Our beloved Raven

 Raven Lamb

April 25, 2009-Sept 23, 2025

Our beloved Matriarch made her final journey home to the other side on Tuesday surrounded by her loved ones. She was Jeremiah's first ever dog! We adopted her at the Jewell, Iowa humane society where she was born to her stray mother along with 9 other siblings.

She was the most perfect little girl who charmed Jeremiah into being the dog lover he is today. We called her the gateway dog. She raised her side kick Samuel, her boy Chase and each and every Saluki we brought home as puppies. She was independent but people and dog friendly. Cats though? That was another story. She loved to chase them when she sometimes got out the door and gave in to her endless wanderlust.

She made it to 16 years, healthy her entire life. Old age just took it's toll on her body though and we had to help her to the rainbow bridge. All of our lives were enriched for this beautiful girl being part of our family. It was a perfect union we'll remember forever. We love you Raisin. Til we meet again.

Samuel the Sheltie

 Today we had to say goodbye to our sheltie, Sam. 04/25/2010-4/14/2025.

He was a good kid, watching over his flock of humans and salukis. Loyal and full of joy every day

-Jeremiah

Samuel was my birthday present from Jeremiah and Chase. We went to a backyard breeder's home in Liscomb looking for a specific very young puppy but as soon as I got there this little guy, 4 months old decided to follow me around while the breeder gave us a tour of her kennels. He was the last of his litter to not have been chosen. (He was very skittish with everyone else) but He decided he wasn't going to let me leave without him so of course we took him home. And he followed me around wherever I would go for the rest of his life. He will be missed terribly but he was a valued member of our family and our entire pack loved him. Especially Raven.

It's been awhile...

 Wow. I can't even believe it's been 7 years since I've thought about this blog. I don't really know what's brought me here today other than the universe thought it was time. I also hate when I get into a blog myself and it just stops. So I've decided to give an update. 

It's been a learning process coping with the grief from losing my Mother during my time away. I started a new job shortly after the funeral. It's been a definite distraction and I'm still there to this day. I'm grateful for this job even though it's been trying at times and challenging especially in the beginning. I've given up pharmacy and begun dispatching with a local public transit agency. It's been much better for my feet and bursitis. In the last year I've transitioned to the Asst Transit Manager and hired and trained 2 new dispatchers. Even though I'm assistant, I am actually doing everything a transit manager does but getting paid less. Long story. My employers are a bit dysfunctional and I obviously must be too to allow myself to get into this position. Luckily my husband makes a good wage and mine is not our main source of income so for now I am in a holding pattern career wise. 

On the homefront, we'd been saving for a quite a few years to build our dream home. Just as covid was hitting we were ready to go forward on starting a floor plan. Needless to say that was a long drawn out process of waiting and wondering when would be the optimal time to get a building mortgage. The cost and availability of lumber along with everything else was skyrocketing by the day. After a long delay we decided we could lock in our interest rate and got a really good rate. We began prepping the land we had purchased in a small town about 30 minutes from where we were currently living and the basement and foundation slowly started to come together. 

We had designed a pre-fab home that's built in a factory in 2 parts and shipped to the construction site where it was joined together and then finished on site with things like drywalling. We also had to get plumbing and electrical hooked up, a deck built on the back and my husband installed all the flooring, painted inside every room and over time drywalled and painted the entire basement. 

We built this house around our dogs. It was all planned with them in mind. Three acres, privacy fenced with a full basement grooming salon and training space. It's everything we ever wanted in our new house and to see it come to life has been surreal. After talking about it for so many years and now living in it is awesome. We still have things nearly 3 years later needing completed like the rubber flooring in the basement, an outdoor shed, landscaping and some drain tiling in the backyard but it's a process and we are blessed. I think that's enough for now. 

