Alexandria woman wrote a book to help granddaughter, others
By Rachel Barduson
Seeing and understanding things through the eyes of a child is something we all strive for as adults – and definitely encourage with the children and grandchildren in our lives. It could be the very purest of things like “why? Or “can I have an ice cream cone? Or “when will grandma get here?”
Or, inspired by the Art Linkletter book published in 1957, Kids Say the Darndest Things, the following simple illustration: “After a year in kindergarten, which had half-day sessions, Samantha came home from her first day as a first-grader, bemoaning the fact that she had to attend school all day long. She capped her whining with the logical question, “Don’t they know we’re just little kids?”
As a grandmother, Sue Kleinhuizen, of Alexandria, knows how the purest of questions from little kids might be the most difficult to answer, yet, can be answered. Some questions and daily experiences are easy. When her granddaughter was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis at the age of seven, and struggled to understand the importance of managing her diagnosis, grandmother Sue stepped up. She decided it was important to not only educate her granddaughter through the eyes of a child, but also create an educational tool that could help all children understand autoimmune disorders, most specifically, psoriatic arthritis. In her recently published and released book, Grandma and Me, Kleinhuizen has described, in an easy-to-understand version for children, what is happening to their bodies with psoriatic arthritis, and what they might be able to do to make it better. She knew a lot about the subject, having also been diagnosed with this autoimmune condition.
When she had the idea of writing this book, Kleinhuizen had been overseeing some e-learning classes taken by her granddaughters. Her son and granddaughters were staying at her home for a short while. When her granddaughter told her that the teacher had given the class a writing assignment to “identify who your best friend is, and what you had in common with them,” Sue went into action. As the book describes, in a condensed version for purposes of this article, “Delilah, the main character in the book, (Kleinhuizen has not used her granddaughter’s real name) began to cry and expressed to grandma, ‘I don’t have any friends. I have dry patches on my legs, and sometimes my knees and muscles hurt so I don’t run very fast. Maybe they will be afraid to touch me if they think that they will get dry skin too or get psoriasis. They might think that just because I have psoriatic arthritis, I’m not very smart.’”
Kleinhuizen is a retired Registered Nurse (RN), and she realized there was a window of opportunity to help her granddaughter. She reflected on her past experiences and the wisdom she has gained in her own life.
As Sue was raising her three sons, she did “all the things” including serving as a Cub Scout leader and Sunday school teacher. She was also a volunteer on the City Park Board in Montevideo, her hometown.
“While raising my three sons, I did in-home daycare that included accepting children with disabilities when needed. When my youngest went to kindergarten, I started working for the school district helping children with special needs and soon after doing occupational therapy with the children needing special help,” she said. “As I was engaged in this role I also began to work with the school district and community education to start a school-age day care before and after school. As this program grew I continued to do the pupil support job I had during the school day.”
When her sons were grown, Sue wasn’t done. During her youngest son’s last semester of college, she enrolled in a nursing program in Granite Falls, through a grant provided to increase the number of registered nurses in rural areas. Only 16 slots were available for the program. Sixty-eight people applied. “I was one of the lucky 16. I was one of eight who completed the course and I graduated in 2004.”
Kleinhuizen went on to work as an RN, starting with the night shift at the nursing home in Starbuck.
“I wanted to be closer to my parents to help them in their final years and they were living on a lake in the Alexandria area,” she said. “When deciding to move up to the Alexandria area, my boyfriend at the time decided to come with me and we got married. After about seven months working in Starbuck, I got a call from the nursing home in Parkers Prairie, asking me if I would consider coming to work for them on a day shift. I was happy to switch to daytime hours,” Sue said. Within a year, the new Community Behavioral Health Hospital (CBHH) opened in Alexandria. “This was a passion of mine. I applied and was hired to work there.”
It was an accident in 2012 that really changed things up for Sue. She broke her arm and was off work for nearly a year as her immune system attacked itself. She was in the hospital in Alexandria for 10 days and transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where she was given the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis. After working at the CBHH for 15 years, she retired in January of 2021 due to COVID-19 and her compromised immune system.
And so it was, when “Delilah” was given an e-learning writing assignment, Sue went to work. She told her granddaughter that “I could be your friend and your grandma. We are all different, yet very special. Let’s start with your assignment first, and if you think it would be alright, you can write about you and me and what we have in common, psoriatic arthritis. If your teacher agrees, we can do a presentation about psoriatic arthritis to share with your class. What helps is for everyone to understand more about each other and what we can all do to help one another.”
The result of that writing assignment, presentation and much research was a book called Grandma and Me, written with love and compassion in children’s terms and published by Christian Faith Publishing. The book was published and released as a “specialty book” in December 2023.
Sue’s granddaughters are back in traditional schooling in Eden Prairie and grandma still assists with homework when she spends every other week as “Grandma Day Care” in her son’s home.
“My intent from the beginning has been to instill in ‘Delilah’ that we are not so different after all,” she said. “The book is intended to educate as well as teach kindness – be the best that you can be – unique in every way. It is intended to be a tool to teach about understanding – whether it’s psoriatic arthritis, other autoimmune conditions, or other special needs. It could be used in understanding what common symptoms there are, how people get this condition and what can make it worse. The book is a tool in understanding that there is nothing better than having someone else to talk to – to possibly start a support group. It’s a compassionate message for young readers to live with a complex medical challenge.”
The book describes available treatments, the importance of getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise. The book is also meant to boost self-esteem, encourage children and adults to talk about feelings and emotional concerns, and to treat others with kindness.” And much more.
“Through research in writing this book, I found that it is estimated that about 300,000 children are diagnosed with this in the United States. Many more are likely to have this and not be diagnosed and parents may attribute sore joints as growing pains.”
Kleinhuizen wants to get the word out about autoimmune conditions and psoriatic arthritis. She has donated a copy of her book to the Douglas County Library. She is also looking at donating to hub libraries (some of them cover multiple libraries in their hub). An example is the Hennepin County Library which has 41 libraries in their county; Sue donated two books and is willing to do more if demand is great enough. “It is my intention to cover the state of Minnesota, finding and donating to all of the hubs.”
Grandma and Me is available at some area bookstores, or online at Amazon.com; Apple iTunes; Barnes and Noble, and by special order at Cherry Street Books in Alexandria. Sue can be reached through email at suzyalex57@gmail.com. She also has a Facebook page with additional tools designed to encourage support through kid-friendly conversations.