Butte, Montana has been known as a city of nicknames. It’s been called The Mining City, The Richest Hill on Earth and Butte America. But the penchant for nicknames goes deeper, all the way to the individual person. But as the mines closed and time went on, they filtered out. So, what happened?

Dagmar, Montana, is way up there in what’s almost Canada and almost North Dakota. She was very Danish and had a rebellious youth – at one point, she was kind of a Communist. Mostly, she was the town where the farmers came to buy groceries, go to church and pull up to the bar. But over time, those institutions closed or burned down. If a newspaper ran her obit, Megan Torgerson would be among those listed as loving survivors. She goes back home to find out: Is Dagmar really and truly dead?Reported and narrated by Megan Torgerson, UM alum and creator and host of Reframing Rural

When Bea Burnham walked up to her house one day, she saw her husband of 30-plus years lying dead in the lawn. That stopped her world from spinning for a while, but she pulled herself up, fixed what needed to be fixed and got on with life, eventually outliving three more husbands. She worked hard and taught her daughters about women’s rights. She took care of her friends in their grief. She was buried in her fur coat and shaved her legs one swipe at a time, so that it was always in progress. After her dearth, her daughters come to a new understanding about a mom who carved her own way.

This week on ‘The Write Question,’ host Lauren Korn speaks with Courtney Maum, author of ‘Alan Opts Out’ (Little, Brown & Company).

Clifford Marion was a jokester and a lover of card games and gambling. He was a force where he worked for a decade at the Town Pump. And then he got sick. At the end, surrounded by his family, it was his wife who had to make the decision about when to let go, a moment at the heart of this story.