Housekeeper Pam Patrie cooks food for the women of Koon. Courtesy | Pam Petrie

While the campus is quiet and the morning sun rising, housekeeper Pam Petrie has already made her way to campus, starting her daily duties before most students are awake.

She extends her motherliness by making chicken noodle soup for sick college-age women and brings in cupcakes for birthdays. She even delivers rare five-leaf clovers to residents’ rooms.

“What really struck me about Pam right away was how deeply she cares about us. She always makes it her mission to ensure we feel cared for and heard,” said sophomore and Koon resident Heather Juskiewicz.

While some see scraps, Petrie sees potential, as she refuses to let anything go to waste. Petrie attributes this vision to her “rose-colored glasses” which frame the world in a more beautiful light.

“Most people don’t pet bees. I pet bees,” Petrie said. “I talk to all animals and my niece tells me I’m a fairy princess, because my hummingbirds will do a half-pipe over my head, or come up and buzz in my face to let me know they’re there.”

After bouncing between homes as a child, Petrie said she never felt wanted. Now, she has made it her mission to make sure no one else around her feels the same neglect.

Petrie said she wouldn’t be the person she is today without her complicated past and beautiful present.

“What brought me to be so kind hearted is that I don’t want anybody to be left out or feel like they aren’t wanted,” Petrie said. “Everybody needs somebody to love them.”

Petrie grew up in Menominee, a Michigan city along the border of Wisconsin. After an unstable childhood, Petrie met her husband soon after high school and then followed him to Hillsdale, where he grew up. The couple has since built a life together within the Hillsdale and college community.

“We just celebrated being together for 36 years,” Petrie said. For Petrie, meeting her husband was a chance at a new life.

Petrie began working at the college in 2008 when a housekeeping job opened up, and she has remained at the college since.

As part of the care Petrie bestows on dorm residents, she often gifts hand-crafted wire art. Petrie uses scrap or recycled wire, sometimes gifted by other maintenance workers, to create both small and intricate sculptures. Petrie said she avoids wasting wire at all costs and will turn even a bread twist tie into a heart for someone to enjoy.

“I worked at a place called Ritz-Craft, sanding drywall, and while I was waiting for the mud to dry, I would pick up pieces of wire and just start doodling and make little flowers or bugs, and it exploded from there,” Petrie said.

Bill Lundberg, the recreation and fitness director for Hayden Park, has befriended Petrie after working together over the years.

“I’ve been really honored to know her,” Lundberg said. “This is a lady that will bounce back from any hardship or any difficulty. Those are the kind of people you want to be around because they encourage you by their attitude, their work ethic, and their ability to persevere.”

When Petrie learned that Lundberg’s 96-year-old mother is in a care facility – and fond of angels – she constructed an intricate wire angel for Lundberg’s mother.

“She was able to create something beautiful for my mom, not knowing my mom, but knowing her through me,” Lundberg said.

Petrie said she sees the world through a different lens because God has helped her overcome the pain in her life and redeem a broken past for a fulfilling present. She said to be grateful to God for the blessings he provides in all areas of life.

“You never know what beautiful things you can find in the strangest of places,” Petrie said.