Berniece Lillian Ersland

Music has always been a part of Berniece’s life. Her parents sang. She sang all her growing up years, in school, at church, with friends for social occasions. Imagine! She attended concerts, performed in concerts, loving the sounds, praising the Lord with her voice, playing the piano, and for a time, the violin. She and her future husband Art sang together for Norwegian Society gatherings in their home town of Madison, Wisconsin, and in East High School A Capella Choir, singing and dancing in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and especially enjoying singing in Christmas concerts at the capitol building that always began with “Break forth oh beauteous heavenly light…” as an angel was illuminated high in the dome of the building.

When the young family moved to Renton they met others who loved music, especially when they began to attend worship services with a fledgling congregation that came to be known as Highlands Community Church. Together they sang in a newly formed choir, in a mixed quartet, and Berniece sang second soprano in a ladies trio. And the music learned at church formed the sound track to which they raised a family, and which continues to bless and encourage those who are now left to carry on what Art and Berniece began all those years ago.

Berniece Lillian Kleve was born on February 27, 1922, to Lars and Ingeborg Kleve, joining big sister Marie to complete the family. Lars and Ingeborg had each come to the US from Voss, Norway, and for a time in her childhood, the tie to what was called “home” was tight, and the family participated in social gatherings welcoming “newcomers” to the new land. But the grip of the homeland was loosened as her parents developed personal relationships with God through Jesus Christ, and a Norwegian Lutheran church replaced other gatherings as the center of their social life.

The family of Art Ersland attended the same church. His sister was Berniece’s best friend, and the adults even sang in a quartet together. Berniece still has a vinyl record of her mother and mother-in-law singing together in Norwegian. There was never a time the Erslands and Kleves didn’t know each other, and it was no surprise that eventually Art and Berniece would marry.

Berniece’s father was killed in a car accident during the depression. Her sister Marie, with her husband and baby moved in with 14 year old Berniece and her mother in the home Lars built for the family. As soon as she was able, Berniece got a job in a dress shop, took business classes in high school, and graduated a year early. She was hired by the Hankscraft Corporation of Madison, Wisconsin, and was soon tapped to be the private secretary of the president of the company. Her preference, however, was to keep the books, do the finances, which stood her in good stead for the future.

The Sunday that Pearl Harbor was bombed Berniece and Art were having dinner with his brother and sister in law when the news came over the radio. All the men volunteered, and Art joined the Marines. For several years they wrote letters, and by the time Art came home for his first leave, they were engaged. Not knowing how long the war would last, or if tomorrow would even come for them, they were married on June 30, 1945, at Bogue Field, by a Marine Corps chaplain. She used to joke that not too many brides only know the groom and the maid of honor in their own wedding party.

After the war was over the young couple moved back to Madison, but with no houses built during wartime, there was no place to live. After a couple of years living with Art’s mother, -and sister and brother in law and their little girl, they heard of jobs in Washington State. And houses! So they moved, together with 2 year old Melinda. And soon Baby Jane joined the family. Years earlier Art had fallen in love with California on his way to the battle front, and thought Seattle might be a good place to start that journey, but along the way they had found Highlands Community Church, and Wally and Inez Wilson, and Russ and Mary Draper, and Fergus and Virginia McKean, and other absolutely wonderful people, so the sojourn to California was brief, and the return to the Northwest, joyous. But while there baby Mark was born. The now completed family soon found housing up the street from another dear friend, Velma Evans and her family.

Highlands was the social center of their lives, and the acquisition of property and building of the first unit, now called Fellowship Hall, was exciting and faith building. Art and Berniece loved the Lord, loved serving Him, and participated in all the church had to offer. They taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, participated in various leadership capacities, enjoyed Mary Martha Missionary Group , Pioneer Girls and Boys Brigade, COYA (Council on Youth Activities) VBS and Good News Clubs, and Berniece got to use her book keeping skills keeping the books. For years! Monday mornings found her dining room table covered with bills and coins and checks. Who knew the lady in the green coat walking across the playground to the bank that afternoon was carrying the Sunday offering to be deposited! It was a simpler time.

After her children were grown, Berniece was offered a job at the Renton Library. She jumped at the chance. Reading was a passion, one she instilled in her children. For 22 years she enjoyed the best job of her life, as she called it, next to raising her children. It also allowed them to take wonderful trips, to Australia, Europe, and lots of tropical islands, sometimes alone, sometimes with dear friends from Highlands, like Bob and Marie Stevens, and Bob and Frieda Huebner.

Art died suddenly in 1985. Berniece was thankful for the trips they had taken together, and, with the Lord’s help, began to learn a new normal. She got a driver’s license for the first time. She counted money at church again, a much bigger job than when she had done it years earlier, played in the bell choir, taught Sunday School, rocked babies in the nursery, and continued to live in the house where they had reared their children until 2004, when daughter Melinda and son-in-law Jim asked her to join them, and live happily ever after. Diabetes, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and generally having lots of birthdays made this sound like a good idea.

Enjoying grandchildren, great grandchildren, family weddings and reunions, travel to Hawaii with the Antins, to Galesburg to hear Scott preach his first Easter sermon at his new church, and seeing old friends has been her delight for the nearly 13 years Berniece lived with her daughter and son in law. On September 14, 2016, she fell, fracturing her hip and shattering her wrist. A later fall broke her femur, but not her spirit. She valiantly worked through the pain to walk with her walker, whom she called her friend. Finally, God said “Enough! You have worked long enough. Enter into my eternal rest.”

And so she did. Quietly and peacefully, on February 20, at 3:20 in the morning, with her two daughters and son in law Jim beside her. Just one week shy of her 95th birthday

But in her final hours, as we thought she was sleeping, she would occasionally say, “Oh, the music. It is so beautiful. Do you hear the flute? The music, the music… the throne.” And sometimes she would sing. We weren’t sure what the song was. Sometimes we understood the word “Alleluia.” But she was singing. Singing. She still sings.

*************************************************************************************

She leaves behind a family who loves her dearly: Daughter Melinda and husband Jim Wilson - Their Daughter Lori (Ernie) Antin, and children Cooper, Mason, Anna, Lillian, (Who was named for her great grandmother) and Mia. Son Scott (Heather) Wilson- their children Caden, Amanda, and Maxwell.

Daughter Jane and husband Wes Wilkinson. Their daughters Lissa (Scott) Warder, and Sara (Doug) Wilkinson, and their sons Steven and Daniel.

Mark’s daughter Angela (Rob Arrants) and their daughter Ezri.

And numerous nieces and nephews.

She joins her husband Art, son Mark, parents, sister, and a host of dear friends from Highlands who have preceded her. The rest of us await our turn.