Spiritual connections: A Vikings helmet and the memories it holds

Bud Grant, the legendary Minnesota Vikings coach, died two years ago this week on March 11, 2023. I phoned the Grant family members and shared remembrances, including words Bud spoke most frequently about death and grief: “When we lose the ones we love, and all is said and done, all we’re left with are our memories.” This was most certainly true for him after he lost his wife, Pat, and later his son, Bruce.

This week, I was at the parking office at M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, where pastors like me stop to get our parking ticket validated. Across the hallway, next to the entrance to the emergency room waiting room, is a Minnesota Vikings football helmet encased in a clear plastic pedestal. On it is a note of gratitude autographed by Bud and Pat Grant.

Taking the elevator to the family lounge of the intensive care unit to make a pastoral visit this week, I recalled where Pat’s “altar” once stood. That’s what I called her reception desk in my sermon at her funeral in 2009 because that’s where she served the Lord as a volunteer for years and years. She served others with kindness, compassion and excellence.

Her ministry was to welcome and comfort family members of patients whose health was in the balance as they received critical care. It was the place and location of her vocation … her “calling!” It was also where I received her warm greeting and her help in locating family members, whether they were in their loved one’s room, at the cafeteria, or elsewhere in the hospital.

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Memories washed over me there as I paused to reflect. Late in the night, we circled Bruce’s bed to pray in his room. Early in the morning, years before that, I gave thanks with Bud that his dear wife Pat made it through the night!

As I paged through my bulging Bud Grant file folder on what would have been his 97th birthday, I began to realize that the file folder itself is a metaphor for all the memories of a relationship and friendship that I cherish and hold dear in my head and my heart  My wife is not the only one in my family that tells me I save too much “stuff,” but, nonetheless, I’m glad for every piece of memorabilia I didn’t discard!

Thanks for the memories, Bud and Pat, and for the helmet in the hallway!

Editor’s note: Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN) contributor Pastor Rod Anderson also serves on the EPLN Board of Directors. He was the senior pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie. 

Interested in contributing a faith-based column to EPLN? Email editor@eplocalnews.org.