Meredith Medina Kahnke, Fond du Lac, says her struggles empower her to encourage others facing hardships and help them turn to God. (Submitted photo)
Meredith Medina Kahnke
Holy Family, Fond du Lac
Quote: ““You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep rereading the last one.”
Family: Three children.
Summer favorite: Hosting family and friends at their pool.
Dream for the future: Writing a book.
Work world: Religion teacher St. Mary’s Springs Academy, Fond du Lac.
Meredith Medina Kahnke wants you to know that pain can bring peace.
“Accepting that pain is a part of life and that we are supposed to experience it — not turning away from God, but leaning in and truly, on my knees, trusting in him — has brought me a level of peace.”
Kahnke’s journey of traumatic pain and fear might break most people, but the presence of a loving God has carried her through the loss of her husband and her battle with cancer.
“I don’t love what happened to me. I would not have chosen this for myself. A lot of times, I would ask, ‘Why me, God?’” Kahnke says.
“I have changed my mindset and thinking to: ‘Why not me?’ Because now I can help and encourage other people who are in similar situations that may need encouragement or help turning towards God.”
The Fond du Lac native and alumna of St. Mary’s Springs Academy in Fond du Lac said she had a typical upbringing before meeting Jerry Medina and leading him to a new understanding of God’s love as they attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“He was going through law school, and we were seriously dating. He went through a super hard time with his faith … really struggling with his purpose and belief,” Kahnke said. “We spent an entire summer deep-diving, because I turned him towards the Church. He truly came out on the other side of that experience.”
Meredith and Jerry got married at Holy Family Church in Fond du Lac on Sept. 8, 2012. Just 509 days later, injuries from an automobile accident took his life.
“After he died, it just brought me such peace that he went through that struggle and truly believed because when he died, I knew that he knew where he was going,” she said. “Just that whole experience came full circle in that moment, even though it was absolutely and obviously devastating.”
Kahnke acknowledges that her surrender to God in moving forward wasn’t seamless.
“I was very angry, having a really hard time believing in a God that would allow this to happen. It was just the first time where I was really struggling with my faith. You realize how truly not in control you are,” she said.
“I remember Fr. Ryan Pruess at Holy Family saying, ‘Meredith, I don’t believe that God is saying this is going to happen to somebody at this certain time, (but) God interacts in that moment.’ It just truly prepared me for life in general and just truly surrendering to God and trusting that he will take care of me when things don’t go my way.”
Then 10 years later and as the mother of three, cancer took Kahnke away from what she planned.
“I felt a shooting pain in my breast. I found a very small lump, but I went in for testing and they found not just that one, but another one, and it had already traveled to my lymph node,” she said.
She again turned to her faith in God’s love.
“I knew he would take care of me through this. I could have so easily passed off this small lump as nothing — probably do what a lot of people do.”
Kahnke credits prayer for getting her through to finishing her treatments in June — particularly the prayers and actions of a community.
“I just felt like God’s arms wrapped around me during that time. My dad’s prayer group prayed for me. Having Masses offered up to me, hearing that and how people were praying for me all over, just really uplifted my spirits,” she said.
“The people that rallied around me when this was all going down, bringing me meals, just kindness, care packages — I just saw the face of God in so many people all the way down to like the nurses at the cancer center — absolute angels on earth, just so caring. I remember walking in, and one of them looked at me and said, ‘You are going to be fine. You are going to be fine.’”
Kahnke hopes her journey can help others see that God will never abandon them, and that experiencing the pain and anger we feel in life is OK — particularly when we can use it to love God and others.
“It’s okay to sit in grief and be angry, but not to live there. God loves us in whatever stage of life we’re in, no matter how angry we may be at him,” she says.
