Friesen, Aganetha Loewen (1871-1949)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1949 Mar 24 p. 3

Birth date: 1871 Oct 8

text of obituary:

MRS. AGANETHA FRIESEN

Mrs. Aganetha Friesen was born in Karlswalde, Poland on Oct. 8, 1871. When she was four years old her parents moved to Rosenort, Russia. Since her parents were poor, she had to support herself from the time she was twelve years old.

When she was twenty-five her mother died; and the following year, in 1897, when our father, Franz Loewen, who had lost his helpmate, came from America to visit his aged father and to find someone to fill the vacant place in his home, she left her father and two sisters to make her home in America. In the years since life in Russia has become so difficult, she has often said, “I should kneel at father’s grave and thank him for taking me out of the land of misery.

In her new home in Mt. Lake, Minn., she tried to fill a mother’s place for five boys and one girl, ranging in age from four to eighteen years. Since she was so near in age to the older children, she felt herself very inadequate for the task, and in later years she grieved much over her lost opportunities in being a real mother to them. The daughter, Elizabeth, died during the influenza epidemic in 1920 and the oldest son, Henry, in June 1948 of a heart attack.

When her husband fell asleep in the twilight of Sept 2, 1905, never to wake up again, she was left, after 8 years of married life, with four small children and felt suddenly very lonely, far from all of her relatives. Relatives in Russia urged her to return, but the older stepchildren opposed this. In 1910 she married Mr. Peter Friesen, with whom she lived for almost twenty years until his death on Jan. 21, 1931.

She was hard worker and enjoyed good health until 1935, when diabetes began to undermine her strength. Several times she became seriously ill but each time she recovered sufficently[sic sufficiently] to care for herself and her household duties, until July 26, 1945, when a stroke paralyzed her right side. After spending six weeks in bed, she was able to be up and around until the day of her death.

Her right hand, once entirely closed and useless, was opened again, as she said, by God in order to write to our unfortunate relatives scattered by the war in Russia, Siberia, Germany, Paraguay and Canada. Two weeks before her death she felt a great urge to write to them again. In two days she wrote five long letters which left her exhausted. The next day she suffered a slight heart attack but insisted on getting up again the following day. On March 7 she suffered another heart attack shortly after 6 p.m. Conscious up to the last, she died at 10:20 reaching the age of 77 years four months and 28 days.

She was a great reader and loved to share with others what she read. During the first two years after her stroke she read book after book. This last winter she confined herself mostly to her large print Bible which she could barely read with her magnifying glass. In October she began reading through the entire Bible, finishing it two weeks before she died.

Two years ago she received a letter from her 89 year old sister in Russia from whom she had not had a word for ten years. If still alive, this sister is the only surviving member of her parental family. Her only brother was drowned at the age of ten, and her oldest sister died in Russia in 1931. Left to mourn her death are her four children, Mrs. Henry J. Brown and husband, of Mountain Lake, Dr. David Loewen and wife of Decatur, Ill., Peter Loewen, instructor at the University of Denver, and wife, and Miss Aganetha Loewen, who cared for her the last three and one-half years; her grandchildren, Gertrude, Betty, and Roger Brown and James and Mary Elizabeth Loewen; her four step sons and their families, Frank F. Loewen, Jacob F. Loewen, Nicolai F. Loewen and John F. Loewen, and the families of Elizabeth and Henry.

Mother's relations to her Saviour and her Heavenly Father were very intimate. Often as she sat in her favorite chair, she prayed to God aloud, and she spoke of times when God spoke audibly to her deaf ears. She was a life long member of the Mennonite Church, attending services faithfully, and took an active part in its work until ill health interfered.

She was deeply devoted to her family. She prayed every morning that her children might be faithful in serving mankind in their chosen professions and that not one of her family might be missing when the final roll is called.