For nearly 20 years, Mandie Asay has instilled a love for music in hundreds of Cowley, Wyoming, students by leading the high school choir, organizing concerts and teaching elementary classes.
The only thing that equals her passion for teaching is her uplifting singing voice.
Now her sister Maggie Asay says Mandie is hanging on for life in a Billings, Montana, hospital with a dream to one day again sing and to inspire kids.
Maggie, who lives in Laramie, said her sister, who lives in and grew up in Powell, has had chronic health issues since she was 12.
“It took a long time for her to get diagnosed, but eventually she was diagnosed with CRPS, which is chronic regional pain syndrome,” she said. “It’s a progressive nerve disease that kind of takes over your whole body, and she’s had countless surgeries. I can’t begin to tell you how many.”
Growing up in a musical family where grandma played the keyboard by ear, dad played guitar, and all the children sang and were sent to take piano lessons, Mandie found her calling. She sang main melodies and her siblings harmonized around her.
As a young girl, she also enjoyed dance, but as her illness progressed had to give it up. But she still has her voice and piano skills.
“Music was her life,” Maggie said. “She taught piano for years until she couldn’t anymore. She was my first piano teacher.”
After high school, Mandie went on to earn a degree in music education at Northwest College and Montana State University in Billings and a master’s in education at the University of Wyoming.
Mandie Asay leads students in song at a care facility in Powell, Wyoming. (Courtesy Big Horn School District No. 1) 
Music teacher Mandie Asay observes a performance by one of her students. (Courtesy Maggie Asay) 
Mandie Asay and elementary students during a visit to a local care facility. (Courtesy Big Horn School District No. 1) 
Mandie Asay has two pet dogs that love her unconditionally. (Courtesy Maggie Asay)
‘She’s Made A Big Impact’
Since 2006, she has been passing on her love for music to Big Horn School District No. 1 students.
Rocky Mountain Middle School and High School Principal Betsy Sammons characterizes Mandie Asay as someone whose presence in the 100-student school has been missed.
“She’s made a big impact. She gets kids to love music and to like to sing, she’s a cheerful person, happy to be here, good for our culture,” Sammons said. “She teaches at the elementary and she does choir at the middle school level and also does our school play at the middle school and high school level.”
Rocky Mountain Elementary Principal Eric Honeyman said his building also is missing her smiling face and upbeat personality and presence. Now that it's not there, the difference is profound.
“She is a great teacher and a fantastic friend. Your school is not complete until everyone is here," he said. "We are praying that she gets 1% better every day.”
Honeyman said a fundraiser was planned for her at Friday's high school volleyball game that included a live auction to benefit the teacher.
“We’re going to pack the gym, and everyone is going to be in pink,” he said.
Sammons said Asay is on medical leave from the district. She said her loss from the school affects the entire region because the school is the hub of the community.
“Everybody’s impacted when something goes south with one of our people,” she said. “We are a big family.”
Sharing Her Talents
As a music teacher, Mandie enjoys taking students to festivals all around the state, her sister said.
She also has made it a practice to bring her singing and choir-directing skills to nursing homes.
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she taught music and has been the piano player and choir director for the local church.
In college, she was the activities director for a nursing home, Maggie Asay said.
When surgery on her shoulders some years ago affected her ability to play the piano it was “really heart-wrenching for her as a person and as a music teacher,” her sister said.
Maggie Asay said just prior to her most recent issue, Mandie had told her dad that she wasn’t feeling very well.
As the school year launched, Maggie said one night her sister took her blood pressure and saw that it was high. Her father advised her to get it checked by the school nurse the next day.
When the school nurse checked it the following day, Mandie was told that her blood pressure was “super high” and her heart was showing signs of atrial fibrillation, her sister said.
She went to the hospital in Powell, and they kept her overnight for observation. The next morning, her sister said she was “unresponsive” and was intubated and sent to the Billings hospital.
“They found that she was retaining a bunch of fluid, her heart was failing, she had pneumonia, had an aggressive strep infection and just was not breathing well,” she said.
‘Can I Sing?’
The doctors ordered her medically paralyzed for a couple of weeks, and she was woken up and had a tracheotomy put in her neck to help with breathing. That also meant she can no longer speak with the tube in her neck.
The tracheotomy caused her to ask her dad a heartbreaking question in sign language.
“Can I sing?” she asked.
Maggie said while her sister can't talk, she seems to be doing better and “mouthing words” during FaceTime conversations.
Mandie was recently transferred to a rehabilitation facility.
It was from that facility at 3 a.m. on Sept. 25 that Mandie called her sister asking for prayer. Later that day during a physical therapy session, she collapsed and had to be rushed back to the Billings hospital.
“She had had a blood clot in her leg which they knew about, and she was on a certain blood thinner,” Maggie said. “But her body reacted to that blood thinner almost like an allergic reaction, which caused her to throw the clot to her heart and lungs. She had a bilateral pulmonary embolism.”
Mandie was taken back to the ICU, re-intubated, paralyzed again through medical means and put on a ventilator “just because her body is working so hard,” Maggie said. “She is lucky to be alive right now — not better, not out of the woods, but progressing.”
Maggie started a GoFund Me for her sister to help with future medical expenses. She said she does not know when or if she will be able to go back to work.
“We don’t know what her insurance is going to cover and what it’s not,” Maggie said, characterizing the school district as “kind and helpful," but that the family does not know how long Mandie will be employed as her medical leave continues.
The pulmonary embolism proved to be a big setback, but hope remains, Maggie said.
“The doctors have been very clear with my dad that we’ve almost lost her a lot over the past month and even though she is improving, she is not better," Maggie said. "She’s not out of the woods. It might not be over for a very long time.”
Throughout her life, Mandie sang for her soul and others. Now that she can't, she has a whole chorus behind her.
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
