Heidi, Ethan, Leo, and Pius.
"Did you say Pius?" I asked. "As in Pius.." and before I finished the sentence, Jackie laughed and said, "Yes, as in Pope Pius."
"What in the world made you pick that unusual name?" I asked.
"Jackie was going to name her daughters Ramona and Hope, after area towns" said Vickie, with a laugh, before Jackie could reply. "And if she had a boy, she was going to name him Elmo."
"You're making that up!" interjected Vickie's and Jackie's mother, Teresa Tajchman, who also lives in Ramona. But then Mrs. Tajchman thought for a moment. "Well, maybe not. I guess anybody who'd name their son Pius, just might have named him Elmo." Everybody had a good laugh.
I guess there's precedence for unusual names in the Tajchman family. When I read up on them in the Ramona Centennial book, I found names like Vaclav, Mathims, Valerian, Adolphine, Nemis.
When Steve and Vickie Jirak started their family, their oldest, and only daughter, was given the lyrical and beautiful name of Raschelle.
"So how did you get that name," I asked Raschelle, "when all your brothers who followed were given Biblical names?"
"Off the credits of Channel 12 news," said Raschelle with a grin.
"We were watching television one night before she was born," explained Vickie, "and as the credits rolled by, Steve happened to see the name Raschelle and thought that would be a good name."
While the Jirak family spent an idyllic Sunday afternoon reveling in the autumn sunshine at the Ramona park, my sister and I (with the help of Tooltime Tim) were right next door at our bed and breakfast house, perched high in the air in a cherry picker, painting!
We painted all weekend long and from our lofty perch we could see all the cars weaving up and down the streets as they checked out the citywide garage sale held in Ramona on Saturday.
"We had 11 sale locations," said Jeannie Weber, who served as coordinator of the event. "We had a really good turnout and I want to thank all the folks who held a sale and also those who came to Ramona to buy."
I saw Bob Thornhill on Monday and he wondered why I hadn't stopped by his place on Saturday. "I had a mannequin that I wanted to sell you," said Bob. "Heck I had all kinds of things for sale." Then he added with a mischievous glint in his eye., "I would have even sold my girlfriend!" (He was just kidding, Judy.)
"Bob counted 54 customers that stopped by his yard sale," said Jeannie. "We didn't have time to count how many stopped at ours."
On Sunday, Jeannie held a mini-auction, selling the items in her sale that hadn't sold the day before. "We got rid of everything," she said with satisfaction.
Nick Fike, Naomi Fike's grandson, saw a davenport that Jeannie was selling. "If I had a truck right now I'd buy that couch," said Nick, who recently moved to his own apartment in Salina where he's attending college to get his degree in aviation maintenance.
Unfortunately, Nick and his dad, Steve, had come to town on their motorcycles, so taking advantage of any quixotic sales was impossible.
Steve and Nick came to Ramona on Sunday, via Cassoday where there's a bike rally on the first Sunday of every month. "The bikes fill up the main street," said Nick. "We walk around and see other bikes, have breakfast. It's fun."
Martha Ehrhardt had surprise visitors from Cheyenne, Wyo., this weekend. Lyle and Katie Carter arrived in their motor home on Thursday evening and stayed until Monday. "The Carters were great friends of ours from Oregon," said Martha. "Recently they moved to Wyoming to be near their children and when Laurel and I moved to Kansas a year ago, we were finally closer to each other again.
Martha took the Carters to Herington to visit her sister, Anna Schimming and also to Wichita to attend church on Sunday with her sister, Frieda Struebing. Following church, Martha treated everybody to lunch.
I have a correction to make to last week's column. Under Warren Fike's picture the caption said that Warren was in the Air Force. (Color me red with embarrassment — I did know better.) Warren was in the Navy!
The Utech family held its annual reunion out on the home place on Nighthawk Road this past Sunday. "We had over 40 folks attend," said Erich. Two Utech brothers — Erich and Fred, are longtime Ramona residents.
Accompanying Erich on the museum tour were his sister, Edna Mueller of Tampa, another sister, Grace Raven and her husband Bill from Marietta, Ga., along with Gloria Huffman and Ann Bryant of Tennessee.
Bob and Marianne Prine have been traveling to Oklahoma a lot in the last two months. "Rob's dad had a stroke in mid-August," explained Marianne, "and Rob and I have been going down during the week taking care of him."
Marianne said that Rob's father is progressing slowly and well enough that they don't have to be there quite as much. "I finally returned to work last week," said Marianne, who works as a CNA at Herington hospital.
