Death of a Firm Friend

It was with heavy hearts that we heard that my former partner’s wife was killed in a car/bus collision in Wisconsin on Wednesday. It will be awhile before we find out all that happened, but right now it really doesn’t matter.

I met Joan Bradshaw when I first started working at the Bradshaw Law Office back in 1991. She was never an employee, but she was around the Eden Valley office a lot as I grew up there. She often would answer the phone when I would call for John and if nothing else she was always a positive and friendly voice on the phone.

Joan will be missed by all of us. Even as John retired we would still see her from time to time as they would stop in the St. Cloud office. It’s funny that she would chastise others for having offices that weren’t clean and one day I asked her why she never said anything to me. She looked around my cluttered office and said, “Well, you’re busy.”

It’s odd with lawyers’ wives that they sometimes seemed to get pushed aside at events because they aren’t lawyers. Many of them handle that slight in different ways. Joan just never seemed to let it bother her and she just went ahead and did or said whatever she would have in any other situation.

She helped John and many of us with trials, hearings, and just figuring out how to present issues. She was there to run ideas by or to just let you know she was with you when cases didn’t turn out as well. She said “That’s Wonderful!” in a way that was so real and did make you feel it.

Many years ago she used to be the one who interviewed jurors for me after trials. I always appreciated how good she was on the phone with people and never sugarcoated the tough responses for me. I’m a better lawyer because of that help and I’m a better person from even the short talks that I had with her.

As a firm that does wrongful death work, we see these tragedies many times. It helps that there is a distance and that we didn’t know the person before, but it makes a difference that we do get to know the family and do spend time trying to understand the loss. It still doesn’t make it easier to see the photos and to talk about all of our losses.

Joan’s family and friends are in my prayers and thoughts.

Arrangements  have been set:

Visitation

              Mass of Christian Burial

Cemetery