John Van Nostrand: In good hands

Apr. 30—It's been said and paraphrased a bajillion times, but Iowa Hawkeye women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder trusted Caitlin Clark on the court with her play.

I know how that felt Friday afternoon and evening.

My wife Jennifer and I spent a long weekend in Branson, Missouri. Hoping to do some outdoor things, the constant rain there (and much of the drive through Missouri) forced us indoors. We found a movie theater and watched "Civil War." (More on that in a future column). Following theater etiquette, we shut off our cell phones.

About two hours later, after the movie's ending, our phones lit up like a Christmas tree once they were turned on. Our daughter Kari is a junior at Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska, which was west of the worst tornado damage that hit Elkhorn, Nebraska. That town is the farthest west suburb of metro-Omaha.

She works as an attendant for the YMCA in Fremont and was with school children in an after-school program. The weather warnings were activated. While we were in the movie, we didn't know Elkhorn had a tornado. We didn't know our Kari was that close to the storm.

Phone calls were made to her from the movie theater parking lot and all was good.

Not even two hours later, we were in another theater prepared for a different performance. And before we turned off our phones, the CNA staff was informing me of the storm, tornado and damage that were happening in Creston and in Union County. At the same time our son Grant was at a job north of Bevington. Watching weather radar, the storm's path was in his direction. He was so involved in his work he didn't know what was going on until he was done and checked his phone. His phone was on a table.

He safely made it to family friends in Winterset and waited the storm to pass before he went further.

I felt odd. Knowing my kids were in good shape, I felt helpless knowing I was about 400 miles away from Creston. If in Union County, I would have grabbed a camera and started making phone calls. But it is comforting and reassuring knowing the people I work with. I can't thank Cheyenne, Mandy, Erin and Nick enough for what they did that evening and on Saturday assessing the aftermath. Kind of like that insurance company's slogan, "you're in good hands."

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During my career I've read some wonderfully written obituaries. I don't know if those were written in advance and only the dates and places had to be updated or if it shows how well the person who wrote the piece knew the person who died.

Maybe a bit awkward to think of it now, but it has made me ponder if I should have mine written in advance? (That is for another day.)

Every so often there are obituaries and they include the person's nickname, usually in the name headline and within the text. As soon as I see that, I'm hopeful there will be an explanation of how the person got the nickname. Unfortunately, not every obituary including a nickname explains how or when the nickname was created.

Iowa native and legendary actor John Wayne got his nickname "Duke" as that was the same name as his childhood dog. Maybe it's fair to say American author Mark Twain is the nickname of Samuel Clemens. Mark Twain is a reference to his Mississippi River boat pilot days and twain is the word used to describe the boat being in the safe place in the river.

My dad had a longtime friend who he regularly referred to with his nickname. My mother's father was known more for his nickname, Pete, than his birth-given name.

Granted, maybe some of those stories about nicknames in obituaries shouldn't be made public. The nickname is included since that is how the person was known but the story might not be fit to go public or it might have some level of embarrassment. I don't know. I'm just guessing. I also find it interesting how nicknames for men far outnumber those for women.

But I'm just curious about the stories that led up to the birth of the nickname.