Another 30 minutes of Hattebergs people is queued up and ready to roll.

And here's what's coming up.

Guy knew when we were dating, he was the man I needed to get me through this.

With a progressive illness and a grim prognosis, Pam Rare remained a thankful person.

See how love continued to brighten her life in what otherwise would have been her darkest days.

Also.

I love him.

Oh one says.

I do.

Some dogs are treated like kings, others like trash.

But dog Zodiacs believed all dogs deserve a comfortable home and loving care.

Larry brings us the slice of life from the animal world in 1984.

Plus, I don't like being called a senior citizen.

I don't like that.

At every stage of life.

Still enjoys the dog singing, found enjoyment.

And they didn't let the calendar decide whether they were too old to do anything.

See what they were up to in the year 2000, and then learn what became of them in the years since.

And we'll have this story.

Everything is secondhand.

We're basically cheap, folks.

Sue and B.J.

Pierce knew how to blend style with frugality.

In the 1980s, they had a house decked out with stuff they bought for little or nothing.

And they loved it.

Hello, I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Those are just some of the stories we will have for you this week.

On Hattebergs People.

These stories are like old friends.

Their lives radiate from the screen, like prophets of the past.

They were teachers, but not in a classroom.

Instead, they taught about life to those around them who cared to listen.

And I was their student.

We begin with a love story.

It's a story about sacrifice, devotion, and facing the inevitable with courage and grace.

Pam Rayer had a progressive, debilitating illness that was going to take her life.

But in the process, her husband, Randy, made Pam feel as loved and cared for as possible, and that helped her make the most of her final years.

He is the most wonderful man I have ever heard about and I've been so blessed and had the opportunity to love.

When Pam Maria talks about her husband Randy.

It is real love.

To him and to honor him and God knew when we were dating.

He was the man I needed to get me through this.

Later on in or he hears.

The this that Pam refers to is ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

She has a slow moving form of this, almost always fatal disease, and she's had it for over four years.

I didn't even know what a loss was.

After she explained it to me and I said, Okay, what's treatment?

And I said, There is no treatment.

I said, Well, what's the cure is?

There is no cure.

I said, How long do I have to live?

He said, 2 to 5 years.

In an instant, everything changed.

Now, you know her husband, Randy Rader, by his business beard and stained glass and gifts on West Kellogg.

But what many don't know is that now much of his life is not his business, but instead it's taking care of Pam.

You don't have the goals.

You don't have the future.

You don't you know, you.

Just want to make sure that that today is is.

Hopeful.

And today she's happy.

And she just amazes me in the sense that.

Her fight for life and yet her love for life is still so strong.

This deeply religious family has many friends who have helped them through the illness over the past four years.

And recently they gathered and Pam shared her life, her future.

You know, I don't know whether it's good to leave this earth fast by car wreck or something, you know, and die quickly or to get a diagnosis and know that you have so much time.

And I think I prefer it this way because it's given me such an opportunity to make memories.

Those memories are in the form of books to each of her four daughters.

Today, Tiffany and Crystal are by her side.

The other two are in school.

They're my rocks.

My girls and my husband are right there picking up the pieces, helping me think positive.

These books contain all the information she always wanted to tell her daughters in case she can't, too.

I needed to give advice to my beautiful daughters in case there was a time that I couldn't talk.

I'm there with.

I know.

I hope and pray that my time here on Earth is many more years.

You know, I want to see those first grand babies.

But don't worry.

He's my ride right along with Christ.

And that is how I get through this.

I am telling you, some girls find a man like daddy ambitions and good hearted and loves God.

And he's wonderful.

And he did.

Now, Pam lived for more than five years after that interview, and her wish did come true.

She did live to meet her first grandbaby at her funeral in 2010.

I was asked to give the eulogy.

I'll never forget that funeral because they showed much of your how to Berg's people at that funeral.

And it was such a testament to the woman that Pam Rare is.

And I still keep in contact with one of her daughters.

And she and her sister are are a testament to the person that that she was.

And her husband, Randy, meanwhile, still has the glass business.

He remarried a few years ago.

Randy says Pam was a great blessing in his life, but after a period of mourning, it was time to move on.

Randy says his new wife is a great blessing as well, and he loves her very much.

Well, he was it was an amazing time because she had such a circle of friends.

She really did.

And when I was over to her house doing the interview, all her friends surrounded her around.

It was very positive.

Despite her awful illness, it was a very positive moment.

Now she's looking down on us.

