Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

There haven’t been too many times in the last 30 years that I was at Prairie Bluff Golf Club in Lockport Township without Brent Hassert, but October 12 was one of them.

Tammy and I were among a couple hundred family and friends of Brent’s, who died August 29 at 71 after a long illness. His widow, Lee Goodson, and his sons, Justin and Josh, put together a wonderful memorial, and the large dining room at Prairie Bluff was the perfect spot.

Brent helped the Lockport Township Park District get that land, former Stateville work farm land, for like a buck. And it’s one of the nicest courses in the area now; one from which Brent got the idea while golfing to help the Forest Preserve District of Will County preserve by helping transfer land to the west before development could snap it up.

Tom Cross, a former state representative and longtime close friend of Brent’s, led the memorial. “I was doing fine until I got in here,” he said.

No, he wasn’t. Tammy and I met him on the way in. He was hurting. Many of us were, even though it had been months since we had seen or talked to him as his illness robbed him of his energy and voice.

Tom mentioned that he and Brent talked every day, under any circumstances. Including when Tom’s wife was about to deliver their baby. As she called to him from the delivery room that things were happening, Tom said he told her he would be right there … “I have to say goodbye to Brent.”

Fellow lobbyist Mark Taylor (Brent formed a lobbying firm after he was defeated for re-election in 2008) told of some funny moments while they were working in “Springpatch,” or on their fact-finding missions to Robert Trent golf courses.

Former Will County Board Member, Mary Ann Deutsche, who served with Brent on the board, made the trip from Crete to talk for a few minutes about Brent’s devotion to public service.

Family got up to talk about memories of “Uncle Brent,” including dressing up as Santa and Christmas and Frankenstein at Halloween.

Brent’s brother Earl finished the Frankenstein story by giving us a good laugh about FrankenBrent running through a field to change costumes, and spooked one of their horses into a flatulent bolt.

He got an even bigger laugh when he said Brent likely was looking down and smiling, seeing his biggest nemesis, Mike Madigan, facing a possible prison sentence.

Then, he had us reaching for the Kleenex when he said he asked Lee during the last phone call to tell Brent he loved him. “She said. ‘Tell Earl I love him.’”

I was honored Lee asked me to say a few words. I had stories spinning in my head for days. I told a few, but I followed up a few comments by Tom and others who noted Brent ultimately didn’t care about politics or who got credit. He just wanted to help people.

I said the people in the room may be Democrats or Republicans, or whatever, but we were all there to honor Brent. And politics didn’t matter.

Well, to one attendee it did. There were several candidates for the November 5 election there, friends of Brent’s. You wouldn’t really know they were running for anything unless you followed that stuff.

Except for the one guy. A countywide candidate who wore a shirt bearing his name in large, election-season letters.

Pretty tacky. But I wasn’t surprised. He wasn’t very good at his last elected county post. When I told Tammy he was never the most intelligent person in the room, she agreed:

“And he’s the only one who doesn’t know it.”

Brent probably just would have called him a numnutz, or one of his other favorite names.

I really miss him.

Before we departed the room, there was a toast: Since his first cancer surgery some 20 years ago, he had difficulty swallowing. So, he became a devotee of milk shakes.

Small cups of chocolate milk shake were passed around to all the tables, and we saluted our friend.

Rest easy, brother. Hopefully, your style of politics will come back in fashion again.

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.

 

I have to add a special thank you, long overdue, to Bev Wandless, who was kind enough to send me a card and extremely thoughtful letter after we had to put our beloved Kayley down August 18.
Bev, when I start getting sad now and then remembering Kayley, I’ll read your letter again, especially how if Kayley could talk, she would thank us for being so loving. I’ll usually think, “Thank YOU, Kayley. We miss you so much.”
Again, thank you, Bev, for your kind and sensitive words. They are much appreciated.

Nick