Portia Maves — cancer survivor and Synergy auto mechanic extraordinaire

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By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX — Talk about making a change in your life.

Four years ago, Portia Kistner Maves was minding her own business, raising her three children with her husband, James, working as an aide at an assisted living facility in Hudson and just generally enjoying her life and her Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Then one day, along came a diagnosis of breast cancer for 34-year-old Portia.

What followed was a mastectomy, a year of chemotherapy, another mastectomy, and finally, reconstruction surgery — which was then followed by a return to school in the small engine program at Chippewa Valley Technical College and a dream to be a Harley Davidson mechanic.

Today, Portia is working at the Synergy Cooperative Tire and Auto Center in Colfax.

“I’m the only female mechanic in Colfax,” she said with a grin.

After she had finished the cancer treatments, “I told my husband, ‘I’m not happy doing what I’m doing. Do you think I could go back to school to become a Harley mechanic?’ And he said, ‘We’ll do what we have to to make it work,’” Portia recalled.

So, Portia enrolled at CVTC and finished at the top of her class with a grade point average of 4.0.

She worked at Harley Davidson in Chippewa Falls for four months in the parts department while she was still going to school.

When she graduated, the Harley Davidson shop had planned to have her washing motorcycles because there would be no open mechanic bays until someone retired or took employment elsewhere.

When Portia received a text message from a friend asking if she knew of any mechanics looking for a job because Synergy was looking for a mechanic, she decided to take a chance.

“I called Mike Beguhn (the manager of Synergy’s auto repair shop) and said I was a small engine mechanic who just graduated, and I have no experience. Is this something I should apply for or do I have no chance?” Portia said.

Mike Beguhn replied, “If you’re willing to learn, I’m willing to teach you.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Portia interviewed for the job — and was hired.

Small town 

“I love working in the small town of Colfax. Mike Beguhn is the best boss you could ever imagine. He is patient, and the knowledge that man has is phenomenal,” Portia said, noting that Mike Beguhn has 20 years of experience as a mechanic.

“In the two years I’ve worked there, I have learned so much. You never quit learning, by any means (because vehicles are complex and continually changing). I don’t plan on going anywhere. We have a great crew,” she said.

In addition to Mike Beguhn, Portia also works with fellow mechanic Noah Swanson.

“I really like working there because we are based on honesty,” Portia said.

“We get it about not having funds to fix a vehicle. We get it that not everyone can afford a new vehicle. We don’t guess. We always do testing to make sure that is what it is before we tell you,” she said.

“If it’s something small, like a tire light, we’ll be honest. ‘So there’s an exclamation point on your dash. If you don’t mind seeing that, you can check your tire pressure on a regular basis,’” Portia said, adding, “I think people really appreciate that.”

Portia believes people also appreciate it that the Synergy mechanics know people on a first-name basis.

“It’s a fun place to work. I enjoy it so much. And I’m thankful to my husband for making it work so I could go to school full time and have that background to work as an auto mechanic,” she said.

Besides diesel and gasoline powered vehicles, Synergy also works on tractors, lawn mowers and trailers.

“And it all started with that by-chance diagnosis of cancer,” Portia said.

Cancer

In Portia’s case, there was no family history of breast cancer.

“The hardest part about getting cancer was not the diagnosis or fighting it — it was telling my children. I have three kids at home, Skylar, Jenifer and Jameson,” she said.

Skylar is 15 years old, Jenifer is 13 and Jameson is 10.

“Back in 2017, they were much younger. I knew a week before I told them. It was their last week of school, and I didn’t want to ruin it for them,” Portia said.

“On the last day of school, they came home, and I said, ‘We need to have a conversation.’ I told them, ‘Mom has cancer.’ And they started bawling. ‘You’re going to die. You’re going to die,’ they said.”

Portia paused.

“I had to pinky-swear them that I wasn’t going to die. And you can never break a pinky-swear,” she said.

Of course, deep down inside, Portia did not know what was going to happen.

“I live by ‘attitude is everything.’ I have it tattooed on my arm. If you get diagnosed with cancer, yes, it’s scary. But if you think, ‘Oh, this is the end, and I’m not going to make it,’ then you’re likely not. But if you say, ‘I got this,’ you’re probably going to make it,” Portia said.

“Life is an amazing thing. You only get one … I fought as hard as I could. And I succeeded. I’ve been cancer-free for a couple of years,” she said.

Prior to her cancer diagnosis, Portia had always said that if she had cancer, she would not want to know. But now, she’s glad she did know.

“Who’s to say I would still be here if I didn’t know about the cancer?” she said.

Lump

One day, by chance, Portia discovered a lump in her breast.

She said her breasts always itched, and she would scratch until she was bruised.

But when she found the lump, she called her doctor.

Because Portia was only in her early 30s, the doctor said she could wait it out to see if the lump went away. After all, it could be fibroid tissue or a cyst or some other anomaly that was influenced by hormonal changes.

The lump did not go away.

It did not get any bigger, but it did not go away.

Finally, Portia simply could not take the itching anymore and scheduled a mammogram.

Since it was a lovely spring day in May, she rode her Harley.

After the mammogram was completed, a technician came in and told Portia, “You need to see a specialist.”

“And at that moment, I knew I had cancer,” Portia said.

She called her husband right away, who told her to call her mother.

After all, Portia’s mom, Peggy Kistner, worked in Menomonie at Swiss Miss, and since Portia was in Menomonie, her mother would give her a ride home to make sure she got there safely, James Maves said.

Portia resisted and told her husband she needed to get her bike home somehow and would ride it home.

