1975
Tamara
2009
Tamara Pelowski
October 17, 1975 — May 16, 2009
Tamara Jean Pelowski was born on October 17th, 1975 at Ramsay County Hospital in St. Paul. Stephen and Eileen Schmidt adopted her when she was two weeks old. She grew up in White Bear. She loved going camping, especially along the North Shore. She liked fishing and playing with model trains with her dad. She loved Christmases and movies like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. When she was 12, her parents adopted a five-year-old boy from Korea, Stephen Lee. She moved to North Branch when she was 13 and made new friends like Tony Leland, Anita, and Katie. She loved to play pool and to dance and learned by watching MTV and imitating what she saw.
When she was 15 she met William Pelowski. One day in September of 1991, they met at her dear friend Tony's house who was a cousin of Bill. Bill thought she was pretty cute and the feeling was mutual but he lived an hour away. She started calling him and they developed a deep friendship talking for hours almost every night. When she visited him in January he asked her to go steady. And so a very passionate love began.
In August of 1992 Tami told Bill she was pregnant. Knowing this girl was the love of his life he promised to take care of her for the rest of her life. They married on May 8th of 1993 at the American Legion in North Branch by a justice of the peace. After a long, exhausting day they went to bed early but were soon awakened by the onset of her labor. Anthony Joseph, named for Anthony Joseph Leland, was born the next day.
The next few years were difficult but happy. Brianna Jane was born in October 1994. And soon Tami was pregnant again. Financial difficulties caused Tami to move to Ortonville, MN to live with Bill's parents while he stayed in Cottage Grove with his grandparents. Summer Grace was born in August of 1996 and Bill quit his jobs soon after to be with his new little family in Ortonville.
Tami figured out a way to move to Morris and get an apartment so that Bill could realize his dream of going to college. He enrolled at the University of MN and she stayed home with her children. Jude was born in September of 1997.
In 1998 Tami and her family moved into a house on East 5th St. It was about that time that Tami and Bill invented what they called 'Hot Dates'. They loved to dress up for no reason but each other and dance and eat good food and drink wine. She loved to dance. They were both passionate about their faith in Catholicism and loved reading spiritual books like
The Divine Mercy
by Faustina Marie Kowalska and in November of 1998 they named their fifth child after her.
Tami and Bill made a lot of wonderful friendships in Morris and always felt blessed by that good fortune. They loved throwing dinner parties for their friends, playing good music, and just hanging out. In April of 2000, Isaiah James was born. William finally graduated in 2002. Soon after they moved to a house on East 9th St. Tami worked at the Villa of St. Francis about that time as an activity aide. In about 2003 Tami started attending classes at the university. She aspired to be an archaeologist and loved the time she spent at UMM. She was involved with the Women's Resource Center and helped organize Take Back the Night. She was very interested in helping other women and feminist issues.
In 2005 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy and, for a while, it seemed that the cancer was gone. But, in the meantime, it was too difficult to maintain her studies and, sadly, she dropped out of college. In early 2007 the cancer was found in her bones. In June Tami and her family moved to a house on East 4th St affectionately known as 'The Jazz House'. It was at that time that she began treatments again to fight the cancer and strengthen her bones.
Tami passed away at 1am on May 16th of 2009. She died at home with the love of her life.
She lived an amazing life and brightened the lives of all that knew her. She loved camping with her kids at Cascade State Park, hiking along the rivers, and picnicking on the shore of Lake Superior. She said that those places made her feel strong. She liked visiting the Como Zoo and loved shopping. She used to go to the Mall of America frequently to walk around and shop. She loved cooking and was especially talented at making candy, pies, and soups. She loved to read and collect books and stones. She loved music and gardening and became very interested in plants near the end of her life. She liked fishing and canoeing. She loved her friends and her family meant everything to her. She loved being a mom.
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