NW Valley Times

Freshman Audrey Boberg comforts her emotional mother, Jenna Boberg, during the Lope Family Sendoff at Sunset Auditorium. Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow

Thursday was a day of farewells.

“I’m glad you taught me __”

“I’m thankful that you __”

“I’ll call you when __”

A paper with these words was given to each student to fill out and hand to their parents and loved ones at the inaugural Welcome Week event called Lope Family Sendoff in Sunset Auditorium at Grand Canyon University.

Audrey Boberg didn’t need a prompt. It was spoken over and over in the months prior. The freshman was draped over her mother, Jenna, amid two high school friends and their moms who stood in a circle.

“I feel like it is a celebration,” Jenna said. “Each of us had a big journey to get here, some trials and tribulations. Audrey was quite sick. We didn’t know if she would be able to go to college, let alone across the country.”

Audrey said she suffered a series of chronic infections that she couldn’t shake, and then her body went into autonomic failure when “temperature control, balance, everything you don’t think about, your body just stops working. I had to learn to walk.”

She spent a month at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, a couple of hours from the group’s hometown of Waconia, Minnesota. She missed 6 ½ months of high school.

“She went from a two-sport varsity athlete to her brother carrying her down the stairs if she wanted to leave her room,” Jenna said.

But a dream persisted.

A couple of years before, Audrey and her schoolmate friends Hailey Getz and Shelby Hagedorn were visiting the Grand Canyon when they saw a billboard for Grand Canyon University. They have a university in the Grand Canyon? They looked it up to discover it was in Phoenix and thought, “that’s odd.” That led to a trip to the college.

They walked on campus, and it felt like home. We are going to Arizona, they promised one another.

Then came the illness.

That’s when Jenna Boberg joined Hailey’s mom Sheila Getz and Shelby’s mom Jodi Hagedorn in their Bible study group. They prayed hard. Jodi was baptized. Audrey slowly improved.

“They gave us strength when we needed it, to lift us up,” Jenna said. “God’s hand has been in all of it. It’s how He works.”

Audrey is doing well though she has been diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a chronic condition of the body’s autonomic nervous system.

It will not stop her. She begins studying to become a teacher one day. There is no doubt she will call her mom.

Along with 367 others in the auditorium, they sang worship songs – sons sitting between mom and dad, daughters’ heads cradled in the necks of their graying fathers, moms caressing the backs of their sons like they did when they were toddlers.

“As soon as the worship started, I felt the Holy Spirit in this room,” Jenna Boberg said. “I couldn’t stop shaking. All the trepidation – about leaving our daughters at the southern border when we are on the northern border – it feels like God was saying ‘I am here.’”

The group sang loudly: “In my Father’s house/There’s a place for me/I’m a child of God …”

“I am scared,” Audrey said. “I’m not gonna lie.”

What Audrey jokingly called a “cryfest” continued.

There was joy in an event that Dean of Students and University Pastor Dr. Tim Griffin described as a rite of passage in parenthood when “you are going to be hugging them, kissing them, and wandering off to your car and leaving them here."

“This is such an incredible stage of life," Griffin added."Families, I hope you are prayed up and you’ll pray for them on a regular basis as you leave them here on campus and they begin to find their way into adulthood.”

There was worry too; one mother expressed hope that when her son is alone and struggling he doesn’t get discouraged but seeks assistance for success.

There were tears shed by parents for children even during good times.

Joey Weertz sat between his dad Chris Weertz and his mom Jamie Weertz near Detroit Michigan.“I’m not even going to be able to talk,” Chris said clearing his throat.“I don’t think we realize it…” before giving up an attempt.

Mom Jamie picked up where he left off talking about Joey,“He is very sensitive caring wears his heart on his sleeve,and is great leader who tries role model Christ.”

Dad recovered suddenly strong voice.“He leaves all field no matter what he does.Anything life all confident will here.”

Joey asked wrote slip paper hands prompt fill taught thankful blank.Without hesitation just looked parents said:

“Dear mom dad.I’m glad taught live faith.I’m glad prepared live own."

"I’m thankful know always support decisions."

"I will call miss something new happens excited something.I’ll call want feel close home.”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]