Author Returns to Melfort to speak about her life
By Greg Wiseman

The soul of a fighter shone through the petite frame of former Melfort resident LuAn Mitchell-Halter as she spoke about the many trials and tribulations she has had to endure in her life.

The author of Paper Doll: Lessons Learned From a Life Lived in the Headlines, met and visited with old friends and family members at the Melfort Golf and Country Club Sunday afternoon before relating the story of her life.

Through her story the small town lessons she learned growing up in Melfort kept her going and helped her do what was right.

One of the first trials of her resolve was when her family moved from Melfort in 1976, she was going into grade 11.

"I thought it was one of the worst things, that one of the biggest curses in the universe had come down upon me. For me to move from here and to move to the city of Saskatoon when I was going into Grade 11, I couldn't graduate with all of my friends, and be in the town I loved and with the people I loved. I felt really ripped off," she said.

Growing up, Mitchell-Halter had her own style which came with her to Saskatoon where she was teased by a gang of girls, however she never let it bother her.

"I was a leader because I was comfortable in my own skin in high school. That is no easy task, but in those days I felt good because I loved who I was."

After a short while in Saskatoon she was encouraged to enter the Miss Saskatoon Pageant and won. That earned her a trip to the Miss Canada Pageant in Toronto.

She got through most of the pageant and when it came to the swimsuit competition she had to stand up for herself when they tried to "squeeze all these different women into the same cookie cutter swimsuit."

Her body had been changed by a pregnancy due to a date rape in her last year of school. The child was born and after five months, given up for adoption.

With her different body crammed into the swimsuit, she went to the pool and again showed she was comfortable in her own skin.

"They had so much mascara gobbed on my eye it felt so weird. I jumped backwards into the pool and I took the water and I smeared my face," Mitchell-Halter said.

"All the girls followed suit with me and that hit the cover of every paper in Canada with the headline ‘She is a big hit.' It is okay to be comfortable how you are."

A short while later while on a photo shoot in Calgary she met Fred Mitchell, after being friends for a few months, they started dating and were married.

The day before the marriage he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

That meant he had about five years to live and about a three per cent chance of fathering a child.

Shortly after the wedding she gave birth to a son.

A short time later, in 1998, Mitchell took a turn for the worse and started hemorrhaging. After being rejected for an operation in Toronto he was taken in at Stanford in California.

"They accepted him with less than two weeks to live. It was a marvelous time because I witnessed a miracle," Mitchell-Halter said.

The double lung and heart transplant was a success and since they believe they couldn't have children they were on an adoption list, and their name came up.

Almost a year to the day after they adopted a little boy she gave birth to a little girl.

Through trials and hardships with Mitchell and needing more operations, he eventually died and LuAn went on to run Mitchell's Gourmet Foods for a while.

"Everything turned out the way it did even today, at the end of day I just try and keep it real," she said. "It is a blessing and a great privilege in my life that I had the honour not only to be born here, but be raised here and to have real true friends because they have certainly helped me through all the hard times."