by Jeff Olsen

Paula Peterson wasn't quite at Heaven's Gate, but the Roseau resident wasn't running marathons, skipping rope or climbing the Grand Tetons.

She needed a new kidney.

"I'm okay," she said last Saturday about her kidney transplant surgery on March 1 at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo.

Paula was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease eight and a half years ago.

Until late February, she had been checking out groceries at SuperOne in Roseau and never said anything about her health troubles.

"Well, it's something you live with, but you feel like you're going downhill."

Last June, her...