Editor:

I’ve started this letter several times since Mandy Shetler’s death in an auto accident. It’s difficult, maybe because it seems so unbelievable as well as painful. 

If anyone could be described as a force of nature, Mandy fit the bill.

She was a whirlwind in The News office, minding the subscriptions, delivering bills and newspapers, waiting on customers and cleaning up after the staff.

Mandy was the face of The News to many as she made the rounds to the area post offices and businesses.

I can still hear her voice in only a half serious tone of shock saying “Daniel!” when I’d say something mildly outrageous. She liked it when I’d greet her in German with a “guten morgen” or a “guten tag.”

She loved her family of siblings and nieces and nephews and spoke of them often, taking time off to visit them in other states. 

She liked to talk about her father, Daniel, who she described as a very strong man. I believe she said he had been a blacksmith.

Since she had not had a horse and buggy for years, I’d often drive her around, and we have a wide range of conversational topics. 

I remember teasing her that when she’d get out of the newspaper vehicle to deliver tourism magazines in Amana, she was going to confuse the tourists. 

“No, I’m sure the Amish are in Amana, I saw one there,” I’d tell Mandy they’d later tell their friends. She’d rely with an “Oh, Daniel!”

I can’t imagine what a shock it was to the newspaper staff when they got the call of the accident. My heart goes out to them as well as to her friends and relatives. She will be missed.

Dan Ehl

Former News Editor