Finding Faith ... in being called into service, even as 'Happy' the clown

EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on Oct. 11, 2024.

Darlene Bratberg, a.k.a. "Happy" the clown, dances with a resident of a senior center at an ice cream social. Darlene spent 46 years as a nurse healing people, and more recently 20-plus years healing people as "Happy."

By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks

Darlene Bratberg has been clowning around now for more than 20 years, and lovin’ every minute of it!

That’s not to say she’s spent her later years just goofing off. … No, Darlene fell in love with performing as a clown -- named “Happy” -- more than two decades ago in a local parade in Spicer, Minn., and she hasn’t looked back. 

In the years since, the 83-year-old mother of two, grandmother and great-grandmother, has donned her “Happy” persona at the annual county fair, in nursing homes, at churches, the local cancer treatment center and even on mission trips.

Darlene says she was first hooked when hearing the folks along that first parade route enthusiastically shout, “Here come the clowns!” The realization hit her how joyful clowns made people feel, and clowning was then forever in her blood.

A retired Willmar, Minn., area nurse of 46 years, Darlene credits God for leading her to clowning, which she considers as an extension of a life led healing people.

“‘Happy’ the clown brings people joy. It’s the smiles,” Darlene says about her ministry. “If people could only do a little bit more of that … make people smile … it’d be a kinder world.”

Darlene, who grew up on an Atwater, Minn., farm and ended up living there another 40-plus years when she and her husband took over the family farm, enrolled in nursing school and eventually landed at a clinic in nearby New London. Not an uncommon profession for women of her time.

She said she was called to nursing because of a desire to help people heal, but even later in life she found that her ability to bring joy to others through “Happy” the clown also helped to heal people. 

“The opportunities being a clown has given me to meet so many people,” Darlene says, “well, I say I am blessed.”

Even though age is beginning to limit her physically, Darlene still dons her “Happy” persona from time to time. But she admits that clowns don’t seem to bring out the same joy in younger people these days as they once did.

She says Hollywood’s portrayal of clowns as evil, starting with Stephen King’s “It” TV miniseries in 1990, has unfortunately changed how many people feel about clowns. And so there aren't as many calls for clown performers as there once were.

Nonetheless, Darlene says she’s had a wonderful run performing as “Happy,” an experience that has convinced her that God calls each of us into various roles to serve others. Her’s was to be a nurse and a clown, both healers.

“We just don’t know how God works!” Darlene exclaims. “It happens in ways you can’t explain; you just accept it.”

Like being a clown. … Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is the interim CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.