UNL student spins for cash
fWheel Of Fortune' contestant wins $22,050
By Amy Keller
Staff Reporter
UNL student Chad Pekron
faced an audience of hundreds and
a ticking time clock to rack his
brain for answers and take home
more than $20,000 — but he
couldn’t tell anyone about the ex
perience for almost a month.
Pekron, a senior political sci
ence and economics major, was a
contestant on “Wheel of Fortune,”
where he solved two puzzles the
first day and one on the second day
to win a total of $22,050.
The show was taped on Feb. 28,
but didn’t air until March 20 and
21.
“1 thought it would be a lot of
fun to at least try out. I like game
shows.”
This was Pekron’s attitude
when he went to a tryout for
“Wheel of Fortune” in Omaha last
April.
At the audition, each person
took a written test and answered
practice questions. Then those who
were chosen to compete were given
a phone call a few weeks before
they were scheduled to appear on
the show.
M
I thought it would be a lot of fun to at
least try out. I like game shows.”
Chad Perron
UNL senior
When he got the call, Pekron
said his first reaction was, “I was
pretty excited. I wasn’t really ex
pecting it, and it came out of the
blue.”
Although he didn’t study for the
show, Pekron said he tried to watch
the show every day and did the
crossword puzzles in the Daily
Nebraskan.
Pekron flew to Los Angeles for
the filming of “Wheel Of Fortune.”
The game show did not pay for his
three-day trip expenses, but he said
he felt it was a good investment in
view of the money he won.
On the show, Pekron’s answer
puzzles were “New York City
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani,” “Sharon
Stone-Age” and “Leather-Bound
Organizer.”
Although he didn’t win the
grand prize, he did well enough the
first day to qualify for a second
day’s competition. After the film
ing, Pekron knew his results but no
one else would know until the show
aired right before spring break.
George Sturgeon, associate
chemistry professor, was among
those at the viewing party. Sturgeon
is an adviser for the local Golden
Key chapter, of which Pekron is an
officer.
Sturgeon said he thought
Pekron was a good contestant be
cause “he’s very determined and
hard-working, extraordinarily
bright, has lots of self-confidence,
and he’s very personable.”
When asked what he plans to
do with the money, Pekron, who
graduates in May, said he will use
most of it to pay for law school next
year at Yale.
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Learning to live,
love again painful
HARMS from page 3
and Longstein talked and she cheered
him up, Todd said. That night, they had
their first date.
Longstein was a savior for him
because she was detached from the sad
part of his life, so she offered an es
cape, he said.
“It was nice to feel like a normal
guy again,” he said. “We didn’t talk
about that stuff. We just had fun.”
Todd changed quickly and said his
mother noticed he seemed his old self
again, he said. After meeting Longstein,
he started looking into the future, he
said, instead of the end the day.
His new relationship helped him
put his life back together, he said. It
took away his numbness and let him
enjoy his emotions, he said.
“It was nice to start laughing again
and feel it.”
Cloudy to clear
Pat and Stan Harms received hun
dreds of letters from people admiring
them for their strength in facing such
tragedy. Some said they were inspired
by their courage.
“They kind of put us on a pedes
tal,” Pat said.
Although Pat and Stan said they
tried to be brave for two years while
bearing the intense suffering, coping
with the murder of their daughter cast
them into a private, complex ordeal.
Pat and Stan also were struggling
with each other, they said. The pain
and pressures wore on them and their
marriage, Pat said, and they realized
their problem through counseling.
While trying to be strong for each
other, they weren’t sharing their pain
ful feelings, she said.
“We were each communicating
with other people but we weren’t com
municating a whole lot between our
selves,” she said.
Knowing that 70 percent of mar
riages in which a child dies ends in
divorce, Pat and Stan opened their
communication lines, they said.
“You’re going down the road on
parallel paths and you don’t know what
the other person is doing,” Pat said. “So
you need to go back and check on each
other and see where they are.”
Pat went through times when she
stopped communicating and became
angry and distant, Stan said. He found
the best treatment was to make her sit
in a room until she finally spilled her
feelings, he said.
Pat said Stan s problem was speak
ing for both of them when she felt dif
ferently. For instance, she said, Stan
agreed to speaking engagements and
interviews that she didn’t want to do.
