Ardis “Ardie Mae” Brandau told the devil to “buzz off” one last time.
The self-appointed presi“dink” of the Toro Sunshine Club has received a new appointment. Ardis “Ardie Mae” Brandau passed away peacefully at home July 8, 2023. Anyone who knew her would think there would have been a bigger to-do. After all, she never did anything small or “normal.”
Her journey through life started small on Aug. 5, 1955, in Beloit, Wis. She was a “little wiffet,” as her mother would often refer to her, born to Edwin and Eleanor (Rieck) Schnurr. She joined her brother Ron who was 10 years older than her. The Rieck side was small, just two aunts and two uncles and three cousins who lived nearby. But the Schnurr side, that was big. A much-loved grandma, 11 aunts and uncles, and scores of cousins. She loved going to Beloit to visit and spending time with the many cousins that were around her age.
At the age of 3, her family moved to Kendall, Wis. She attended Kendall Grade School and Royall High School, graduating at 17. At an early age, she had already mastered the craft of BS. She liked to tell people that she was so advanced that she skipped kindergarten, but that was due to a new school being built and they didn’t have a kindergarten class, so they went straight to first grade. She would also tell her classmates that her mother was alive when Abe Lincoln was president. A statement her mother was not very happy about. Wit and humor were her coping mechanisms, and she would need them most of her life.
When she was 14, her father passed away, and she threw herself into school and band. Ardis was a straight-A student and member of the National Honor Society. She excelled in business classes and was a master typist at 160 words per minute and received many awards for her proficiency in shorthand. She was talented in the art of drawing and painting. She was a write-in for president of her eighth-grade class, according to her best friend Deb, because she had plenty to say. If there wasn’t chaos, Ardis “unintentionally” created it. Like setting her textbook on fire in chemistry class.
She played the French horn in the pit band, where she caught the eye of one of the musical’s castmates, who thought he should “paint her wagon.” He liked her hairstyle and her earrings (which she made herself). She thought he was weird but gave him a chance. This was the beginning of the next 51 years. She married her high school sweetheart, Gale, on Dec. 7, 1974, in a snowstorm. She loved that he had a big family and couldn’t wait to have one of her own. Together, over the next 12 years, they celebrated the births of their five children, Amy, Ryan, Andrew, Jeri and Lacy, and mourned the loss of their Andy. This loss affected and scarred her deeply. But as life handed her a new blow, her sense of humor remained.
Ardis endured many health issues. She was, as she would say, a professional patient. No procedure or illness was ever minor or routine. She is in the Journal of Medicine as having had the first heart-ablation procedure in the United States. With every unexpected twist, her wit and humor remained. When she went to the clinic for her INR checks, she would always have them poke her middle finger. Then she would walk past the ladies at the front desk, with her middle finger in the air, and tell them she had to go home and keep her finger up.
Ardis was a hard worker and held a variety of jobs. Her work life started with field work and haying for her cousins Charlie and Butch. After graduating high school, she moved into an apartment in Reedsburg with her friend Darlene, working as a legal secretary for N. E. Isaacson and Associates. Her skills landed her throughout her working life at the Hillsboro Hospital, Northwest Telephone in Tomah, Rayovac, AAL, Victor Breitenfield Law Office, Vann’s Bakery, Tomah Mini Mart, McDonald’s and Toro. However, she never missed an opportunity to try and get out of work and get some laughs. She once told her supervisor she had contracted East Nile virus (different from West Nile virus) and needed to go home, trying to convince him that if you contracted it, “you would be dead by the time the sun rose in the east the next day.” She was also a farmer, working alongside Gale, milking cows, plowing fields, throwing hay bales.
No one ever went hungry at Ardis’s. Ardie Mae’s Restaurant was always open, as the sign in her kitchen says. The coffee was always on. Meals were set at the dining room table many nights each week. Living close to the school in Tomah, her kids and eventually her grandsons years later would stop each day for lunch. She always had extra for their friends. This was another calling, as she loved to shop for groceries and find the best deal. Irish Ridge Road became a favorite drive.
Always proud of her Irish lineage, she spent much time “getting in touch with her Irish heritage”, and so did Gale. She enjoyed Celtic music and dance. She would scour the clearance racks after St. Patrick’s Day for a new T-shirt to add to her collection. The one that fit her best was the one that said, “Who needs luck when you have charm?”
Ardis didn’t like to go far from home, mostly because she couldn’t find her way out of a wet paper bag. She had absolutely no sense of direction, which was okay because Gale had enough for both of them. Her favorite direction was north. Trips to her friends Richard and Michelle’s Ten-Mile Lake Camp in Ignace, Ontario, Canada, made for the best memories. Over 20 years, she shared this spot with her father-in-law Bob and mother-in-law Alice, Gale’s aunts and uncles, and of course her kids and four oldest grandsons. So much laughter and memories to last a lifetime. This was her happy place.
Ardis was a caregiver. Her life revolved around those she loved. She was a constant, by her brother’s side as he lost his battle with cancer while also caring for her mother with Alzheimer’s. Her children and grandchildren were all benefactors of her selfless giving. She encouraged her children to follow their dreams and work hard for what they wanted most. She was just a phone call away to share in triumphs, fears, setbacks, offer words of encouragement or to just listen. Her special wit and humor helped them thrive through difficult times. In the end, she was extremely proud of the accomplishments of all of her children and grandchildren.
She leaves behind those she loved most. Her husband Gale, children Amy and husband Kermit Sharpe – Ryan Brandau – Jeri and husband Raymond Maack – Lacy and fiancé Ryan Weister. The stars in her eyes, her grandchildren Ryan Stanek and wife Lucia, Cole and Connor Sharpe, and Nathan, Heidi and Miles Maack, and two great-grandchildren she had yet to meet. Her mother-in-law Alice. Her brother’s children, nieces Jackie Jacobson and Patty Marshall and nephews Gary and Joe Schnurr and their families. Sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law Mary Jo and Bill Hill, Sue and Norm Peck, Ken and Dawn Brandau, Ann and Matt Hynek and their children and grandchildren.
Greeting her at the gates of heaven her son Andy, mother Eleanor, brother Ron, father-in-law Bob and many of her beloved aunts, uncles, and cousins.
A breath away is not far to where you are.
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 15, at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, 4285 US-12, Warrens, WI 54666. Pastor David Weber will officiate. Relatives and friends are invited for a time of visitation on Friday from 4–7 p.m. at the Sonnenburg Family Funeral Home, 801 E. Monowau St., Tomah, and at the church on Saturday from 10 a.m. until the time of the service.
