Two years ago I wrote a Christmas story about Mary Kay McDuffie and the 436-page history of Torch Lake she wrote after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS.
I sit now, a few days before her funeral, re-reading that 2009 story, interview notes and several emails we exchanged over the last few years.
Mary Kay died Dec. 9 at age 76. Her funeral is 10 a.m. today at St. Luke Catholic Church in Bellaire.
I think about her impact on the place she loved and her influence on me. She sparked and always encouraged my interest in local history and the role it can play in developing and sustaining a sense of place and community stewardship.
I think about the courage and determination she showed during the four years it took to write "Torch Lake: The History of Was-Nah-Go-Ning," with the technical assistance of Ed McDuffie, her husband of 53 years, who calls it her masterpiece and life's work.
The book traces the lake's 4 billion year history, its people and communities from glacial days to 1945.
Mary Kay believed the book kept her alive and kept her mind off the incurable disease.
"From the start, I decided it was my disease and I would lead it my way," she said in a 2009 interview.
In the early stages, she could still walk, talk, drive and interview. By late 2009, she ate through a food tube in her stomach. She communicated with a computerized keyboard that translated her typed words into a voice. Just before the book came out, she had an emergency tracheotomy and began breathing with the help of a machine.
I met Mary Kay in 1974 when she was 39, a spunky and humorous mother of three young children — Tom, Mike and Trina. She wrote a history column for a local paper. She also made headlines by spearheading a Save the Courthouse campaign as county officials considered tearing down Antrim County's early 1900s Courthouse in order to build a new government center on the same spot.
I was just two years out of college then, starting a new job as editor/reporter at the now-defunct Antrim County News.
I had the good fortune to be at the McDuffie house on Dec. 2, 2009, the evening the 2,000 books arrived. Mary Kay, who left the hospital only the day before, sat in the foyer of her home watching and never stopped smiling as 20 friends and family carried in 280 boxes.
Mary Kay's goal was to preserve and raise interest in the history of Torch Lake, the state's longest and second largest inland lake. She hoped the book would help protect it.
"There will never be another body of water like Torch Lake," she wrote in the last paragraph. "It is up to each of us to protect and care for this majestic gift. The Torch Lake we love can never be replaced."
She certainly did her part, and her effort will always be magnificent.
For more information, please see Mary Kay's obituary in our Dec. 13 edition or go to http://record-eagle.com/obituaries/x1510848176/Mary-Kay-McDuffie. Loraine Anderson can be reached at 231-933-1468 or at landerson@record-eagle.com.