During their grieving, Pat and Stan
also found personal ways to cope with
their loss.
Stan found solace in wood working,
an art he had not practiced for years.
His motivation was Candi’s love for
art. She had especially liked to draw and
left her parents with many sketches she
drew in high school, he said.
“Seeing her drawings and realiz
ing the talent, the potential she had
that was never going to be developed
just inspired me into getting back into
my artwork,” Stan said.
After Candi disappeared, Stan spent
a lot of time in his workshop and cre
ated two perpetual calendars: flat
wooden reliefs with frames to slide the
days of the month into. One he gave to
Pat’s parents, the other to his mother.
Pat said she released a lot of her
emotions when Stan’s sister asked for
help renovating a house. They helped
knock out wooden laths and plaster
from between the studs of the walls.
“We were exhausted physically and
not mentally for a change,” Pat said.
“It felt good to beat something.”
But Pat said her best grief therapy
came from work at Bryan Memorial
Hospital.
“Work gave me my focus,” Pat
said. “It kept me occupied. I think I
lived at work for a couple years.”
Pat said work was the one place
she could breakdown because she was
away from Stan and because her co
workers were a strong support system.
“I’d always find myself at woik star
ing at my computer screen, and I’d have
tears rolling down my face,” she said.
During one day at work, she was
so upset, she called a co-worker across
the room and the only thing she could
say was a squeaky “Help” Her friend
came running and comforted her, she
said.
Pat admits, though, her emotions
eventually got the best of her, and she
took for granted those in whom she
found support.
“I was a pretty irritable person,”
Pat said. “I had very little patience for
..7 for most anything. I didn’t like be
ing that way, but I couldn’t seem to
help me either.”
After other workers complained
about Pat being rude, her boss said she
needed to improve her disposition, Pat
said. Once Pat realized how her grief
had affected her, she turned herself
around, she said.
Meanwhile, Stan found that his
work as a loan underwriter seemed
more difficult.
“I don’t think for a long time my
mind really worked,” he said.
His head was usually clouded, and
his memory started to fail him, he said.
His work was consistently interrupted
as he pulled out manuals to remem
ber how to do his job, he said.
He and Pat both struggled with
diversions during daily tasks. Even
Pat, who had long-distance phone
numbers stored in her head, couldn’t
go from the phone book to the tele
phone without forgetting a number.
But they learned during therapy that
memory loss is normal for grievers,
Stan said.
“We feel like it took us a good two
years for our heads to really feel clear,”
Stan said.
“It makes you feel so happy,” Pat
said. “It’s like you feel reborn. But boy
does it take a long time.”
Her memoiy lives on
Stan, Pat and Todd say they still
think about Candi every day.
But sometimes the memories are
hard. For Stan and Pat, they said it’s
most difficult to see the opportunities
and the joys in life Candi has missed:
her friends’ weddings, baby showers
and birthdays.
Even simple things like a movie
or music group she would have liked
makes Stan sad.
“I think, ‘Why can’t she be here to
enjoy those things?”’
For Todd, the reminders are every
where, he said. As he drives around
Lincoln meeting with advertising cli
ents, he sees places he and Candi went
to for dates. As he drives down
Comhusker Highway, he refuses to
look at the sign for King’s Drive-In
Restaurant, he said.
But his own birthday on May 28,
is the worst reminder, he said, because
it’s one day before Candi’s.
“It’s like a big blaring reminder that
I’m here and she’s not,” Todd said.
And every day from July 17 to Dec.
6, Todd remembers what he did with
Candi, or for Candi, in 1992.
“It’s like I play back 1992 every
year,” he said.
Todd said some reminders bring
good thoughts, though. Candi made a
tape of songs for him. The second side
was blank except for two songs. The
last one was “Love Me” by Collin
Raye. Todd thinks the song is a mes
sage for him because the song is about
an old woman who is about to die and
writes a note to her love telling him,
“Wait for me. I’ll meet you there.”
The song that reminds Todd of
Candi most is the Garth Brooks’ song
“The Dance,” which also was on the
tape and the first song they danced to.
“The whole song is about if I’d
known how things were going to turn
out, I might not have taken die time
to love you. But I’m glad I did, even
though you’re not here anymore.
“I’m glad I took the chance to get
to know you.”
