Eva was predeceased by her first husband, Abraham [Abe] Wiebe (1960) and her second husband, Bernhard [Ben] Dyck (1992), son Dietrich [Dick] Wiebe, daughter Helen Wiebe, granddaughter Shelley Wiebe, son-in-law Peter Neufeld, grandson-in-law Paul Kwiatkowski, step-daughter Sarah Rempel, step-granddaughter Pam Unrau, step-son-in-law Norman Unrau. She is survived by 3 daughters Eva Neufeld, Janis (James) Boles, and Ann Lion, 10 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and 8 great-great-grandchildren, sister Susan Doerksen and brother Peter Sawatzky and numerous nieces and nephews.
Eva is also survived by 5 step-daughters Elma Unrau, Margaret (Clive) Unrau, Helen (Jake Neustaedter), Tina (Peter) Wiebe, Betty (Glen) Neustaeter, and Lois (Brian) Scarrow, step-son Murray Dyck, step-son-in-law Marvin Rempel, 39 step-grandchildren, 15 step-great-grandchildren.
Eva loved gardening and was well-known for her flower gardens. She volunteered at the MCC for many years and helped with quilting at the Olivet Church in Abbotsford. She had many hobbies; making greeting cards with dried flowers, drawing and painting, sewing doll clothes for the MCC to name just a few.
Eva had been declining in health for the past few years. She was a resident in the Menno Home, Abbotsford since September 2011. The family would like to give a big and grateful thank-you to the staff at Menno Home and Dr. John Chan for the many years of caring for her.
She will be greatly missed, but we are also glad that she is now in the arms of our Lord and her suffering is over.
A Funeral Service was held at Woodlawn Funeral Home, Abbotsford, on Wednesday, September 26, 2012 at 3:00 p.m.
A Funeral Service will be held on Saturday, Sept 29/12 at 2:00 pm, at the Summerfeld Mennonite Church, in MacGregor, Manitoba. Interment will be held at the Austin cemetery following the Funeral Service.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to MCC or a charity of your choice.
To view the Funeral Service in Abbotsford, please visit www.dignityabbotsford.com
Life Story of Eva Sawatzky Wiebe Dyck by Ryan Neufeld, great grandson
My memories of Oma Dyck are of full raspberry bushes begging to be picked, full dinner tables on what were to be short visits, and constant jokes about hugging her from my knees. I remember her as the little old lady the other volunteers would ask to grab stuff from the top shelves at the MCC store despite her being 20 years their senior. I remember fast car rides and surprise toys, and more recently watching her unpack century old dolls and watching smiling as my little girl, her great great grand daughter Ella, looked on in awe at the eyes that opened and closed. Even with failing health at the age of 96, my Oma, Eva Dyck flashed moments of the nature loving artist inside, the strong and independent adventurer of her youth, and the lover of service to God and others, especially her family.
As told by her 3 daughters:
Mom was born Eva Sawatzky on May 19, 1916 in Halbstadt, Manitoba to Peter & Katharina (Neufeld) Sawatzky. Several years later they moved to New Bothwell, Manitoba, where she started school, and when she was 11, they moved again, this time to the Lost River, Saskatchewan area.
Her father had poor health, so mom had to work very hard on the homestead, clearing the land, and caring for live stock at an early age. While helping the family on the farm, she also went to school and finished her classes up to grade 6. These early years of long hours and contribution to the needs around her clearly molded her but she also found time for many different expressions of joy.
Both mom and her brother Pete had harmonicas or “mouth organs”, and despite her father insisting that if they must continue their racket, to “take it to the barn,” she continued to play her mouth organ until her latter years. One fateful day when her dad came home from town, she snuck a peak into his pocket, hoping to find candy. No doubt she whistled and smiled as she ate what she thought was black liquorish, though perhaps not so much when she discovered it to be chewing tobacco.
In her teens, she loved going to dances. After the work was done, they were allowed to go, but they had to walk because the horses needed a rest. As she tells it, they usually did not have to walk far because they were quickly picked up by passing boys on horseback. Perhaps this is where her love of driving quickly and aggressively began - for years later she still drove like a teenage boy, frequently insisting that other drivers, with whom she had almost collided, hadn't honked their horns. When Jim and Janis visited mom and dad on their honeymoon, grandma was driving them around and several times she slammed on the brakes, came to a dead stop in the middle of the road and announced “we almost bought that house”. On the third such stop, all Jim heard was the sound of air brakes behind them. When she finally turned in her license, her record was clean and free from all infractions; mom having never even received a speeding ticket.
Mom met her first husband, Abe Wiebe, at one of those very dances. He was usually a fiddler there - so she often complained she was not getting many dances with her boyfriend. Later when she wanted to write a letter to dad, but found she had no money to buy a stamp, she asked her brother Pete, 10 years old at the time, for a stamp. He said he would give her a stamp if she dug him a hole deep enough for him to stand up in. So she did, he did, and the letter was sent.
