FamilySearch ID: 9VP5-4DK
GRanDMA #13586

Obituary from The Messenger, Vol. 31 No.10 May 21, 1993 p.14

Life has often been described as a journey. For Frank D. Reimer, husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, this journey, which began May 11, 1911, at Twin Creek, Man., came to an end April 23, 1993, at the Health Sciences Center in Winnipeg.

As a family we knew that this day was near, given his long struggle with complications related to kidney failure. We will remember him as a fighter. To the amazement of medical staff surrounding him, he bounced back again and again.

There are many words that would describe what he was and what he meant to us as a family. He loved life, seeing every new day as a day of grace. He greeted it with a song or by whistling his favourite hymn, often to the chagrin of children who wanted to sleep a bit longer.

He was a person with unlimited energy. The early years were difficult. He managed to sustain several careers at the same time, as he farmed, went into the grocery business, drove school bus, managed a rural mail delivery route and at the same committed himself to pastoral ministry in the church, which was also a full-time assignment.

The values of his parents, Rev. Henry R. and Helena Reimer, were also claimed by him--values which reflected a firm faith in the living God, a love for the church and a commitment to family.

One might also say that he had a pioneering spirit. After completing the first two years of grade school, he made a move to Prairie Rose with his parents and twelve brothers and sisters, in the summer of 1920. Carving a farm from swamp and grassland was no easy task. The situation was complicated by the economic depression, so some of the family took trains to Saskatchewan and Alberta, working on farms to supplement the family income at home.

1934 turned out to be an eventful year, when he married Aganetha Banman of Prairie Rose. After a year of marriage, the newlyweds moved to Shakespeare to open a general store and gas pump.

1943 was another significant year in their lives, when he was elected and ordained as a minister by the Kleingemeinde (now EMC) congregation in Prairie Rose. It was clear that he was to follow in the steps of his father, Henry R. Reimer, who was the leading minister at the time. In 1956 he was elected as leading minister by the congregation and later was also elected as moderator of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference.

In 1954, his wife, Aganetha, became ill. The diagnosis of cancer came only six weeks before her death in September. He was left with six children, the youngest being two years old.

The journey of life had become harsh. How does one keep in balance the need to sustain a family, carryon a vocation to put bread on the table, and carry out pastoral duties in the church?

The answer was to come the following year when Olga Guenther from British Columbia, Aganetha's aunt, said yes to becoming his wife and the mother to his six children. One daughter was added to the family, bringing the total to seven.

God blessed this marriage in additional ways as Olga shared in the gifts of hospitality and often travelled with him for church and home visits and Conference meetings. Having a grandson, Rob, growing, up in their home helped to keep them young.

He will also be remembered as a visionary person, a leader who was able to share and communicate that vision with the many people whose lives he touched.

The church was very important to him. Following his retirement as the leading minister of the Prairie Rose congregation, even the gift from the congregation, a recliner, did not affect his lifestyle. He became actively involved in the mission board church-planting projects in Pelly, Sask., and Aylmer, Ont., to name a few. These seemed to be natural extensions of earlier mission trips to Paraguay and Mexico.

He will also be remembered as a man of prayer. Praying for his family, for the church, for the Christian witness around the world, was part of his daily experience. He so desperately wanted others to experience the hope and faith he had found in Jesus Christ.

We will miss him very much. Perhaps the best way we can honour him is to emulate his life of faith and service.

Left to mourn his passing are his loving wife, Olga; seven children, Frank, Rudy, Elinor, Irma, AnnaMarie, Nettie and Wilma, and their spouses; 18 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren; one brother, Ben; two sisters, Tina Penner and Elsie Hildebrand; and many more relatives and friends. He was predeceased by his first wife, Aganetha; his parents, Henry and Helena Reimer; his stepmother, Aganetha Dueck; five brothers, Henry, Abram, Peter, John and Diedrich; four sisters, Suzanna, Marie, Helen and Margaret.

As a family we say a special thank you to Wilma and Denis Keating, who have gone the second mile, especially during the last six years of their father's illness.

Thank you to the volunteers from the church who made many hips to Winnipeg and took time for visits and encouragement. Thanks to the staff of Health Sciences Center and the Kidney Foundation for their services during his illness.

A special thank you to you, Mother, Grandmother and Great-grandmother, for being there, standing with him to the last day.

The Family. ■