On Tuesday, Lisa Hanschu flew to Houston, Texas, to meet with her physicians there in preparation for a bone marrow harvest, which will take place later this month.
Lisa, a lifelong resident of Ramona, discovered a year ago that she had leukemia, and immediately began taking treatment for the disease. "Last year at this time my bone marrow was 100 percent cancerous," said Lisa. "At the moment the cancer in my body is in remission, but I don't know how long that will remain true."
Lisa recently learned that she could no longer continue taking the medication that kept the cancer in her body at bay. "The strong medication has weakened my liver," explained Lisa, "so doctors have taken me off the treatment."
Doctors cannot say how long Lisa's cancer will remain in remission, now that she's no longer on the medication. This is why they have suggested to Lisa that they harvest her own bone marrow (while it is cancer free) so that it can be used as treatment, when the cancer returns.
"The bone marrow harvest is an extreme procedure and a crucial one," said Lisa. "It's the last of my options."
Making Lisa's health issues even more challenging is the fact that Lisa's health insurance company does not cover such procedures, even though doctors have recommended it. "We've appealed several times and most recently we appealed to the Insurance Commissioner, but this last week we received disappointing news that they also deny the procedure."
Lisa and her husband, Ronnie Hanschu, believe they must move forward with the bone marrow harvest even though the financial burden now rests solely with them.
"I have to remain hopeful, I have to keep looking for open doors," said Lisa, when we spoke last week. "I want to be here for my children's future." Lisa has two young children — Anna, 9, and James, who is 13.
"I have a window of opportunity to have the harvest procedure," said Lisa, "while my marrow is healthy. Many people who have cancer don't have this chance. They must find a donor, which is complicated and even if a donor is found, there's a high probability of donor rejection. If we harvest my own bone marrow, there's no risk of rejection involved."
Family, friends, and communities have kicked into high gear to financially assist Lisa and her family in this endeavor.
This Sunday afternoon, at the Tampa Santa Fe Trail festival there'll be a concession stand to raise money for Lisa. The proceeds and donations will help pay for the bone marrow harvest.
On Oct. 18, Lisa's birthday, a fundraiser is being held at Papa T's Tavern and Grill in Hope. "There'll be entertainment, raffles, an auction, sloppy joes from 5-8 p.m., and the band, Clearview, will wrap up the night," said Marianne Wyatt of Lost Springs, one of the organizers of the event, and a friend of Lisa's.
"The next day Ronnie and I will go to Texas," said Lisa, "to actually have my marrow harvested. When they harvest, they take two liters of marrow from my hip. The marrow is frozen and stored until I need it."
Lisa's treks to Texas have been happening for a year now. While I have been reporting many Ramona folks' "comings and goings" I have not mentioned Lisa's medical journeys until now. Neither do I frequently talk about people's medical issues in my column. Lisa is the exception — because she is an exceptional woman, with exceptional courage, and a very exceptional challenge at this point in her life.
In all the times I've seen and spoken with Lisa during this long, challenging year, she always has remained remarkably optimistic and hopeful. But the Insurance Commissioner's denial of her request for treatment was quite a blow.
This week and later in October, Lisa needs our prayers, support, and assistance. If ever there was a time to say to someone, "I'm glad you're on the planet! And I want to make sure you're here a year from now," this is the time.
If you want to send a card or note of encouragement, Lisa Hanschu's address is 3510 Sunflower Road, Ramona, KS 67475
If you want to support this courageous woman with financial assistance, donations can be sent to The First National Bank, Hope, KS 67451. Mark the donation, "c/o Lisa Hanschu Benefit Fund."
I was doing dishes the other day and thinking about Lisa. "I feel so helpless," I said, turning to my sister, Pat.
"I'll bet that's how Lisa and Ronnie feel sometimes, too," replied my sister.
As Pat and I contemplated what we could do to support Lisa and her family, we came up with several ideas — and writing about her in my column was one of them. I've learned over the years that if a lot of people even give just a little, it adds up to quite a lot!
If ever someone deserved such an outpouring of love and support, it is the ever-generous Lisa, who has helped with town events, like singing at the Christmas festival, providing music for our 4th of July, and putting on fashion shows at our annual Tea Party. She's enlivened our lives; now it's our time to return the favor.
And that's the news from Ramona, where we look for the positive, even in this, and traffic jams of any kind are welcome, because it says we're all still here, still on Ramona soil.
