Bob CollinsFrom what I can tell, Cynthia Marie Thiel was like me. A passionate sports fan who just wanted her team to win a championship before she died. Alas, as it probably will be for me, it was not meant to be.
And I know what she was like because her friend or family wrote an obituary in the Mesabi Daily News that revealed her personality and life in a unique way, thus qualifying for admission into our NewsCut obituary ring of honor.
Skol, Cynthia!
(h/t: Angie Andresen)
In recent years, Cynthia Marie (Scheuring) Thiel regularly wore a Minnesota Vikings purple-and-gold shirt emblazoned with a rallying cry intended for her favorite football team: “Just One, Before I Die.” Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.
With her family at her side and her heart full of peace, Cindy passed away May 1 at home in Gilbert, never having shouted ‘Skol’ as she watched her Vikings claim the Lombardi Trophy – though by all accounts, she found enough joy in her 60 years to have more than made up for it.
Cindy was born to Alfred and LaVonne (Beitz) Scheuring on June 13, 1958. She grew up on Northside Virginia and out on Bass Lake Road in Biwabik, attending Horace Mann High School and graduating in 1976.
It was around that time that Cindy met Roger Thiel. Their romance was swifter than Chuck Foreman, and two were married in 1977 – perhaps by coincidence, the last time the Vikings made the Super Bowl. They were married for more than 40 years, and he was the love of her life, but he may have also been to blame.
Together, Cindy and Roger had two loving children: Tammi and Marianne were raised in the couple’s Hutter home with love in their hearts and Viking losses on their television.
She supported her family by working a variety of jobs, such as a petroleum transfer engineer (pumping gas) and a micro-particle creation and removal specialist (cutting boards and dusting paint cans). She spent 16 years as a under-desk gum removal technician (custodian) at Eveleth/Gilbert High School before she finally found her life’s calling: shortly after completing a Master’s degree in information technology, she and Amy Hendrickson created the East Range Academy of Technology and Science, a STEM-focused school for students between 9th and 12th grade.
Cindy was working on her final dissertation for her PhD when her adventure with cancer began. Shortly thereafter, she decided that she’d rather spend her remaining energy playing with her new grandchildren: Samuel, Christian and Joanna were the young joys of Cindy’s later life, and wanting to be around them doubtlessly added a few extra years to what remained of it.
Cindy is up in heaven visiting with her father, Al Scheuring and grandparents Anton and Elsie Scheuring and Joe and Arlene Beitz.
Cindy is survived by her mother, Bonnie Beitz; stepmohter, Linda Scheuring; her husband, Roger Thiel; her children, Tammi Thiel and Marianne (Peter) Erickson; her siblings, Gary Scheuring and Sherry (Gary) Richards; her grandchildren, Samuel, Christian and Joanna Erickson; nephews, Ian and Ben Scheuring and Kyle Richards; nieces, Jessica Scheuring and her clone, Kelly Richards; the Thiel clan which is too numerous to mention; and, much to her dismay, Gary Anderson, the Vikings kicker who missed the game-winning field goal in the 1998 NFC Championship.
Years (probably) from now, the Vikings will win their Super Bowl. And a lot of people will think of Cynthia in the same way a lot of people thought of long-departed Chicago Cubs fans when that team won a World Series in 2016 over the team that should have.
And this is how we live forever.