I know she is.

Sometimes the simplest things can make the biggest difference.

For example, a ride to the store or the doctor's office can mean everything.

So someone who is otherwise homebound.

Sue Connelly of Anthony understood this.

In 1998, she was driving the only taxi in town.

Well, it's not very big, but takes a little while to get across town.

I pretty well know the whole town right now.

Sue Connelly knows every street and nearly everyone in Anthony.

She's a taxi driver.

Actually, she's the taxi driver.

This is Esther Johnson, one of my little ladies that rides with me quite frequently.

Esther brought along some extra magazines.

Hopefully we don't charge.

Extra for them.

No, we don't do that.

Taxi!

Are you ready now?

You know, based to mobile.

Some days are busy for Sue.

Others not in these days when service is difficult to find.

Sue Connelly and her Anthony taxi are an island in the sun.

So what do you do this afternoon?

Sometimes it's just talking to people who didn't have any company today.

Well, some days are like that.

Some day you have all the company, or so either you have all the all the company or no company.

That's true.

That's the way it works.

In small town.

Talk comes with the service.

Well, it makes me feel good that I can help people get around in their daily lives that otherwise maybe couldn't get out and go places if I wasn't able to help them.

In these books, Sue has kept track of each and every fare.

Well, I keep a daily and monthly and logs on each person that rides.

A ride.

And Sue's taxi won't break your bank because the city of Anthony subsidizes the taxi costs.

$1 each way.

$2?

Have you told them my age?

Well, I thought I'd let you do that if you wanted to.

And if you don't want to, you don't have to.

I think that you're do very well.

Each person has a name.

Each person is an individual.

Helped to and from the door.

Well, thank you.

And I'll see you next week.

You be careful.

Now.

I will.

Okay.

Bye.

Bye.

All.

Well, I have a good feeling when I go home that I've done.

That I've done the best I can do.

And I'm usually ready to go the next day to there all over again.

Now, Sue was also a hairdresser and the Avon lady.

Now, several years ago, the city discontinued the taxi service.

Sue passed away in 2022 at age 85.

Can you imagine all that she learned from taking all those people around in a small town?

What a gift for her.

I'm sure they talked about their past, their president, all kinds of things.

And she was a gift to them.

Yeah.

You know, gave them a ride when they probably couldn't get a ride any other one.

It's what makes the world go round.

That's right.

Well, now let's rewind.

I love this to 1984.

It's a story about people and their dogs and coping with a cold, a snowy winter.

Over this past holiday season, you've seen and read stories about the bitter cold, about people freezing to death, about plane crashes and about highway accidents.

Well, the next two stories come under the heading of Good News, and they're both about animals.

Siberian husky puppies, seven of them only a few days old.

They belonged to the Chuck Shaun of her family on Wichita's East Side.

Chuck is recuperating at home from hip surgery, and his dog, a Siberian husky named Kiska, is never far from his side.

She just seems.

Stay with me.

And one wants to be with her all the time.

The dog knows that something different has happened to Chuck, so she divides her time between her puppies and her master taking care of both.

It is a special relationship.

You pick it up.

Now that's the lucky dog.

But there are some animals in this county who aren't as fortunate.

But there's one woman who's trying to change that.

It's time to get fed.

Her name is Dawn Zilliox.

And inside this structure, she may have the largest dog house in the state.

We try to keep all our dishes washed up and cleans, keep down diseases like that.

Most of these dogs would be dead if Dawn hadn't stepped in this old farmhouse couldn't house people anymore.

But it makes a great place for homeless dogs.

They're waiting for their breakfast.

They've been waiting for quite a while, and it's given to them warm in the winter time, it goes better.

The house is kept spotless.

There is no odor and papers on the floor are burned every day.

Just a minute, kids.

Dawn lives right next door in a mobile home because taking care of all these dogs is a 15 hour a day job.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh, oh.

I respect them.

They respect me.

They'll come up under your hand and.

And ask to be petted.

They feel the same.

As you do.

Each one of them I can take out here.

They follow me.

If I'm upset, they know it.

It's a it's passed between myself and the animal.

Yeah.

No, no, no.

You can't go in.

These dogs had no future.

They had been dumped, mistreated and abandoned.

Dawn, working with the animal care organization, believes these animals have a right to live.

Oh, I love them.

Oh, really?

Says I do.

From death.

She has saved horses, cats and of course, the dogs.

Now, not everyone believes these animals should be saved, but that doesn't deter Don Zilliox.

