Helen Klassen

Adjust Text Size: A+ A-

HELEN KLASSEN
April 25, 1922 – April 11, 2016

In the early hours of Monday, April 11, 2016, with family at her side, our Mother Helen Klassen, exchanged her home in Bethesda Place, Steinbach, MB, for her heavenly home. She was two weeks shy of her 94th birthday.

Mom was born on April 25, 1922 in Barkfield, Manitoba, to Jacob T and Maria Wiebe.

On her confession of faith in Jesus Christ, Mom was baptized in 1943 and three years later, attended Steinbach Bible School for a year. She joined the Bergthaler Church choir directed by Henry Klassen and before long, a romance sparked with the director resulting in marriage, August 6, 1949.

They raised their 5 children on a dairy farm southwest of Steinbach, MB. In the earlier years Mom organized “The Good News Club” with the neighborhood children and they hosted many wiener roasts for the youth and choir of the Steinbach Mennonite Church.

Mom’s large gardens yielded huge crops of vegetables for her growing family and in later years had tomatoes and strawberries to share with others. She cooked, baked and sewed for her growing family, and for years enjoyed working at the Steinbach Sewing Factory. Retirement for Mom and Dad started with a move to Steinbach in 1992. After Dad’s passing in 2000, Mom moved to Fernwood, continuing her hospitality, delighting us with her wonderful Zwieback and amazing pies. She lived her faith 24/7, regularly joining a team of women praying for the Steinbach schools, supporting various missions, her local church, her family and many others. Her faith grew continually through prayer and Bible reading, ever learning. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were recipients of her love, that went round and round, there is no end to love, she would say. She lived with gratitude, contentment and love. In her most painful moments as her earthly journey neared completion, she whispered Jesus please heal me, I love you Jesus! She knew her destiny.

Mom was predeceased by her husband, Henry D. Klassen, her parents and stepmom, three sisters, two brothers, one grandchild and one son-in-law.

Left to cherish her memory are her five children: Connie & Ken Plett, Eleanor & Frank Thiessen, Earl & Marlene, Roger & Sheila, Glenn & Sandra, her thirteen grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren.

The family expresses our thanks to the homecare staff at Fernwood for their care and most recently for the loving and excellent care at Bethesda Place.

The celebration of her life was held Thursday, April 14, 2016 at Birchwood Funeral Chapel, Steinbach, MB with burial at Heritage Cemetery, Steinbach, MB.

Arrangements by
BIRCHWOOD FUNERAL CHAPEL
1-204-346-1030 OR 1-888-454-1030

As published in The Carillon on Apr 19, 2016