Van der Smissen, Hillegonda Cornelia (1848-1949)

Revision as of 17:14, 10 March 2010

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 13 Oct 1949 p. 3

Birth date: 1848

text of obituary:

SISTER HILLEGONDA CORNELIA VAN DER SMISSEN

To her many friends, Sister Hillegonda needs no introduction, but it will encourage us to hear again how this Sister for more than 101 years lived her life.

Born in Friedrichstadt, Germany on June 30, 1848, she is the daughter of the Mennonite pastor, Rev. C. J. van der Smissen and his wife, Sarah Cornelia, nee van der Smissen. Her parents were descendants of a Flemish nobleman, a city councilman of Brussels who, in those days of religious persecution, left wealth and worldly advantages to be a follower of Christ according to the dictates of his conscience.

Sister Hillegonda was privileged to spend a most happy childhood and youth in her native city. Here she also attended the elementary schools and received her further education under the tutorship of her mother, an able teacher.

When she was twenty years old, her father accepted a call to the United States of America as the teacher of theology at the Mennonite Seminary in Wadsworth, Ohio. Rev. van der Smissen and his wife, accompanied by Wilhelmina and Hillegonda, the two daughters still at home, landed in New York on December 8, 1868.

Ten years later, Sister Hillegonda went to Hayesville, Ohio with her parents, where her father served as pastor of a Mennonite congregation until his death in 1890. About a year later, the widowed mother moved to Summerfield, Ill., in order to be near her son, the Rev. C. H. van der Smissen. Sister Hillegonda surrounded her mother with tender care, and after the mother's death, continued to live in Summerfield.

In 1885 and again after the death of her parents, Sister Hillegonda had the privilege to visit her native homeland. In her own words, "It has been my privilege to travel extensively in my lifetime and always on these trips I have experienced much love, kindness, and joy."

In the fall of 1908, the newly established Bethel Deaconness Home and Hospital at Newton, Kansas, extended a call to her to take charge of the institution household as supervisor of the kitchen and dining room and to assist in the spiritual service to the patients and probation sisters. Siser Hillegonda was then sixty years old but versatile and in good physical health.

She accepted the call for six months on a trial basis, closed her home temporarily, and arrived in Newton in a great snowstorm on February 1, 1909. Due to the fact that she had ten years of experience in Wadsworth in administering an institution household, she was able to adjust herself to her new surroundings and duties in a remarkably short time. And soon she also found the necessary inner joy to become a member of the small Sisterhood.

On September 16, 1909, she received the deaconness garb with the first group of probation sisters and immediately following her investment, was consecrated as a deaconness by the Rev. Gustav Harder of Whitewater, a member of the board of directors. Jeremiah 31:3 was given her as her ordination verse: "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

Since then Sister Hillegonda has lived an abundant life as a member of our Sisterhood. She served well in proving the food for our tables, but she did much more. How well we remember her poems -- ready for every occasion; many will bless her as a Sunday school teacher, others remember her as the editor of the women's section in one of our church papers, many will recall how interesingly she would read or tell stories during the quilting hours, canning time, or in social groups; many patients will remember the Sister who came to their bedside to read Scripture and to pray with them.

Probably the most outstanding feature of Sister Hillegonda's life was her gratefulness in all things and her prayer life. We sw her on her knees praying for needy ones, for missionaries, for friends, and for those who had spoken hastily or unkindly. We shall never forget those folded hands, that radiant face, and those fervent prayers in rhyme or prose but always coming from a heart filled with the love of God.

Her testimony in her own words reads: "Der Herr hat mich wunderbar gefuhrt, aber gnadig! Er hat mich je and je geliebt, mich su sich gezogen aus lauter Gute; getragen mit lagmut und Geduld. Bei dem Herrn ist die Gnade und viel Vergebung bei Ihm."

Her last words only a few minutes before her home going were: "Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Gott! Amen."

She departed this life on Thursday, Sept. 29, 1949, at 3:30 p. m. Funeral services were held Monday, Oct 3, 1949, at 2:30 p.m. at the First Mennonite church of Newton, with Rev. J. E. Entz, Rev. J. F. Balzer, and Rev. D. J. Unruh participating in the services.