Margaret Friesen (nee Friesen)
Obituary
Our Mom, Margaret Unger Friesen, died on Wednesday, October 17, 2017 at the Rest Haven Nursing Home in Steinbach where she had lived since March of 2017. We rejoice with her and that her relatively long earthly pilgrimage has ended and that she is now with her God and Saviour for all eternity.
Mom was the youngest of the 12 children born to Peter F. and Katherine Unger of Blumenhof and was born on March 23, 1920.
We don’t remember her younger years. We know from stories that she got to go on a trip to Kansas with her parents when she was about two years old, something none of her older siblings got to do! We know she went to school in the Blumenhof School just a mile south of where her family lived. We know she believed in Jesus for salvation and was baptized in the Blumenort Evangelical Mennonite Church as a young adult. We know that she met our Dad, Cornelius P. Friesen, about a year before they were married on May 26,1940.
We heard stories of their earlier years together. Dad worked for Plett and Company in various bush camps in places like Roblin, Norquay and Mafeking during those winters and spent summers farming and doing carpentry work in the Blumenhof area. Mom enjoyed friendships with many of the other women in the camps during those long winter days away from family and then spent summers in the garden and with friends and extended family back home.
I, Cliff, came to join Mom and Dad in 1947 and while I never had any brothers or sisters I did have some privileges that my friends with many siblings did not get! Like an extended trip with Mom and Dad to Mexico and more use of the family car!
By that time Mom and Dad had settled more permanently on a small farm, again in the Blumenhof area and while Dad spent most of his time in carpentry Mom spent her days gardening and homemaking as well as working at Granny’s Poultry for many years.
Mom and Dad moved the house Dad had built on the farm into the village of Blumenort in 1973. They lived in that house until Dad died in 1994 and then rather than staying in the house alone that winter she moved to Oakview Manor in Blumenort and then some years later into Oakwood Place. When her health declined she moved to Cedarwood in Steinbach and then last March to Rest Haven,
She and Dad did many trips together. These included California and later a trip with our whole family to Florida. They spent many week-ends camping at places like Falcon Lake and at Strawberry Lake Bible Camp. When our family moved to Ontario they traveled to Ontario regularly several times a year so we could spend Christmas and other occasions together. Mom enjoyed games and the grand-kids have many happy memories both of playing games and camping with Grandma and Grandpa.
Mom’s love for God continued to grow through the years. She modeled a life of faith and prayer throughout her whole life. She probably never missed her devotions unless she was really, really sick and even while in Rest Haven that was more important to her then doing something with the other residents. Even during the last week of her life she joined us in quoting favorite Bible passages such as parts of John 14 and Psalm 23.
One significant way in which she served God was through her ability to sing and play the auto harp. Both she and Dad sang a lot and often in a quartet with Dave and Annie Barkman, the last time being at Dad’s 80th birthday only days before he died. As time went on she felt she could not sing anymore but in the last weeks she seemed to regain an interest in singing. As recently as the Sunday before she died she hummed along when Mercedes and her Mom sang, “Kneel at the Cross” for her over the phone.
Her health remained fairly stable until a few weeks before she died. Her unique sense of humour was still evident. She really enjoyed watching the birds at the bird feeder near her window, the planes she saw overhead and the clouds that floated by her window. Her vision was exceptionally good! She enjoyed word finds and called doing word finds her work during the later years when she was no longer able to be very active physically. She also enjoyed Scrabble and Skipboo, and her last Skipboo game was less than two weeks before she died. We think she won!
While we rejoice with and for her going to her final place of rest and peace we, her son, Cliff and daughter-in-law, Maryanne, grandchildren: Kirk (Sarah), Bridgette, Mercedes, Tara (Mike) and Jon (Laura); great-grandchildren: Shea-lyn, Samantha (Cody), Ally, Isabella, Ocean and Cayden; and great-grandchildren: Holden and Ronan Cliff will miss her. No more phone calls. No more visits. No more smiles…no more thank yous… no more…no more for us but all bliss for her. She was predeceased by Dad, by her parents, all her siblings and one great-granddaughter, Shawna.
We would like to express our appreciation to the wonderful staff at Rest Haven who made her last earthly home a warm place to live. She appreciated her care so much and seemed always to be grateful. Thanks, too, to all those who visited. She was always so grateful to see family and friends come in. Most of all we thank God for her love, care and prayers and for the assurance that she is with Him forever.
The funeral service will be held on Saturday, October 21, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. at Ridgewood Church, R. M. of Ste. Anne, MB, with a viewing prior to the service. The burial will follow at the church cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Margaret may be made to Longbow Lake Bible Camp (in memo line: Renovation Fund) 553 Longbow Lake, RR 1 Stn Main, Kenora, ON, P9N 3W7.
