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Feature Photo: Clare and Kristine sitting on a granite bench in a park near the quarries
in Rockville, MN, September 28, 2011; photo credit: Tim Gross
Greetings Friends and Kin,
It is with great sadness that I announce that Death has visited the Kinstone family and Grief has settled in for a long visit. Dorothy Clare Schoenfelder, known around Kinstone as Clare, passed away on Thursday, May 30 around 4:15pm at my home. Clare is my sister who has been my rock-steady supporter since I was born. She had been living with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) for the past 20 months. She was given a diagnosis with just 6 months life expectancy in September 2022, and we were fortunate to have her with us for longer.
Clare specifically requested that no obituary be published, and no public services be held upon her passing. She made a single exception stipulating that I could announce her passing in Kinstone publications. So, this is my way of letting the world know that she lived and has now passed into the Great Mystery of the beyond. I want to share just how essential she has been in the creation of Kinstone and all of our ventures since I first envisioned building a stone circle. She has been the key to so much of it; her constant support and natural artistic ability made it possible for me to bring Kinstone into being. I have included many Kinstone related photos of her below.
Dorothy Clare (Bork) Schoenfelder was born on February 6, 1958, in Winona, MN. She was the 6th child of Roman and Angeline (Pellowski) Bork. Clare was innately creative, imaginative, fierce and fabulous. She was a writer, a poet, a playwright, a multi-media artist skilled with pen and ink, sketching, painting, and especially fiber and fabric. She loved cooking and baking and was exceptionally talented in that regard.
As a teen she published a family newspaper called the Willow Wind Warbler about the daily happenings at the home farm. She wrote and directed plays for her siblings to act out and even made the costumes and did the makeup. Clare filled notebooks with poems and sketches and created art from anything she could find. Later on, she organized and participated in many "variety shows" that included karaoke, costumes, and live performances at our family reunions. She crafted all the time - painting old furniture in new and fun ways, sewing, up-cycling old clothing to give it new life, quilting, appliqueing, embroidering, beading, and so much more! Clare made captivating art and designed wonderfully inviting spaces. She truly brought out the best in everything!
Clare was the life-partner of Richard Kuisle who died suddenly in 2017. The RPK Memorial Stone at Kinstone is dedicated to him. Richard was Clare’s soulmate, and they were true partners in all they did, including supporting Kinstone. Together they ran the Kinstone Kitchen food truck for three years. They also created the Calypso Artisan Market, a store in Winona, Minnesota that supported local artists and showcased the kind of up-cycled and handcrafted art and décor that Clare loved. Both Kinstone Kitchen and Calypso ended upon Richard's death.
Clare was involved in so many aspects of Kinstone! She went on a megalithic fact-finding trip to England and Ireland with me and our sister Betsy in 2010 when Kinstone was still just an idea. She helped plant trees on the land in May of 2011 before any stones arrived. She visited the granite quarries with me many times throughout the summer of 2011 where she helped take measurements, photographs and notes and helped name each of the stones. She made half-inch scale clay models of at least 75 stones we found so that I might play with them as I designed various features at Kinstone. She and Richard were the first to show up to help build the Kinstone Labyrinth in September 2011. Clare was with me to greet every stone as it arrived by semi-truck in October 2011 and again in 2012, 2014, and 2018 as more arrived. She stood by my side as we raised the stones to standing and placed special tokens under each. During Kinstone's early years, when we ran regular 10-day Permaculture and 3-day Natural Building courses, she handled all the food preparations for three meals per day for all participants. Her recipes were so good, and no one ever went away hungry. Her handwritten recipe book, including some of her very best "secret recipes", is an heirloom that will be treasured forever.
In the past few years, she has been hand-crafting one-of-a-kind items that are sold in the Kinstone Gift Shop - her beautiful "Prayer Flags" that each have a bit of artisan paper included for writing your own intention, "Beaded Blessings" that are steeped in the energy of Kinstone under the full moon, hand-made catnip toys, and hand-beaded dragons and labyrinths. She also designed the Kinstone Map and the current Kinstone Stickers.
Clare was a "cat person" and is responsible for the addition of the friendly felines that live at Kinstone. She loved the cats and spent so much time with them. I am convinced that her influence has made them such loving, incredible tour guides and intuitive companions on the paths around Kinstone.
It seems there was nothing she could not do! All I had to do was muse about something and she would always come up with a way to help make it real. Her creative touch is visible throughout Kinstone and all places she inhabited. There is now a huge, Clare-shaped void in the world where her physical presence was. Yet, her spirit is still strongly felt and tangible at Kinstone.
Clare attended Cotter High School and graduated from the College of Saint Teresa in Winona, MN where she completed a double major in psychology and social work in just three years. During her successful career in social work and property management, she often held the title of “boss", and she was a great one! She was firm and steady with a no-nonsense, can-do attitude. She was fierce when required and advocated for her people and causes. Clare was generous with recognition and a master of the art of encouragement; she delighted in helping others reach their full potential.
Clare is preceded in death by her parents, Roman and Angeline (Pellowski) Bork, and her life-partner, Richard P. Kuisle. She is survived by her aunt, Sr. Virginia Pellowski; her siblings Linda (Richard) Kihslinger, Katherine (W. Michael) Moore, Daniel (Kathy) Bork, Carol Bork, Ramona Bork, Julie (Glenn) Krackow, Betsy Bork, Sara (Michael) Gabrick, and Kristine Beck; many nieces and nephews; grandnieces and grandnephews; and step-children and step-grandchildren: Karianne (Jake) Schoenfelder Johnson and children Connor, Kayleen and Meleah; Chad (Nicole) Schoenfelder and son RJ; Tony (Kate) Kuisle, Melissa (Patrick) Zant and children Jack and Molly; and Alex (Katie) Kuisle and daughter Holly.
MEMORIALS AND CONDOLENCES
As attested to above, Clare was very engaged in the creation, care, and keeping of Kinstone. She was not one for the "frivolity of flowers" (her words). She said that in lieu of flowers upon her death, she wanted memorial donations made to Kinstone.
For anyone wishing to send condolences or memorials, you can mail them to Kinstone at S3439 Cole Bluff Lane, Fountain City, WI 54629. Online donations can be made on our website at this LINK TO MEMORIAL DONATIONS in honor of Clare or Dorothy Clare or Dorothy Clare Schoenfelder.
Memorial donations will be added to the newly established "D. Clare Memorial Fund" which will be used toward a new creative development at Kinstone. I have some ideas already, based on her wishes. As the fund grows, we will make plans to manifest such ideas accordingly.
Clare chose to have her body cremated. There will be a private memorial service held later this summer at the Kinstone Chapel of Creation for Clare's family and close friends. Her ashes will be released and/or buried at Kinstone. The service will be by invitation only (invitations will be sent soon).
Thank you all for reading this lengthy newsletter and for your condolences and support.
Please note that Kinstone is not a non-profit; as such, donations are not tax deductible.
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