Bubbly, mighty spirit of attorney DeGalynn Wade Sanders will be celebrated Friday

Fate only accorded attorney DeGalynn Wade Sanders one more Mother's Day.

Her attorney husband, Lance Sanders, was hoping for "the next Christmas" when I interviewed them — tinyurl.com/hfbleot — in February. With extraordinary optimism and bubbliness and a strict organic foods diet in the past couple years, DeGalynn had been fighting cancer that ricocheted around her petite frame. She also coped with MS and blindness. She could fight it no more Saturday for her husband and their two young sons, Landen, 9, and Logan, 6.

"I'm like really, me? You're trying to get me through one more Christmas? Really? I'm thinking a hundred more Christmases," said DeGa­lynn, who only lost her effervescence during our interview when Lance talked about how grateful he was for the financial and emotional support of the community, friends and family as she sought additional treatments. "Let's have her around for her sons. That's what we're in it for," said Lance.

"[She's been] warm and bubbly and such a strong spirit throughout this whole thing. Every day you wake up and thank God for each little blessing."

Her father, attorney Larry Leventhal, said, "She was bedridden for most of Mother's Day. The kids were with her. As you know, she was very close to her children and really watched over them and taught them in very early years how to do things.

"She had been struggling for recent years with cancer — initially breast cancer. She was in remission but it came back and migrated to her liver and spine. She had been treated at the Mayo Clinic and the University and was in Mexico. She was there for a month; came back about three weeks ago. It seemed to be helping. But on this past Thursday night she was in a great deal of pain, went into the emergency room and on Friday at Southdale they found it on the liver. The cancer had advanced considerably. With family and friends around, she died Saturday at 8:30 a.m."

Services for DeGalynn are scheduled for Friday at 10 a.m. at Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park.

Employees at a Walgreens in Minnetonka where Prince was photographed have been told not to talk to customers about that fact. TMZ ran a photo of Prince walking to his vehicle, parked on the side of the Walgreens near Hwys. 7 and 101, just days before his death.

Former Minnesotan and YouTube superstar Connor Franta's face and career inspired fledgling moviemaker Evan Kail of Stone Arch Entertainment to paint.

Kail, whose YouTube show is "In the Closet," got out his paintbrushes for the first time in a while and did a pretty spectacular portrait of the Franta: youtube.com/watch?v=zrF3WP-qCL8.

"I took a bunch of names of celebrities I admire, put them into a hat," said Kail, a friend of mine. "They are rapper Rick Ross, director Quentin Tarantino, scientist Michio Kaku and Franta, because he has exploded in entertainment. He's from humble origins and has made it, which is something I want to do, too. Connor Franta's message — Be who you are — is really inspiring to me. Don't hide anything. Put yourself out there and don't be afraid of what people think of you. I discovered his video about a year and a half ago. He got me to thinking I wanted to do YouTube, too. I studied his video and did my own thing but used him as a template. He did a coming-out video that was one of his most successful. [As of Wednesday it had 10,722,339 views.] My show is 'In the Closet.' I had the courage to do it because of him."

Kail said he will gladly give Franta the portrait if he'll do an interview.

Lyden tracked down Nienstedt at his Michigan home to get his side of a story about a relative who claims that more than 40 years ago the former church official never reported a case of alleged family abuse. Nienstedt was a half-mile into his morning walk when Lyden surprised him.

Nienstedt asked that the camera being operated by photographer Tyler Ryan be turned off.

Lyden declined and he and Ryan, hauling a camera, were off to the walk races with Nienstedt as you can see:

tinyurl.com/zxkp5xv

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Jason Show" and "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.