Farewell to epic nurse; ribbon cut for AV museum
It’s a little overwhelming when two soul-stirring events sweep life along in just one day, but it is glorious when it happens.
On Saturday, blue with clouds and in between the rain and snow, our travels took us to a memorial for a Navy sailor whose life touched so many people that they filled the pews to the back of Grace Chapel.
A separate event touched this one — the ribbon cutting for the newly expanded Antelope Valley Rural Museum. The museum at the AV Fairgrounds and the memorial to ring the bell for Navy veteran Patricia Karnstedt define what many call a “labor of love.”
The touch-point in a memorial service and a museum opening is that both the museum and nurse Karnstedt embody selfless service, love, honor and respect.
Karnstedt joined the Navy in 1969 and became an air traffic controller, serving at North Island Naval Base in San Diego. She was one of only 250 female air traffic controllers out of a cohort of 21,000. In other words, “Pat” was exceptional.
With the FAA, she was a Fox Field air traffic controller until 1989. Seeking a fresh challenge, she enrolled in the nursing program at Antelope Valley College and aced it. Three decades later, after a third bout with cancer, Karnstedt died on Jan. 23, having lived an adventurous 75 years.
Someone said, “Cancer didn’t get Pat,” adding it was a fight that ended in victory for Karnstedt. “She knew where she was going, would smile and tell anyone, ‘I have had a good life.’ ”
A Navy vet with a master’s in nursing, Karnstedt was the cancer program coordinator at AV Hospital, a nursing educator at AV College and was the consummate professional who helped establish a partnership with City of Hope. She finished her splendid career as a nursing director for Antelope Valley Supportive Care and Hospice.
“As a cancer survivor herself, she was able to offer patients an empathetic approach to care,” her obituary stated. “She truly understood what they were going through.”
People left Karnstedt’s memorial feeling better than they did when they arrived, with tears followed by smiles.
An hour later, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger cut the ribbon at the revamped, expanded AV Rural Museum at the Fairgrounds.
“You are the ones who did this,” she said to a gathering of about 100 joyous volunteers and museum supporters. “You got this done for everyone.”
Flanked by volunteer leaders Giovanni Simi and Bill Rawlings, Barger was joined by Council members from Lancaster and Palmdale and so many community queens that they spilled out of camera range.
What everyone contributed defined the phrase, “labor of love.” Volunteers donated their time, hands, hearts, wealth and wisdom.
The museum is made up of galleries that display the Valley’s rich agricultural heritage and the annual fun of the Rural Olympics, the competition of hay baling contests that keeps the Valley’s past in the present.
The gallery dedicated to the Valley’s rich aerospace and military history honors the memory of the best that our region gave the nation. Gallery space is dedicated to AV High graduate Charles Rader, awarded the Silver Star for rescuing his B-17 crew during a crash-landing in World War II. Another local hero, Robert Eugene Settle, flew with the Flying Tigers, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross.
Yet another case displays the Valley Press legacy page of all our local troops killed fighting the Post 9/11 wars and dog tags memorializing the 7,000 killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Another display honors the Women’s Air Service Pilots, the WWII trailblazers who set the pace for females flying military aircraft. Had she been born a couple decades earlier, Karnstedt would have guided them in, or maybe flown with them. She once steamrolled an F-4 Phantom pilot into giving her a backseat ride. Somebody said when she got to heaven, she would be back on the job.