By SUE NASINEC
Owner, and director at Bruss Heitner Funeral Home
I have wanted to be a mortician since I was ten years old. Sadly, the death of one of my best guy friends led me to realize that I wanted to help people because I was fascinated by science and what could be done after a person died.
As a student at Ellendale-Geneva High School, the big 7th-grade half-hour report was renowned by the sixth graders (knowing it was coming up) and the 8th graders who were glad it was over. The teacher at the time was Douglas Parr, who I am happy to report I am still in contact with today. The report had to include several components: two interviews with someone directly related to your topic and props to get your point across. Well, challenge accepted.
I reached out to two people. The funeral director in New Richland, MN, Howard Fredriech, who owned and operated the funeral home. and my minister, Pr. Charles Espe, LeSueur River Lutheran Church. Those interviews lasted (according to my mom), longer than a couple hours due to my questions being answered in the best possible way. I reached out to the owner of the Ellendale Funeral Home, David Bonnerup, and interviewed him too. He allowed me to use the chapel for my presentation. We brought the whole 7th-grade class to the funeral home. David brought up his hearse, which sat outside the funeral home, an embalming machine, so I could explain how it was used, instruments, and memorial paraphernalia to share with my classmates.
I was so nervous about everyone’s arrival and for the report I was about to give that I ran to the bathroom and was not at the door as they arrived. So out of a possible 200 points, I received 198 because I was not ready at the door. (A lesson I learned and have never forgotten).
After graduating from Ellendale-Geneva High School, the class of 1987, I worked for a year, then attended the University of Minnesota-Waseca, the school of agriculture. I graduated with an associate degree and met my husband, Nathan. After our marriage, we moved to Roseville and Nathan finished his degree at the St. Paul Campus. After the birth of our first son, Brandon, I went back to school for a year at Mankato State to obtain undergraduate credits and ultimately transferred to the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, School of Mortuary Science. I graduated in 1996 with my Mortuary Science Degree, B.S, and secured my internship at Bruss-Heitner Funeral Home in Wells, March 1, 1997. Nathan, Brandon, and I moved to Wells as I started my career as a licensed funeral director.
On January 1, 2008, Nathan and I bought the funeral home from Stan and Kathy Bruss, bringing the history of the funeral home full-circle. Bill and Erna Heitner were the second owners of the funeral home, purchasing the building from the Hanson Family. Erna was the licensed funeral director, and her husband, Bill, was her business partner and right hand in the business. They had two children, Maynard and Carolyn. Maynard and his wife, Betty, bought his parents out, and in 1978, they brought Stan Bruss (wife Kathy) to Wells. In 1986, Stan and Kathy bought the business from Maynard and Betty. Since Nate and I bought the business, I have been the mortician, and my husband is my right hand, as well as our insurance agent so we are able to write pre-need insurance policies in-house. Who better to understand the costs associated with funerals than the funeral home?
I have been licensed as a funeral director in Minnesota for 24 years, and we are incredibly proud to be a family-owned and operated funeral home. March 1, 2022, we will celebrate this milestone as my dream of building a new funeral home has, ironically, come to life.