The Aftermath

Mother's funeral was a full Catholic Mass. One she'd always requested. It was filled with family, friends, flowers and I thought Father Don did a good job conveying who she had been in life. I regret writing the obituary so quickly without really proofing it enough. THAT was always Mother's job. I often go over and over things like that and rework it before publishing. I should have said Love Abounds rather than Love Abound. Something silly like that. The other couple things I was able to correct before it was published. It's obviously keeping me up tonight though. Thinking of her is keeping me up.

Yesterday I had to call on all of her credit cards to cancel them. Turn off her phone and internet and write out thank you cards. It felt like I was erasing her. That didn't sit well with me. A close friend, Suzanne, suggested that I think of it more of freeing her. I hadn't considered that viewpoint. I suppose it is really stupid to think that anything of her is left here except memories so she's right. I just wish I could shake the feeling of being morose. I sit and look at two of the flower arrangements that are still thriving in my living room. I got a new frame for a very old photograph of Mother, Lisa & Myself when we were in our early twenties. I think it was the only professional photo we ever had taken. If you consider Olan Mills professional. LOL Either way it's how I like to remember us and she's beautiful and smiling in the photo.

I haven't cried nearly as much as I expected once she passed. I don't know if it's because we had so long a time to say goodbye or just the fact we know she didn't want to be living with dementia. We burned all of her old journals she wrote that she requested that were written before she was married to Willie. I found a smaller one she kept from 1999-2014 by her bedside. It's mainly contains documentation of things during those years and how she felt dealing with depression, fibromyalgia and finally cancer. It's nothing we didn't already talk about but I'm glad she was trying to find some solace in journaling through her feelings. I'm going to keep it. I can't seem to let go of it. It's her handwriting that I feel connected to. And reminds me how much more I need to really listen instead of talk.

I really hope she's finally at peace with herself, her God and with me. We all did our best but were human so were also flawed. I hope the other side is just like Sylvia Browne describes and she's gardening and studying. Two of her favorite things. I look forward to some day seeing her again but in the meantime I will do my best to keep her spirit alive in our hearts.

Obit

Carol Lynn Lacko-Beem passed away surrounded by her loved ones at Westbrook Acres under the care of Hospice Compassus on March 15, 2018. She was born in the city of Chicago, Illinois on January 16, 1940 to Lawrence and Betty Jane Lacko. She grew up there attending St. Procopious Catholic School until she moved to Iowa and spent her senior year of high school in Garwin, Iowa. She married twice before finding the love of her life William Beem, Jr. They’d recently celebrated their 33rd weddinganniversary. She worked for 32 years at Fisher Controls retiring in 1995. She leaves behind to grieve her loss two daughters, Lorinda (S. Jeremiah) and Lisa Lacko, husband William and two grandchildren, Shawn Liam Branan and Chase Reeves, and one great grandson Adrian Rhinehart. Son-in-law Greg Beem, daughter and son-in-law, Kathy and Ken Vergawen and three step-grandchildren, Kryssa, Jenna and Teia Vergawen.Carol is also survived by her three younger brothers Bill (Shirley), Steve (Kerry), and Tony (Shirley) Lacko who still reside in the Chicago area. She was preceded in death by her parents.

Carol was a vibrant, outspoken, beautiful, independent woman. She had a time in her life where she was a single parent, worked full-time and went to William Penn University at night to better herself for her family. Teaching them to work hard and never stop learning.Some of her life’s passions included herb gardening, teaching herself from the early days of computers how to navigate and she was off and running with anything techie. She loved exploring her family genealogy, read vigorously, and watched a lot of true crime shows and anything containing pop culture. She wanted to be “in the know”!Her children will take with them the undying devotion she had for them. If they ever needed something, they could always count on her and their Step Dad Willie to not let them flail alone. Love abound.Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at Saint Henry’s Catholic Church in Marshalltown, Iowa at 10:30. A Public visitation will be held on Tuesday night March 20, at the Mitchell Family Funeral Home from 5 – 7:00. For condolences please visit www.Mitchellfh.com or call (641)-844-1234..