The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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August 30, 2008

Timothy House is for hospitality

Widow turns home into comforting oasis for hospital patients, family members

By Brian Ojanpa

MANKATO — Sharon Brennan is a woman of strong faith. She believes things happen for divine reasons.

“My house had been on the market, and it didn’t sell,” she said.

“Maybe God knew Tim would need it.”

Former Brown County Sheriff Tim Brennan was her husband, and before he died of cancer in May, the hilltop Mankato home had served as a comforting oasis between hospital treatments.

“Tim used it to rest and restore himself, and I know how important that is when you’re battling cancer.”

Brennan, who lives in the Sleepy Eye home she shared with her husband of less than a year, has turned her Mankato property into a hospital hospitality house — a home away from home for Mankato hospital patients and their families.

Named The Timothy House, the three-bedroom rambler she bought in 2003 is about a mile from Immanuel St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Hospital Chief Communications Officer Kevin Burns said the hospital has special rate arrangements with area hotels for patients’ families facing indefinite stays, but Brennan’s enterprise is believed to be the only facility of its kind in the area.

Brennan said her per-night fee will be less than that of a hotel, and the kitchen will be available to guests for meal preparations.

The house can accommodate six people and will be co-managed by Sharon Brennan’s daughter Stephanie Newman.

The events that led Brennan to this point unfolded quickly.

On Dec. 14, doctors found abnormalities in her future husband’s bones.

“We pretty much knew it was cancer,” she said.

Tim Brennan proposed on Dec. 22, and they wed on Jan. 1.

After his cancer was diagnosed, he underwent treatments at Immanuel St. Joseph’s, and his wife’s Mankato house allowed him to stay there rather than commuting from Sleepy Eye.

A week before he died May 23, his wife settled upon the idea of having the Mankato home honor her husband’s legacy by helping patients and their families.

“It’s not my plan; it’s God’s plan. I’m just his tool,” Brennan said.

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