BY DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY
The picture on Facebook caught my eye right away. There was my friend Lou Blanchfield, grinning by a colorful painting with a 2025 Iowa State Fair blue ribbon.
My first thought was, “Wow, what a cool cow picture. Good for Lou!”
I figured there was a story here. It all came out when I caught up with Lou last December. “The opportunity to paint was God’s gift to me,” Lou told me, as we enjoyed a cup of hot tea in her living room. “It gave me my life back.”
I was stunned as Lou shared her incredible saga. It turns out this dear, sweet lady I knew as a dedicated community volunteer is a tough survivor with a warrior spirit. Her award-winning watercolor embodies the gift of life itself.
Beyond the blue ribbon
Lou’s ordeal began in 2019, when she began experiencing unusual symptoms, including balance issues. “I’d be in the wooded area by our farm with our grandkids, and I’d fall,” said Lou, who was 70 at the time.
Lou also recalled the time she was sweeping the deck stairs, felt faint and fell into the garden mulch. Then there were the challenges with remembering names and dates. “I thought all this might just be part of getting older,” she told me.
Things only got worse. Climbing stairs became almost impossible. It was hard for Lou to interact with people. Medical checkups didn’t provide many answers. One doctor told her it was probably COVID-19. A doctor at the Mayo Clinic finally diagnosed her problem – idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH).
This treatable neurological disorder is caused by a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. It affects older adults and is characterized by a trio of symptoms, including balance issues/frequent falls, cognitive decline/memory loss and urinary urgency. “I had all the symptoms – ‘wet, wacky and wobbly,’” Lou said.
While this diagnosis helped clarify some things, Lou’s health challenges weren’t over. In October 2022, Lou fell again. She’d been preparing some freezer meals during harvest and tripped on the dishwasher door. “I face planted,” said Lou, who suffered a subdural hematoma, a potentially life-threatening condition where blood collects between the layers of tissue that surround the brain, causing dangerous pressure. “I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. I had difficulty thinking and lost my creativity.”
Lou told me of her fears after she met with a neurosurgeon at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. “He told me, ‘You’ll get a lot back, but there are no guarantees.’”
Perseverance, painting and a new chance at life
Still, Lou forged ahead. Her speech therapist at Stewart Memorial Community Hospital in Lake City gave her an assignment – paint “Starry Night,” the iconic artwork by Vincent van Gogh.
“How in the world can I do that?” Lou wondered. “But then I studied that painting, and all the brush strokes were shaped like the letter C. I knew I could do that.”
Lou also hired Susan Smith, an artist from Jefferson, to give her weekly painting lessons. All this led to the creation of “Clyde,” a free-flowing, vibrant depiction of a Highland bull. Lou thought it would be fun to enter her watercolor in an open class at the Iowa State Fair. “I was 77 years old when I became a first-time fair exhibitor.”
A blue-ribbon-winning exhibitor, I might add. Lou’s remarkable journey reminds me of the intriguing words of Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher who noted, “The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”
Perhaps no one understands this better than Lou. “God healed me. I’ve got blessings all over the place.”
Darcy Dougherty Maulsby lives near her family’s Century Farm northwest of Lake City. Visit her at www.darcymaulsby.com.
