The Merry Heart and Many Faces of Auntie Kreamsaugen© 2015 Lenora Thompson

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Some people who cross our path in life are not strangers. Not unfamiliar. You seem to know them even before you meet them. An introduction is superfluous. Darlene Rolle aka Auntie Kreamsaugen is just such a lady.

If you´ve ever had a Swedish or Norwegiangrandmother, you´ve already met her. If yourfamily indulged in lutefisk or lefse atChristmastime, you don´t need an introduction.And if your next-door-neighbor speaks with asingy-songy rhythm and says she just got backfrom “Teef” River Falls, then you already “know”Auntie Kreamsaugen.

Clad in her stage costume of floral shift,chartreuse apron and lavender curler cap, Darlenewas unmistakable in the crowd that gathered onSaturday in the City Hall. She invited me into her spotless van for a quiet chat “far from the madding crowd.”

As we talked, I discovered that this half Norwegian, half German grandmother is actually a nurse by trade. Although retired, Darlene sees her second “career” as an award-winning comedienne as merely an extension of her calling as a nurse and healer. “I´m so old, it´d be dangerous for me to dole out medicine,” the octogenarian jokes. So she´s turned from the syringe to the stage as a means of bringing health and healing, inspired by Proverbs 17: 22 (KJV), “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” And, as always, the Bible is not only spiritually accurate, but scientifically as well.

According to the Mayo Clinic´s website, “Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.” But the short-term benefit of laughter is just the start. “Laughter isn´t just a quick pick-me-up, though. It´s also good for you over the long haul,” says mayoclinic.org. “Positive thoughts actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses...Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers. Laughter may also break the pain-spasm cycle common to some muscle disorders.”

And Darlene is an expert in stimulating the endorphins as she warms up the inherently reserved “Scandihoovian” crowd to the tune of Roll Out The Barrel. “If you feel a laugh coming on,” she says, “be sure to let it out or it´ll find its own way out...later on...when you least expect it!” And from that moment on, she had the packed hall wrapped around her arthritic little finger.

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Darlene Rolle (80) performed her Auntie Kreamsaugen act for a packed hall of Norwegians, keeping them laughing for two hours.

The Merry Heart and Many Faces of Auntie Kreamsaugen (cont.)

But increasing our endorphins isn´t Darlene´s only mission. Her other ministry, and she does see it as a ministry “to the Glory of God,” is to reach out to other senior citizens who may find themselves adrift after retiring from a busy career. There is a lostness that descends when one no longer goes offto that self-esteem enhancing career. A career that gave us our identity and place in the world more than we care to admit. And what is left after the big retirement party is...what!?!

Darlene bursts onto the stage to inspire her fellow seniors to be active, follow their dreams and even pursue that secret bucket list. “With God´s help you can do whatever you set out to do,” she says. After all, Darlene herself had never “trod the boards” of a stage before her sixty-ninth birthday. And now, eleven years later, she´s performing more than ever...with at least forty shows in 2014 alone.

And she is the quintessential performer, able to seamlessly ad lib and incorporate even equipment problems into her ever-evolving act. She showed her mettle by capitalizing on the mysterious “snap, crackle, pops” emanating from her Boze sound system by fixing it with a humorous glare, much to the amusement of the audience. Oh, how she reminded me of my own Swedish grandmother with her crinkled brow and pursed-lips expressing disapproval.

As funny as her tall tales and one-liners are, they are almost surpassed by her mastery of the “pregnant pause.” In the style of Jack Benny, famous for refining the art of the pregnant pause, Darlene gets the best laughs before delivering the punch line. Hands on hips, leaning out toward the audience with her trademark pursed lips, she milks the pause for all it´s worth...and then milks it a little bit more to a crescendo of laughter from the audience, topped by another roar of mirth when she finally delivers the punchline!

Growing up on the farm “ya sure ya betcha´ up dere in Ulen, Minne-snow-ta,” Darlene draws on herown background to connect with the audience whom she exclaims “are her kind of people.” They relate to her quips about the little house with the half moon in the door and the tall tales from SnooseHollow. But even the non-Scandihoovians can relate to her main “schtick” as Auntie Kreamsaugen, Marriage Counselor, for what is more organic than the basic disconnect that exists between the sexessince the dawn of time?

And, of course, it´s the gentlemen who take it on the chin with her many clichés and jokes. “Men arealways on the prowl for only one thing,” she says and freezes, staring out at the audience with that grandmotherly expression of wise disapproval. There is a long pregnant pause as the high-pitched laughter of the ladies grows. But the punchline catches us by surprise. “They yust vant someone to clean deir fish!”

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Darlene Rolle has a gift for connecting with her audience and tickling their funny bones.

The Merry Heart and Many Faces of Auntie Kreamsaugen (cont.)

But it´s all part of the act. In reality, Dick and Darlene Rolle have been happily married for fifty-seven years! Although she likes to say, “Girls, men are all alike. They just have different faces so wecan tell ´em apart,” her true feelings about Dick are betrayed by how she introduced him to the crowd. “We got married the old-fashioned way, for better or for worse. I couldn´t have done any better and Dick couldn´t have done any worse!” Their trick to a long and happy marriage: “Always kiss goodnight.”

In the end, the crowd wouldn´t let her go. Who cared about the tug-of-war scheduled for 5 p.m.! They wanted more Auntie Kreamsaugen! Cheers and applause kept this 5´ 2" octogenarian going fora full two hours as she ran through her ever evolving repertoire of jokes, tall tales, a cowbell performance and lilting singing which she accompanied with her own ukulele playing.

But at last, it was time for Auntie Kreamsaugen to packup her cowbells and go back to Jasper Theater of Park Rapids, her home-base for performing. But beforeshe left, she sweetly sang Andy William´s May Each Dayas she circulated through the crowd, touching eachperson as she warbled her benediction:

May each day in the week be a good dayMay the Lord always watch over you

And may all of your hopes turn to wishesAnd may all of your wishes come true

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Auntie Kreaumsaugen lays hands on as many members of the audience as she can as she warbles May Each Day as a benediction at the end of her show.