Editing Klassen, Timothy Herbert (1960-1969)

''Mennonite Brethren Herald'' obituary: 1969 Apr 18 p. 31

Birth date: 1960 Mar 04

text of obituary:

<center><h3>TIMOTHY HERBERT KLASSEN</h3></center>

God gave  us  T,immy  early  on  the 
morning of March 4,  1960.  He arrived 
during a very heavy snowfall. He proved 
to be a healthy baby who grew to be an 
active.  curly-haired boy.  Of his childhood 
we have many memories; these are two. 
He loved  candy and  alway,s ,insisted  on 
having  his  share.  Then  we can  also 
picture him as  a two-year  old, wearing 
a  red  cowboy  hat,  riding  his  spr,ingmounted horse. In  later  years, he spent 
some time riding  real  ones. 
He enjoyed his childhood, and played 
games  very  enthusiastically.  We can 
remember  very  weH how, only last  fall, 
after a really  good game of soccer  or 
football  on our front  lawn  with some of 
our other  boys,  he  would come  inglowing  red  in  the  face,  hair  wet, 
breathing  deeply,  but  excited  and  contented.  He  really  enjoyed,  too,  those 
occasions  on  a  wet  Sunday  afternoon 
when we would join  some friends at the 
gym and  play a rousing  game of floor 
hockey or soccer. 
In  this  happy life, he learned to  know 
the  One who is  Love, Jesus Christ.  Very 
early,  Tim  learned  to  know  and  trust 
and love  him, too.  On several occas'ions, 
this came out in  a wonderful way. Often 
when we as a family gathered for a time 
of devotions in the evening, he would add 
his personal prayers. In  these last weeks, 
when he already was under the doctors' 
care and beginning to  feel  low,  he once 
sa'id  to  my wife, "Even when they  have 
done everything, I  still have Jesus." He 
had a great love toward his Savior. Like 
all boys, he had h'is  good share of faults. 
He was sometimes very persistent when 
he wanted to  have someth'ing  and was 
perhaps a little  too  possessive. And yet 
we saw how Jesus changed him in  this 
regard a little,  too.  On one of the  last 
days on wh'ich  we visited him, we took 
four  of  our  children  along.  He  was 
aware of this,  and,  before we left  for 
home,  he  told  my wife to  buy  some 
French fried  potatoes-one of his  favo-rites- on the way  home for  the  others 
for  his  sake.  In  a  similar  way, Jesus 
probably  wants to  change some of us. 
On January 29, after Timmy had been 
sick for a  short while,  his condition was 
tentatively diagnosed as  internal  cancer. 
During  one  we(~k  at  the  Chmiwack 
General  Hospital,  in  spite of much good 
and  loving  care,  his  condition  bf)CIJme 
worse. Because of the  better  facilities in 
Vancouver,  the  doctor recommended a 
move to Vancouver General  Hospital.  He 
spent one evening  and  night  at home, 
and we then drove him to Vancouver on 
Thursday,  Feb. 6. The nursing staff and 
doctors certainly  did all that  they  could 
for  him, and gave him wonderfully kind 
care.  We, as  a  family,  finally  became 
more will'ing  to  commit h'im  completely 
to  the  Lord.  On  Wednesday, February 
12, at about eleven o'clock in  the  morning, with his mother present, Timmy was 
called  home into  eternity by his loving 
Heavenly Father,  who loved  Tim  even 
more than  we as  a family  do.  And our 
response is-praise be to  the  Lord! 
That is  the  short sketch of Tim's life 
which was read  at the  memorial service 
on Friday,  February 14. God gave us, as 
a family,  much peace and strength. We 
drove to  the  service  singing  songs  of 
praise-and we would thank  all of those 
who prayed for  us  and remembered  us 
in  various  ways.  God will bless  and 
reward  you.  God has  seen  fit  to  use 
Timmy's  departure  to  bless  us  in  a 
variety  of  ways. It  even  became  the 
stimulus which helped one young fellow 
to  find  the  Lord.  We have seen  God's 
wonderfully loving  hand in  all of th'is  so 
clearly that  we have determined to  seek 
God more diligently. Much of God's Word 
has  become even more preC'ious to  us, 
and  we look  forward  to  a re-union,  to 
seeing our wonderful Savior, more so than 
ever  before.  We thought thlis  might be 
an  encouragement  to  some  of  your 
readors,  so we 'thought  we should  share 
it with you. God is  nood! 
Walfried and Helen Klassen and famiiy, 
Abbotsford, B.C.

[[Category:Mennonite Brethren Herald obituaries]]