He says.

He is a dog's.

Best friend.

Got all the dog.

This is Lori.

Had a bird.

Oh, you know, if you have a pet and I know many of you out there do, if you have a pet, you know how important that animal is to you.

And for these people who are profiled, animals are so very important.

They are like human living members of the family.

Absolutely.

So when a cold spell comes on, you do what you can to make sure that they they stay well because they are part of the family.

There are part of the family.

And I remember that winter, it was a one darn cold winter.

It was.

Yeah.

Well, the image of retirement has changed since some of us were young.

Younger.

Nowadays, being a senior citizen doesn't necessarily mean your best days are behind you.

Phil and Joyce dozing.

They had some of their most satisfying moments in their golden years.

Take a look.

Just being out here with nature and listening to the birds and the solitude of it.

We're proud.

Phil and Joyce Josephine are living their dream in their Kansas backyard.

And then we've always lived in this neighborhood, and we just couldn't move away from it.

When we retired, we wanted to stay right here.

Oh, I just like the solitude of it in the sit in here and rest and enjoy the beautiful scenery around here.

Sitting for a moment because they just returned from backpacking in Australia.

They are the new older generation.

Mind fish man.

Funny.

My fish.

Lunchtime.

You get bumped.

You think green is green?

But look at the different shades of green as you just look along the woods over there.

We've had a real live life.

You are paid.

To go and they've taken off.

They had their they've had their lunch.

You know, we got married.

We just thought we were mad.

We didn't even know what we were talking about.

We do now.

In their travels, they are defenders of the state champions of Kansas.

Many trips we go on, they say, Well, where are you from?

We say, Kansas.

Oh, my Lord.

That's right.

Somebody told us in Turkey when we said we were from Kansas and we were enjoying Turkey so much.

We were from Kansas.

And he said, Oh, well, you're just happy to be anyplace wrong.

Most of all, this is what they love the land, being together and being part.

Of something.

Very special.

The river, we love it.

It just adds to the beauty of the area.

We played along the Kansas River saying, I both grew up in the area.

We played along the Kansas River as kids.

Women that I was into was right.

Six years.

Old.

They don't feel old.

They don't act it.

Oh, I don't I don't like being called a senior citizen.

They don't like.

That they are the new older Americans trading rocking chairs for airline seats, but always defending and always returning to their home turf.

Hear that ran?

Yeah.

Now fell.

And Joyce kept enjoying life together for another 20 plus years.

Joyce recently passed at 96.

You know, just being together for all of those years.

96 years old is a long time.

I know.

You know, almost ten decades in this life, it's on believable.

And I'm just so happy she lived as long as she.

Did and that they got to enjoy their last years together.

Yeah, they were together.

And that that's all that counts from Phil.

Meanwhile, he's still alive and kicking as of this day.

We recorded this show.

He is 98.

He still lives on his own and he still drives.

Never give up.

Never, ever.

Don't retire.

Just keep living day to day.

So important.

Exactly.

And day to day is the key.

In these days of skyrocketing inflation, many of us are having to pinch pennies just to keep our heads above water.

Well, the 1980s were challenging times, too, for a lot of people.

But Sue and B.J.

Pierce had a knack for living cheap while at the same time not feeling deprived of anything.

People just don't realize they can furnish their house with little or nothing.

We wish we would have gotten into it earlier because we lived without a lot of things because we thought you had to spend a lot of money.

Sneak Sue and B.J.

Pierce live in a beautifully furnished and creatively decorated home in Mulvane.

Nothing here is store bought.

It's all from garage sales or auctions.

And we buy anything that we like, whether it matches anything we have or not.

We were gone every weekend.

I would go to auctions every week and come home with a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff and rearrange the house every weekend.

Every weekend?

You mean to show you our clothes?

Everything we buy, sell everything.

We've maybe half a dozen pieces of clothes we have bought at stores.

Everything secondhand.

Maybe they need a little mending, but who cares?

Like this solid walnut table buffet, six chairs.

We paid $200 for the whole outfit.

Well, if you went to a antique store, most likely you couldn't touch the buffet itself for $200.

It's fun.

We're addicted.

The baby bed was $30.

The stuffed animals in it.

Five, ten, $0.15 here and there.

Well, we spent probably about $700 on everything that's here in the bedroom.

That's including all the old pieces like that oak dresser there.

We pay $250 for it.

And in an antique store, you can touch it for around seven or 800.

Everything is secondhand.

