By: NICOLAS FIERRO
Salina Post
One day, Kathleen Depperschmidt was out for a run and thought to herself, “I am tired of telling people, let’s go to lunch sometime” and it never happens.
Depperschmidt, Kansas native published a book “Let’s Do 52 Lunches: A Year of Connecting” after challenging herself to make lunch dates with people she chose to connect with.
Whenever she would have her lunch date, she would challenge the person she had lunch with, to then reach out to someone and take them out to lunch. Once they did that, the person would then contact Depperschmidt with a summary of how their lunch date went.
The whole purpose of this, is to spark personal connections and catch up with someone you may have not spoken to in a long time.
Depperschmidt shared that she did not always receive a response from the person she reached out to, but it did not discourage her to complete the 52 lunches for once a week out of the year.
Those people she reached out to included her friends, family, and other special people such as, past coworkers, her fourth grade teacher and her favorite college professor.
She shared where her inspiration came from.
“I was inspired by my speech therapy patients and by the work I do, because I've seen how in one second that ability to connect can be taken away,” she said. “It could be one second with a stroke or head injury, over time with dementia, Parkinson’s, by just losing that ability to connect to others.”
Depperschmidt lost both her parents in 2008 due to a car accident, which really impacted her by wanting to keep personal connections linked.
“We think we have time, but none of us know and not assuming you have all the time in the world, because that was a very strong lesson presented to me that nobody knows how much time they have,” she said. “As I age, I think the way to summarize it for me was it's one more day, which I'm always grateful for, but it's also one less day.”
There was one instance she was going to visit a friend who passed away suddenly, before could reconnect. Her friend’s daughter reached out to Depperschmidt to tell her the unfortunate news.
Key Takeaway from 52 Lunches
Depperschmidt wanted to make it clear.
All the 52 lunches she had, did not become an ongoing contact between her and the individual.
She stated in some cases after the lunch date, she would not hear back or would not reach out to the person again. But for the ones that stuck afterwards, were those Depperschmidt said were “meaningful.”
“I think as we get older, we prune our connections to the ones that are the most meaningful to us,” she said. “So, to try and keep in touch with all those people in there (the book) has become too much of a chore, but I will never regret seeing them for the book and reaching out to them.”
Depperschmidt dedicated the book to her friend Gina, who she went to lunch with after the 52 dates were completed.
According to Depperschmidt, Gina passed away from Glioblastoma in 2013, an incurable brain cancer.
In the book, Depperschmidt wrote down some of Gina’s last words:
“Love is all that matters. Love is all you need.”
Depperschmidt then said the following in the book:
“It should be all that matters to all of us as well, but we all know it is not. We are busy with jobs, families and obligations. Most of our families give us more than anyone else, but I am as guilty as the next of giving away time and energy to things that don’t love us back. Time and energy that should have been given to our families and other loved ones.”
Depperschmidt wants her readers and people to understand that “we are all more alike, than we are different and as much as we might think we don't, we all need each other."
Additionally, she said the division in our society, has created many personal divisions.
“I think our country has been so divided culturally, politically, ethically all those things, but we're more alike than we are different,” Depperschmidt said.
More Lunches to Come
Depperschmidt still has a plan to connect with more people and if that means she has to travel across the country, then she will do it.
She has a map and marks down all of the visited places, after reconnecting with that individual.
“It’s important we don’t substitute texting and social media for human connection, because it serves more to disconnect than to connect. It takes away verbal and face-to-face interaction, which is what we are designed to do as humans."
Her challenge is to each reader of this article, is to reach out to one person they need to reconnect with.
Depperschmidt thanked Julie Hess, the cover artist of Let's Do 52 Lunches and Laura Frances, author and Amazon publisher for the book and everyone who made it in the book.
You can get a copy of Lets Do 52 Lunches at Red Fern Booksellers and Ad Astra Books & Coffee House, and is also available on Amazon.
Depperschmidt’s Background and Expertise
Depperschmidt grew up on a farm in Osborne County, attended Fort Hays State University and received a Bachelor's in Sociology and Master’s in Speech Language Pathology.
She provides therapy techniques such as processing information, swallowing, memory and the formulation of thoughts and words, as well as voice therapy.
Depperschmidt has been a practicing speech pathologist since 1994, working primarily with adults who suffered strokes, Parkinson’s, head injuries, dementia, Alzheimer’s and other various diseases.
She currently visits patients through several local home health agencies and an assisted living facility.
In the past, Depperschmidt served patients at Salina Regional Health Center and Memorial Health System in Abilene, conducted outpatient therapy, private therapy and dialect reduction for foreign speakers.
Moreover, Depperschmidt has always wanted to be a writer and has published other books such as “One American’s Story: War, PTSD, Parkinson’s, Politics and the Pandemic Through the Eyes of a Vietnam Veteran with Jim Fawcett” and “The Tip of Your Tongue: A Speech Therapist’s Tribute to the Power of Communication Lost and Found.”
Let’s Do 52 Lunches was the third book Depperschmidt wrote and was published in 2023.
Depperschmidt is also an auctioneer and trained professionally in 2022, after taking an 8-day class in Des Moines, Iowa.
She is the author of The Sister Lode blog as well: www.thesisterlode.com
You can reach Kathleen at: wordwoman66@gmail.com.
She lives near Salina with her husband Mark, and has three sons.