Though it was the fastest way to and from her office, Sherry Engebretsen was uncomfortable driving over the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis.

“I don’t know why, but she just never liked it,” said Gene Shaw, Engebretsen’s father. “Especially lately. It was so busy and so congested. And it was worse since they started working on it.”

Sherry Engebretsen, a 60-year-old marketing executive, overlooked her dislike for the bridge and wound up one of at least five people killed when the nearly 2,000-foot structure collapsed at 6:05 p.m. Aug. 1 in the midst of a busy rush hour.

“Who would ever think your daughter would go like this?” Shaw said. “You never know. You just never know.”
The death of his daughter, a 1964 Litchfield High School graduate, was a tragic irony, Shaw said.

In a telephone conversation Monday morning, Shaw recalled how his daughter told him quite some time ago when she found a good alternate route that would help her avoid the 35W bridge while commuting between her home in Shoreview and work at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Minneapolis.

Still, Shaw had a bad feeling when he turned on the television a little after 6 p.m. Aug. 1 and saw coverage of the bridge collapse.
“I called and told her husband, ‘God, I hope Sherry wasn’t on that bridge,’ and Ron said, ‘she never comes that way,’” said Shaw, a Forest City native who worked 25 years at Anderson Chemical in Litchfield.

Sherry was the only child of Gene and Esther Shaw. She was a good student and active participant in band during her years in the Litchfield school system, Gene Shaw said.
Classmate Marv Stewart of Litchfield remembered Engebretsen as being in marching band and pep band, as well as playing in the orchestra. Stewart said he didn’t recognize Engebretsen’s name when he first saw the names of bridge collapse victims.

For more of this story see this week's Independent Review print edition.