Harder, Karl Eduard (1951-1954)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1954 Apr 29 p. 9

Birth date:1951 Sep 8

text of obituary:

KARL EDUARD HARDER

Karl Eduard Harder was born to his parents, Ernst and Ruth Harder on Sept. 8, 1951, in Bloomfield, Iowa.

Four months after birth he developed high temperature and was taken to the Davis County hospital where doctors working in close cooperation discovered a bladder neck obstruction and it resulting damage to his kidneys. Only quick action could save him. After surgery in the University hospital at Iowa City and a check-up a year later at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., Karl was given little hope of recovery.

Instead of losing out, however he gained to the extent that he could sit, play, and laugh. Although he required constant care and caused his parents much anxiety, he came to be the sunbeam of the Harder home. The heart of his neighbors and of the many friends in church and community went out to him; and he met them with a clear look out of his big brown eyes and sheepish smile. He suffered much, but he also loved and was loved much. He became his parents’ little angel. He has taught them much about suffering and about God.

On March 25, 1954, Karl again submitted to a serious operation at Iowa City and for a week made excellent recovery. But when his little body could take suffering no longer, the Lord took his spirit home to Himself on April 7, 1954. He was only two years and seven months old. His parents as well as Gertrude and Ronald will miss him very much. Sorrowing are also his grandparents, Rev. and Mrs. J. A. Ewert of Hillsboro, Kansas and Rev. and Mrs. A. A. Harder of British Columbia, Canada, as well as several uncles, aunts and cousins.

After the services at the Pulaski Mennonite church, Pulaski Iowa, Karl’s body was taken to Hillsboro, Kansas, and interred at the Johannestal Mennonite Church cemetery.

“He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in His bosom.”