With such an effort being made, dad did his part as well, riding 9 miles to come courting mom one night. Her dad was feeding the horses and tried to turn him away, saying the girls had gone to bed. But dad prevailed, seeing the light in their window. Father finally allowed him to go in for a visit.
They were married July 27, 1933, at her parents farm. Elk meat was served at the reception.
Her first child, Eva Catherine was born in Nipawin, SK., before they moved to Gouldtown, SK in 1937. Her other children, Dick, Janis, Ann were all born in Herbert, SK, in later years.
In 1941 the family moved to Kleefeld, Manitoba, then Rosengard, Manitoba where Helen was stillborn Feb 29, 1944.
Through many years and many more moves, she always managed to find wild fruit trees and berries. The best fruit, it seemed to her, grew in the poison ivy patches, but that did not stop her. She often had swollen, painful arms, until an old native man told her to make a yarrow tea compress, which cleared up the irritation very quickly.
In 1950, they moved again, first to Winnipeg for a year, then back to Lavenham, where, for the first time, dad bought a mixed farm with a very tiny 2 bedroom log house. The bedrooms faced south and the living area to the north. Mom did not like the arrangement because, she insisted, she needed light - and lots of it - so dad renovated. The living area was moved to face south, with a large window for mom to enjoy.
Despite the frequent relocating, she did not believe in living in a dirty house. Some of the houses they moved into were old, and had not been lived in for many years. So her first job was to scrub the house clean. She usually painted or white-washed as soon as she had money to do so, changing her kitchen to it's usual yellow or light green. We came to dislike those colours.
In spite of the great deal of hard work on the dairy farm, she made a point of taking time to do special things with us. One spring when we were sick with measles, she found some ice under a saw dust pile, and made some pink ice cream for us. She helped us cut out paper dolls from pictures in the Eaton’s catalogue, and made doll houses out of cardboard boxes for them to live in.
The farm was doing very well, but dad had a heart attack at the age of 41, and while mom, Janis & Ann tried to carry on for a short time, it was too difficult and they reluctantly sold the farm and moved back to Winnipeg where Eva could work as a care aid / house keeping in a couple of hospitals.
Sadly, her son, Dick, passed away in 1957 of complications from a flu and weak heart.
In 1960, she quit working at the hospital and took in a foster baby (Debbie).
But then dad passed away, of a second heart attack, at home. After that mom could not be home alone for night. She was heart broken, again, when Debbie was adopted and left. She went back to work at the hospital.
We enjoyed watching her second courtship - with our uncle, Ben Dyck. On May 19, 1962, they were married in Winnipeg, on a very rainy day. And it was another move back to Austin.
In 1965 everything changed when she came to BC for a visit, and advised dad that she was not coming back to Manitoba. Eventually, he sold the farm and joined her in BC.
In BC, mom worked on their own farm, as well as harvesting fruit and vegetable crops for others, until retirement. After years of farming, she enjoyed her gardening - and so continued to keep lots of space for flowers, fruit, and vegetables.
Being a very generous person and one who hated waste, everything she grew was shared with her neighbors. In fact, she hated waste so much that on occasions when she went to Manitoba for a visit, she took her used tea bag along in her purse because she had only used it just once. Her grandson, Michael, brought her great joy in these BC years, as did trips with the gardening club and her crafts/art. She embroidered everything with flowers, and made greeting cards with dried flowers, seeds and feathers.
Dad Dyck passed away in July, 1992, also at home - from a heart attack - and along with the shock and grief mom, also re-lived the passing of her first husband all over again. After that, whenever we asked her how she was, she always answered that she was lonely.
In her later years she found purpose at the MCC store - she walked there and worked all day - 6 days a week - and then in the evening she walked to the grocery store or around Mill Lake with Ann. She made many dear and lasting friends there. She also attended Olivet Mennonite Church and enjoyed the quilting group.
Her health began to fail in the last 3 years. She has been marvellously, and compassionately taken care of at Menno Home, here in Abbottsford. Though the words and memories came a little more slowly, and the visits became much shorter and less fueled by food, usually found in the depths of her remarkable freezer, mom always maintained her wonderful sense of humor, and loved to tell stories. She was able to laugh at herself and enjoyed stories of good times long gone, and those happening right now.
And now she has finished her final move - to her heavenly home.
I feel very blessed to have had the chance to spend time with Oma these last few years. Flipping through pictures and books that tell of her amazing life, and belly laughing at her self conscious attempts at avoiding family pictures. While she will be missed, we are joyful that she has found rest and peace in her new life with her God where she will never have to be lonely again.
Goodbye Mom! Goodbye Oma! Until we meet again! We love you
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