Obituary of Gertrude Wiebe

Good afternoon, thank you all for coming out to remember and to celebrate the life of Trudy Wiebe. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Lorne Steinke, Trudy's oldest grandson, the oldest son of her oldest daughter, Vi Steinke. Wellwowhow does someone sum up or consider someone's 95 years of life, wow, 95 years!!! She must have gotten off to a good start eh? I guess you'd have to ask yourself what does a good start look like? Well, she was born in the Lost River area of Saskatchewan, March 29, 1921, identical twins Trudy and Kay (Tina). When she was only 19 days old her mother died, so her older sister, brother, and twin sister went to stay with two of their aunts for almost a year. Then their dad remarried Agatha Derksen (their mom's sister). My grandma said Agatha felt so sorry for those four kids without a mother and said she was very brave to take on a family like that at 18 years of age. They lived in a small house with the living and dining room all in one with the heater in the middle and two bedrooms. Homemade furniture made from wooden apples boxes and wooden egg crates. The beds were sleep benches'. Her dad made them with lids so they could sit on them in the daytime. I heard something about a dirt floor and at some point they had a sod roof that would occasionally drip mud on you when it rained. No electricity, no phone, just coal oil lamps and homemade candles. They had a well in the yard 8-14 feet deep, all hand dug, cribbing with lumber or poles. All the water had to be carried in for cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, bathing, laundry, a lot of hard work and then it had to be carried out again. Sometimes, when they had grain or pigs to sell, her dad would take it to town and trade it for yeast, sugar, flour, etc. The flour and sugar came in cotton sacks, very useful for making cloth dresses, underwear, tea towels, pillow cases, etc. Of course, the Robin Hood and Five Roses labels had to be bleached out first and they often didn't come out completely so they were a good advertisement. Her dad tanned moose and deer hides for mitts and moccasins, and even britches for himself for the winter. It was all hard work, hauling in wood, feeding pigs, chickens, and cows, etc. All the wood had to come from across the river in the winter when the river was frozen. Lots of trips back and forth to get the year's supply, then it all had to be cut up with a cross cut saw to stove length. Sometimes they could get someone to come with a buzz saw to help, otherwise you cut it with the crosscut. Trudy said, "One person on each end back and forth. That's hard work, but we've done lots." Their big garden was their livelihood and, of course, everything would have had to be done by hand so Trudy would have been used to a lot of hard work. She grew up in an old colony Russian Mennonite community where church services were always conducted in High German. They spoke pluot deuch' at home and when she went to school she had to learn English. When she heard Randy and I were going to a Mennonite church, she was quick to tell me her testimony. She gave her heart to the Lord on August 13, 1933 at 12 years of age. An evangelist came to town and they held a week of special meetings, and the first time she heard the gospel in English she gave her heart to the Lord. With a smile, she would say, "I shall never forget the peace and joy that flooded my soul that day when my burden of sin was taken away." Trudy married Peter Wiebe in Lost River, Saskatchewan October 29, 1939. This is where my mom Vi, Virg, Dot, and Joy were born. They moved to Kelowna in 1948 where Vic and Shane were born. Then they moved to Silver Valley in 1975. She loved to sing, memorize scriptures, poetry, music, always trying to get me to play my guitar, sports, being outside, especially baseball, making crafts for the fair, painting, teaching pottery classes, ceramics, loving family especially her grandkids. Service 2:00 pm Monday, November 21, 2016 Savanna Recreational Complex Hwy 681 Savanna, Alberta, Canada Interment Alexview Cemetery Silver Valley SILVER VALLEY, Alberta, Canada