Mayo radiography program brought Erica, Ed Gillis together

Erica (Ness) Gillis grew up on a dairy farm south of Kasson with two siblings. She did her share of the farm work, especially during the summer months. She participated in FFA, band and choir at Kasson-Mantorville.

It was a real privilege for Erica to be a member of the United States Youth Chorale and she toured Austria, Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands for two weeks.

After graduating from K-M in 1995, she enrolled in the Mayo Radiography School which was a two- year program.

Ed Gillis lived in the Vasa area between Cannon Falls and Red Wing on a hog farm with two siblings. He attended Red Wing schools and graduated from Cannon Falls High School in 1989 where he was involved with football, basketball, baseball and FFA. He also participated in track, cross country, band, choir and 4-H during his school years.

Ed remembered playing for Cannon Falls at the K-M homecoming football game in 1988 and K-M completely dominated the game with a cannon going off every time K-M scored. Erica attended the game that night but they did not know each other at the time.

Ed went to Mankato State University where he graduated with a physical education degree before working for a company in the Twin Cities for a year. He then decided to enroll in the Mayo Radiography school program and was in the same class with Erica. When they finished the program, Mayo in Rochester was not hiring so they joined a group of seven classmates and took a job at Mayo in Jacksonville, Fla. Ed said his roommate and one of Erica’s roommates got married so when Ed and Erica were married in 1999 he jokingly stated they “really just swapped roommates.”

Ed and Erica worked in Florida for a year and visited many sites around the state during that time. They then moved to work at Mayo in Scottsdale, Ariz., for the next year. Once again they were able to see sites throughout Arizona but they were ready to return to Minnesota as job openings were now available in Rochester.

Ed enrolled in the 18 month Mayo Echocardiography program. He has worked in that department since 2001 and is now an Advanced Cardiac Sonographer helping physicians interpret diagnostic images of the heart. His work involves children with heart issues they are born with.

Ed has had the opportunity to speak at several echocardiography conferences including one in Hawaii, as well as co-authoring a chapter in a prominent echocardiography textbook.

Erica’s X-ray work schedule is at the Rochester Mayo hospitals and sometimes the Kasson Clinic. Ed has been employed by Mayo for 27 years and Erica for 25 years.

Gillis’s daughter, Lydia, is a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, and was very involved with music and drama at K-M and was a 4-H member. Peter is a junior at K-M high school and participates in football, baseball, band, choir and 4-H. Both have shown livestock at the Dodge County fair through the years.

Mark and Melanie Hansen, fellow members at South Zumbro Lutheran Church, had adopted two children from a Ukrainian orphanage and told them about the organization they used. They mentioned a two-year-old boy in the Ukraine (now Timothy) who was born deaf and was in need of adoption. Ed and Erica lost a daughter at childbirth and always felt there was still a missing piece to their family.

They started checking into the adoption process and got in contact with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar whose office helped speed up the process which can often take 18 months or more.

In July of 2012, Ed, Erica, and their two children went to Ukraine and spent six weeks in the country working on the adoption process. The Gillis family visited several places in Ukraine and were in the Crimea region for a large portion of the time. They also visited the site of the Yalta Conference where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin had their post-war settlement in 1945.

The Gillis’ mentioned that when many of the local people in the Crimea area realized they were Americans, they weren’t always willing to listen or to help them. They were fortunate that they were able to have an apartment in Sevastopol with air conditioning as it was extremely hot in that region which Churchill called the “Riviera of Hades.” They saw old Russian missiles along streets and their kids even climbed into a Russian military tank for a photo opp. They were in attendance at a huge Russian military day which was an interesting experience!

The orphanage Timothy was at was run by women and everything was very regimented with meals, limited furniture and toys in the rooms, and no pillows on the beds. The kids were very quiet and well behaved when the lady in charge was in the room. One time she needed to leave the room for several minutes and she left Erica in charge when she was gone. Almost immediately the room broke into chaos until the head lady returned. Many of the children in this orphanage had some type of disability and most were boys. At times there would be more children at the orphanage but families would take them home on weekends so it was almost like a daycare. Sometimes families would adopt a child with a disability or health issue but would return the child to the orphanage for multiple reasons including not being able to afford the medical expenses.

Ukraine does not have the same types of health insurance programs we do here in the United States.

The process of Timothy’s adoption took eight months which was very quick. Since Timothy was deaf, he had not learned to speak any language and would point when he wanted something. He was three years old by this time but it was like starting as an infant learning sounds and how to speak. Timothy was used to being around other boys but not around adult men since there weren’t any at the orphanage so that took some time for him to adjust to having an adult male around. Timothy had a cochlear implant while still in the Ukraine and a second one put in shortly after arriving at his new home in Kasson. He now has newer updated cochlear implants.

The Gillis’ were going to enroll Timothy at K-M but one day when Ed and the kids were at the park in Kasson they met the principal from a Rochester Elementary school which had a Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. This was an absolute blessing as it helped Tim get a better start in school with other kids who had similar difficulties. They enrolled Timothy at K-M when he entered 4th grade where he has been involved in sports and band while also being in 4-H. He is now in 7th grade.

The Gillis family loves to travel. A big trip for Ed and Erica was a 10-day journey to Turkey, where they backpacked on their own and had a great experience visiting Istanbul, Selcuk, Ephesus and Dalyan. People were so welcoming to them and even invited them to share tea in their shops and one shop owner taught Ed how to play backgammon. They even met and chatted by fireside with two British military officers from WWII, one of which helped lay Trans-Atlantic cables.

The Gillis family are huge St. Louis Cardinal baseball fans (yes they will watch the Twins once in a while too). The cardinal was Ed’s favorite bird growing up and he would listen to the Cardinals games on his clock radio when he was young.

While they were still raising Shorthorn cattle, a calf decided it was time to be born the same afternoon they were to go to a Cardinals/Twins game and be on the field to meet the Cardinals players prior to the game. Ed needed to quickly pull the calf and it survived. He barely had time to get cleaned up and they got to the game just in the nick of time.

They had a great story to tell the Cardinal players of their afternoon experience. Cardinal’s baseball is on all summer long and it brings the family much enjoyment and quality time together cheering and talking during the games.

The family also have a few Tunis sheep which are the same breed George Washington raised at his Mt. Vernon farm. The sheep have red faces and legs instead of black or white. They also have some chickens and rabbits at their home which they built 20 years ago.

The kids help Ed and Erica with the chores on their place as well as the chores on her sister and brother-in-law’s neighboring farm. Erica has several gardens and loves to try out new plants and vegetables.

The Gillis’ decided to attend South Zumbro Lutheran in 2005 after they attended the annual church Christmas program. They really felt inspired by seeing how excited the kids were to be taking part in the program and wanted their children to experience this too. Ed and Erica are both involved with several volunteer programs at the church such as Sunday School, choir, youth programs, and the council.

The Gillis family loves living in the Kasson area with so many friends and family nearby. Erica mentioned when their children were young, she would bring them to the Variety Store.

At Christmas she would have each one pick out a Christmas present for their siblings while the other siblings waited outside with her and they would bring the gift to the store checkout counter where Lynn Sturgis would put it aside. When each child had finished their shopping, Erica would go into the store and pay for the items they selected.

She said something like this would likely not happen in a larger city! They feel fortunate to live in a town where people know each other by name. They feel God has directed their path up until this point and look forward to where He will direct it in the future.

Photo: Photo by Wayne Hendrickson Erica and Ed Gillis met while attending the Mayo Radiography School and have settled in the Kasson area to raise their family.