We're basically cheap, folks.

It's whole panel was given to us by some friends of ours in perfect tune.

We bought this for $0.50.

Everything on the walls is virtually cheap.

If we can't pay cash, we don't buy it.

We don't have any credit cards.

None.

There's just so many things that you can get that at a cheap price that you couldn't get at a store.

And many times you find things that you cannot buy at a store.

The table and chairs we bought at an auction, one of the first we ever went to was $35 for the set.

A couple of summers ago, we found this live for $2 at a garage sale.

Everything in here is reasonably priced.

And then there are those who might ask.

Isn't some of this stuff junk?

Yes.

But it's good junk.

Everything in this house is pretty functional.

We fill the trunks up.

We've got baskets with belts and shoes.

And we really like it that way.

It's our lifestyle.

It's the way that we live and the things that we put in our house are just exactly what we want.

So it is functional and we love it.

Now Sue and BJs split up several years ago.

We weren't able to track down Sue, but B.J.

now lives in Conway Springs, Arkansas.

He says he still likes to shop for bargains and buy and sell collectible.

That's so cool.

It is, I guess.

You know, can you see the bargain shops in Arkansas?

He must find some really cool things.

I'm sure he's there every day.

All right.

B.J.

says he vividly remembers the day that Larry came to their house in 1985 to shoot that story.

I was ten years old.

Yeah, exactly.

I wasn't born.

Yet.

He says it couldn't have been more fun.

He had so much fun with Larry.

Oh, shooting that story.

That makes me feel great because, you know, we're taking up people's time when we do this story and we're getting involved in their life.

And I hope people don't resent it because their stories are great ones that need to be preserved.

So it's great to hear that from B.J.. And they're preserved in 2022.

Yes.

And they will keep going.

Yes.

Okay.

Our last story is from a long time ago to 1987.

She was an artist from McPherson who made quite a name for herself.

Yeah, for decades.

Olya Hall's intricate designs left art lovers in awe.

And they still do, actually.

Take a look.

And it's my little blue heaven.

Well, they tell me I'm a rebel.

I probably am non-conformist.

I like to be myself.

Meet Olya Hall of MacPherson, an artist who makes the difficult task of China painting look easy.

And a woman who believes that if advancing age means going downhill, then she's just picking up speed.

Well, I think I'm just a younger person in an older body that can't do a thing about poor Olya.

Life is art and art is life.

And these delicate china paintings reflect years of practice and patience.

It's dainty.

I like dainty things.

It really is another canvas kind of painting.

You can put it on anything, can have a picture, you can have a set of dishes.

You can have jewelry.

There's no limit to what you can do with china painting.

I think it's nice that I teach because if I was painting, I probably wouldn't want anybody to come.

I would just be a buyer by myself and paint.

But this way I meet people, make friends.

The teaching is done in her home, where a small group of students gather weekly to hone their skills.

I tell my students, if they do it right, they're making heirlooms.

Some pictures by the great masters are copied into China plates.

Other designs are her own, like her design for staying young.

I think a lot of people I met did when they retired 65, they're just supposed to sit in a rocking chair and be happy.

And I couldn't do that because I've always I have a nervous energy.

I think probably I'm going to try as long as I can stay young.

Olya is also known as the Lamp Lady because she's one of a handful across the country who repair these Victorian globe lamps.

It's about the only thing I custom paint is the teaching.

I don't have the time.

Once the globe is replaced, all painted to its original design.

I suppose so.

Oliver Hull is nearing 80 or plans to continue painting and to vacation very soon in Japan.

You're never too old.

Never too old.

If you have the right attitude and the right outlook on life, because every day you wake up and it's just another good day and it's a blessing.

And we should all thank God each day for each day and and be glad that we can wake up and be out and do the things we want to.

Now, all you traveled all over the state to teach classes, and she did that for more than 22 years.

She lived to be 98 years old, and her amazing work will live on for generations in the form of prized possessions and family heirlooms.

Oh, family heirlooms.

They're worth their weight in gold, right, aren't they?

Oh, they absolutely are.

And she was a great china painter.

And I love her name too.

Olya Olya I like that.

It's a great.

Now, thank you for your gift, Olya.

It's time for us to hit the road.

But before we go, jot this down.

hattebergspeople@kpts.org.

We love reading your comments and answering your questions.

That's where you email us.

hattebergspeople@kpts.org.

I'm Susan Peters.

Thank you so much for watching.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Be well.

We'll see you again soon.