Traudi Guenther (nee Teichroeb)

Obituary

Traudi Guenther (Teichroeb), age 64, of Grunthal Manitoba passed away suddenly on Wednesday, December 23, 2020, at her family cottage at Betula Lake.

She is survived by and missed dearly by her husband, Dennis, daughter Caroline (Bob), son Tom (Michelle), parents Henry & Wera Teichroeb, brothers Wilf (Lisa) and Vern (Brenda), and grandchildren Kaelyn, Maelle, and Emily; she will also be lovingly remembered by her mother-in-law Agatha, her brothers-in-law Gerry (Evelyn), Wayne (Wanda), and sisters-in-law Chris and Barb (Mario). And she will be dearly missed by her very best friend Kathy Patterson.

Mom was born on May 31, 1956, in Paraguay. In 1960, she and her parents and grandmother immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

In a way mom, your passing around the holidays was very fitting. Christmas was very important to you. As kids, we have great memories of spending Christmas Eve at your parents, along with our Aunts & Uncles and cousins. Christmas day was always spent at home, opening presents you had thoughtfully selected. Oma Guenther was always present for lunch on Christmas Day, where we’d devour your famous thin German pancakes. Boxing Day was spent at Oma Guenther’s, poking fun at her scraggly 50 year old Christmas tree. But the real highlight of the holiday season was your production of the Elim Church Sunday School Christmas Concert.

The Elim Church Sunday School Christmas Concert, under the thoughtful guidance of you and Margaret Boschman, put all other Grunthal Church Christmas concerts to shame (our apologies if other churches are offended).

It was a production that she spent countless hours of preparation on. Planning would begin, well, the day after the concert, for the following year. It was not uncommon for us as kids to wake up on a beautiful sunny morning in mid July, only to hear music playing for a particular Christmas concert you were considering for the coming year.

As the fall season arrived, so too did the countless rehearsals. Sundays, before and after Sunday School, Saturday afternoons, weekday evenings, no day was off limits for potential rehearsals, so long as she could convince the parents. The end product was always spectacular, thanks to all of her hard work. It was something she took great pride in, and to this day we have many people mention those great productions. She had a great talent for bringing out the best in children, and that is where her true passion lied.

It was clear from a very young age that she wanted to be a teacher. In the spring of 1978, she graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor in Education. That following fall, her teaching career began in Grunthal, and spanned four decades where she made a lasting impact on the thousands of children who passed through her classroom.

For Traudi, teaching was not a job. It was her life. It was not uncommon for her to be the first teacher in the building in the morning, and she was almost always the last teacher to leave. She was determined to give each student the best chance to succeed in life. Evenings, weekends, and her summer ‘holidays’ were primarily spent on lesson planning and sourcing new teaching materials, the vast majority of which were paid for out of her own pocket. To this day, an entire room in her basement, and the backseat of her vehicle, are filled with teaching materials, a mere 7 years after her ‘retirement’.

She had a kind and caring heart, especially for the students who she recognized came from a disadvantaged home life. If she noticed a student did not have a lunch, winter gear, or anything else in between, in her own quiet way, she made sure that that student and their siblings throughout the school were looked after with the proper materials. If a student’s family did not have the means to pay to go on a field trip, without question she would ensure that their fare was paid and they were able to attend. She knew what it was like to come from a home with limited means, and she made sure to help those who came from similar experiences.

Over the years, she had several former students reach out to her as they became adults, and thank her for her guidance and kindness that only a teacher as caring as Traudi could provide. She even had students invite her as their one and only invitee to their high school graduation. She left such a lasting mark on the lives of so many students.

In more recent years, even after her retirement in 2013, she spent a large amount of time substitute teaching. We all knew it would be a really hard transition for her into retirement after pouring her heart and soul into teaching for the previous 35 years. But she was also excited to pass on all of her knowledge and kindness to her grandchildren.

She loved going to visit her granddaughters Kaelyn & Maelle, or having them over at the cottage for sleepovers. And she was especially excited to welcome into the world her newly arrived granddaughter Emily.

With them she shared her love of music and crafting, two skills she used frequently in the classroom. She also passed on to them her gift of gab. She loved to talk with anyone who would listen, and both girls can talk for hours on end. They loved the way Grandma would read to them, using loud expressions, just like she would in the classroom, and both girls love to play school. It would not be surprising to see one or both of them follow in Grandma’s footsteps.

Grandma’s impact on Kaelyn & Maelle was never more evident than when they discovered they would not be able to see her again. They cried big Crocodile tears. Because Traudi was a teacher, she was always able to get on to their emotional level and have meaningful and memorable interactions with them.

There were two bells she had at the lake that she had hand painted on a trip to Mexico. One of the first things the grandkids would do when they arrived at the cottage would be to ring those bells. They are now in the possession of her granddaughters. And now, every time they ring those bells, it’s a signal that they are thinking of Grandma, and they ring them loud enough so that Grandma can hear them up in Heaven and smile down on them.

The family would like to thank Constable Plaskett of the Lac Du Bonnet RCMP Detachment for his response and compassion, and Jarrod Chamberlin for his guidance and compassion during this difficult time.

In lieu of flowers, the family would like to request all readers of this to in the very near future, contact someone who has had a lasting impact on their life, and tell them how much they mean to you. There are many things we would like to say to Mom, and we are sad that we will not be able to do so. Please make sure to do so while you still can.

A private family funeral service will take place on Thursday, December 31, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at Birchwood Funeral Chapel, Steinbach, MB.

A private family funeral service will take place on Thursday, December 31, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at Birchwood Funeral Chapel, Steinbach, MB.