THERESIA WEINGAERTNER

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THERESIA WEINGAERTNER Peacefully, early on Friday morning, February 8, 2002, in the Palliative Care Ward at St. Boniface General Hospital, after a year-long struggle with Motor Neuron Disease (ALS). She was born on February 18, 1912 in Batschka-Palanka, Yugoslavia. She was predeceased by her husband Conrad in September of 1994, her parents and six siblings. She will be lovingly remembered by her three daughters and their families, Regina and Joe Knoll and their children Karen and husband Brian Abs, Bruce and wife Colleen Knoll all of Winnipeg and Jeff and wife Candace Knoll of Coquitlam, BC; Gisela and Dieter Howald in Vancouver, BC and their children, Michele and husband Robert Sibson in Kelowna, BC, Andrea and husband Cornel Schmidt in Pitt Meadows, BC, Gregg and wife Katherine Howald in Kelowna, and Danielle and husband John Kiss in Calgary, AB; Rose and Oskar Abendschoen and their children, Wendy Abendschoen, Glenn Abendschoen of Winnipeg, and Nancy and husband Gord Stokes of Portland, OR. Mother loved and was very proud of her grandchildren and took great delight in her great-grandchildren, Nicholas, Kristiana and Alexandra Sibson; Kevin and Derek Abs; Kyle and Jessica Abendschoen-Peters; Matthew and Brett Knoll; Jesse Knoll; Hiatt Abendschoen; Douglas, Julia, Matthew and Sarah Howald; Benjamin and Elise Stokes. Surviving her also are many, many nieces and nephews and other relatives and friends in Austria, Germany, in the US and here in Canada. Our mothers ancestors originated in Germany. During the 18th century they were part of the great migration (Voelkerwanderung) into the Danube basin in what was then the Austro/Hungarian Empire, but is now Yugoslavia. To their eventual peril, all of these Donauschwaben retained their ethnicity throughout the two and a half centuries they lived there-until their own particular holocaust eliminated them at the end of the Second World War. With her mother, her sister Elizabeth and their six children she fled the Communist Partisans on October 8, 1944, just days before the first killing started. They escaped North to Budapest on the Danube and were then shuttled back and forth in boxcars between Austria and Czechoslovakia until the arrival of the Russian troups in May of 1945. With the children - who were between 1 and 8 years old, they walked for one month from Czechoslovakia to Saxony, where they began their year in refugee camps. Our ordeal ended when our Dad found us in 1946, through the International Red Cross, in a camp in Eisenerz, Austria. Our Dad took us with him to Bavaria, where he worked at the Donaukurier, and in 1948 we were able to immigrate to Canada, where our Dad, a book-binder and lino-type operator by trade, found work at the German publication Der Nordwestern. Our parents loved to read - their house was full of books - and mother excelled in her garden. She collected many precious ornaments over the years - she was proud of her house and always took great care with her own appearance. She was never idle; if she sat down she busied herself with crocheting. Our parents were members of St. Josephs German Catholic Church since 1948; they both loved their time with the St. Josephs Golden Age Club. Our mother missed her Tuesday afternoons with her friends there very much. Our mother was diagnosed with the Bulbar type of ALS in the spring of 2001. Over a few short weeks she completely lost her ability to speak, and grew less and less able to swallow. In spite of this, she was able to communicate with us and her caregivers in German or English by writing, until shortly after she entered the hospital. She had grown steadily weaker because of the limited amount of food she was able to take in (she had refused a feeding tube), but the disease itself gave her no other physical discomfort. The family is deeply grateful to the ALS team at the Deer Lodge Centre - they were of great help to her and to us, her family. We also thank her caregivers, especially Tanis, Susan, Anita and Ana and her Palliative Care nurses who came to her home until she was finally hospitalized one week ago. But we especially thank the wonderful staff of the Palliative Care Unit at St. B - we will be forever grateful for the kindness they showed our mother, and us. Because of them she was able to die a dignified and peaceful death. Prayers will be held on Sunday, February 10 at 7:00 p.m. at Cropo Funeral Chapel, 1442 Main St. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, February 12 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Josephs (German) Roman Catholic Church, Mountain & Andrews with Rev. Fr. Diosdado Parrenas officiating. Interment will follow in Glen Eden Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, donations, would be very much appreciated in Moms memory to the Palliative Care Unit at St. Boniface General Hospital or the ALS Society of MB. RUHE IN FRIEDEN, LIEBE MUTTI CROPO FUNERAL CHAPEL 586-8044

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Feb 10, 2002