Audrey Mettel Fixmer died on January 22, surrounded by her family. She touched many lives in her 86 years of life and made significant contributions to the Catholic Herald as author of the “Grand Mom” column for 23 years.
Twenty-three years ago out of the blue, I got a phone call from Audrey Mettel Fixmer.
She told me she had retired from teaching English and was interested in writing for the Catholic Herald. We chatted for awhile, and I found out that she was a member of St. Joseph Parish in Fort Atkinson and seemed very devoted to her faith.
Besides that, she told me she had 11 children (one died as an infant). Wow, I thought. That was amazing!
I told Audrey that we didn’t have a regular column in our paper dedicated to senior citizens. Since she was 65 years old at the time, I thought she was qualified to write about that age group.