A life marred - but not ruined - by tragedy Florence Anna Stroebel Kahn, 72

The first time Florence Anna Stroebel Kahn died, she was 35 years old.

That was in 1973, when a car crash stole her mobility, her 3-day-old baby, a singing career, her work as a nurse and, eventually, her husband, who divorced her and married one of her friends.

Kahn survived the accident, but the life she knew had ended and she became something completely different, she would tell friends -- a quadriplegic on a journey of the mind and spirit.

Her "second life" ended May 2, when she died at age 72 after nearly four decades of teaching, public speaking, volunteerism and prayer.

"She actually said she was a better person after breaking her neck because it really centered her better in her faith and showed her what was more important," said Laurie Kuehn, her caregiver and housemate for 32 years.

Kahn eventually became deeply spiritual, writing a piece in 1990 about her faith, "Flo's Psalm," that examined how she could see God early in life but not connect then. "Where does that deep connecting happen?" her psalm goes. "For me, it came with the greatest kind of loss that threw me, every part of me, into chaos."

Born in Northfield, Stroebel Kahn earned a B.A. degree from St. Olaf College and a B.S. degree from the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. She worked in intensive care, as a public heath nurse and then as a pediatric clinician at University of Minnesota Hospitals. Married in 1970, she was pregnant with twin girls in 1972 when she slipped on ice and lost both. A year later, she was with her 3-day-old daughter when her car was rear-ended at a stoplight as she drove home from work.

Family and friends helped her through a period of depression, and she eventually moved into an apartment and posted a classified advertisement for a caregiver. Kuehn, a fresh graduate of St. Paul Bible College, was looking for a cheap place to live when she saw an ad promising free room and board, plus $300 a month.

"I called the gal who was working for her at the time," said Kuehn. "I told her I was interested in nursing. She said, 'She has a lot to offer you, because she is a nurse.' That's the understatement for everybody that Flo ever met -- that she has a lot to offer them."

"She was always lifting others up. She called herself an 'Oh, look' person. She saw the wonderment and the good in everybody," said Kuehn, who moved in with Kahn two days after that first phone call.

In the mid-1990s, the two moved to a log house in Northfield. They attended Rejoice! Church in Northfield and hosted numerous "friendship dinners" with church members in their cabin's four-season porch. Their dinner guests included Stroebel Kahn's former husband and his wife.

Stroebel Kahn became a regular volunteer at the Courage Center and the Sister Kenny Institute and taught rehabilitation nursing at St. Olaf and Bethel colleges, the College of St. Catherine and the University of Minnesota. She earned a distinguished alumni award from St. Olaf.