“I’m stubborn. So I rode home. And I will always remember that day. As I’m riding, the tears are swooping into my sunglasses, and it looked like it was raining the whole ride home. I got home, sat on my outside step, and then I called my mom,” she said.

“As a parent, I cannot imagine my child telling me they have cancer. She was at work. I called her up and said, ‘Mom, I believe I have breast cancer.’ She didn’t cry. She said, ‘Portia, you’ve got this. You’re going to be just fine.’ But on the inside, I know she had to be just dying,” Portia said.

“She was my rock. My husband was amazing. My kids were really good. They understood when Mom got done with chemo, for the next two days, I would melt into the couch. I had four rounds that were really some strong stuff. I would melt into the couch. I couldn’t eat anything. Things tasted funny. I was nauseous. Whatever Mom needed, they did,” she said.

As Portia was sitting on her front step, talking to her mother, her mother said she wanted her to talk to someone.

The woman, a co-worker and friend of her mother’s, also had dealt with cancer, and throughout Portia’s treatment would send her encouraging text messages, saying, “I know what you’re going through” and “You’ve got this.”

Journal

Throughout her cancer diagnosis and treatment, Portia kept a daily journal.

She wrote about what she was going through and how she was feeling, both mentally and physically.

“I’ve had a couple people read it who have been diagnosed with cancer, just so that they can see they’re not the only one going through this — this is how you’re going to feel, and it’s okay to feel that way,” Portia said.

“I have had family members of that cancer-diagnosed person read it because they are asking, ‘Why is she acting like?’ ‘Well, here you go. This is what’s going through their mind.’ I documented every single day,” she said.

Portia noted that she also kept working throughout her cancer treatment.

Dad

When asked if she liked to tinker around mechanically when she was a kid, Portia said she owed it all to her dad, Paul Kistner.

“He wanted his girls to know how to work on their own vehicles. How to change tires. How to change oil … I just loved being able to change my own oil,” she said.

Portia noted that her mother is mechanically inclined as well.

“But Dad, he’s a Jack-of-all trades … he’s an old farmer,” she said, adding, “He got me into Harley Davidson, too.”

Portia has two sisters and one brother.

“I was my brother’s brother growing up. There were three girls and a boy. I was my brother’s brother. We played Tonka trucks and Hot Wheels. We dug in the dirt,” she said.

Portia says she plans to teach her own children about changing tires and oil, too.

Skylar has already decided he would like to work for Adam Krall, so Portia is ready to teach him how to fix brakes and do oil changes and things of that nature.

“The trades are very important. Everyone pushes college. But what are you going to do if your electricity goes out? You’re going to call an electrician,” Portia said.

When she was growing up, Portia said she wanted to be a heart surgeon, until she figured out how many years she would have to go to school.

Then she decided she wanted to be a nurse and went to nursing school, although she never graduated.

Working as an aide for the elderly was a job she enjoyed, and through her work as an aide, she developed a philosophy she still carries on today.

“I have a goal for myself. Every day, I want to make at least one person smile … you never know what someone is going through,” Portia said.

“I have continued my goal through everything,” she said.

Short commute

Portia and her family now live south of Colfax, just off county Highway B.

For many years, she made the drive every day from Colfax to Hudson.

When she was first married, they lived in Burnsville, Minnesota, and then she drove to Eau Claire every day for school and work.

Eventually Portia and her husband moved to Hudson, and that’s when she got the job in Hudson.

Portia transferred to UW-River Falls, and then they lived in River Falls.

After her husband’s grandparents died, they bought the house.

“Now we live on the lake … and seven minutes to work is amazing,” Portia said.

The job in Hudson was a night-shift job, and while it allowed Portia to be able to chaperone school field trips for her children and allowed her to attend their afternoon programs at school, it was a fact of life that she needed to sleep, too.

With the “day job” at Synergy, Portia is still able to attend her children’s programs at school only a short trip up the street.

“Mike is so lenient. If the kids have a Christmas program at school, he’ll say, ‘take a long lunch,’” Portia said.

Since Portia’s husband works construction with a company in Baldwin, and often works on jobs in the Twin Cities, he often cannot attend the school programs, so Portia is especially happy that’s she able to be there.

Women’s work

So what’s it like being the only woman in Colfax who happens to be a mechanic?

“I’ve had lots of people accept it and some who don’t,” Portia said.

“When I first started, I had lot of elderly men say they’d like to talk to someone who knows what they’re doing,” she said.

Sometimes people tell Mike, too, that they will talk to “his secretary” to have her schedule an auto repair.

“And Mike will look at them and say, ‘She’s not my secretary. She’s my tech,’” Portia said.

Since Portia grew up in Colfax and graduated from Colfax High School, naturally, she knows quite a few people in the area.

She also loves meeting new people and being on a first-name basis with people who bring their vehicles to the shop.

“I enjoy my life every day. There is so much hate in the world. To bring joy to someone’s life really makes you feel good. I’ve got kids who walk through the parking lot all the time. ‘Portia!’ they’ll yell. “Hey guys!’ I say back … If everybody lived by my goal of making one person smile every day, imagine how much nicer the world would be,” she said.

Even going to work is a joyful event for Portia.

“I look forward to going to work. I can’t wait to go to work. I don’t mind working late. It’s fun,” she said.

“I’m so grateful they took a chance on me,” Portia said.

Oh, and Portia has one other message.

“You’re never too old to go back to school. People think because they’re almost 40, they can’t go back to school, but sure you can. Absolutely. It’s never too late,” she said.