ELMA KLASSEN

Adjust Text Size: A+ A-

ELMA KLASSEN Elma Klassen went to her heavenly home peacefully on July 13, 2008 at the age of 88. She was born on October 19, 1919, the eldest of Johann and Helena Schroeder Hiebert's four children. Elma grew up on a farm near Horndean, Manitoba, where she had only eight years of schooling in the Melba School, but she was a self-motivated learner throughout her life. As a young woman, she enjoyed the young people's meetings and choir practices initiated by her teacher, Rev. D. K. Doerksen, and was baptized and joined the Grossweide Mennonite Brethren Church. In her early 20s, she, like many other young Mennonite women, served as a cook and maid in the homes of various doctors in Winnipeg, returning to the family farm each summer to assist with harvesting. On September 27, 1942 she married a neighbour and former classmate, Abe C. Klassen. They initially lived on a farm near Lowe Farm, but later moved to Winkler to enable Abe to attend Winkler Bible School and later to work in carpentry. They began the Winkler Bible Bookshop in 1959, retiring to Winnipeg in 1978. In Winnipeg, they lived on Fraser's Grove, in Lion's Place, and in late May 2008 moved to Concordia Place. An avid reader, Elma wanted her four children to have the benefits of a good education in a town, rather than in a rural setting. As a self-taught musician, she frequently sacrificed in order to provide formal musical training and other professional opportunities for her children. Her children gratefully remember her tasty cooking, their carefully tailored clothing, her love of reading biographies and travel adventures, her knowledge of geography, her interest in family history, her thoughtful understanding of a theology of grace, her delight in helping a bookstore customer find just the right book or gift, and her pleasure in sewing for charity. Limited eyesight and other health problems curtailed her reading and sewing in her later years, but she took comfort in Psalms 90 and 103, and found joy in the accomplishments of her family. She was predeceased by her sister Olga in 1959; her father in 1973; a daughter-in-law Mary Ann, in 1992; and her mother in 2005. Left to cherish her memory are her brother, Allan (Kathy) and Art (Elva) Hiebert and their families; her husband Abe; her children, Doreen, Marilyn (Henry Wiebe), Don (Kathy), Arnold (Penny); five much-loved grandchildren, Tamara (Rod) Powell, Brendan (Jaclyn) Klassen, and Bryan, Jeffry and Janessa Stafeckis, and two precious great-grandchildren, Claire and Sam Powell. The funeral service will be held Friday, July 18, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. in Eastview Community Church, 3500 De Vries Ave. Viewing will be held Thursday, July 17 at 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at Friends Funeral Chapel, and at the church prior to the service. Flowers gratefully declined. Donations may be made to Family Life Network (225 Riverton Ave, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2L 0N1) and/or Winkler Bible Camp (Box 2340, Winkler, MB, R6W 4C1) available at the church.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jul 16, 2008