Obituary of C.J. Wiersma

A Brief Remembrance of The Life and Times of CJ Wiersma January 3, 1921 - June 12, 2012 The day before his death on June 12, CJ Wiersma told his hospice admitting nurse that the secret to his 91 years of full and fruitful life was "family, confidence, and enthusiasm." And, he added, "Faith - spirituality - is over it all." Anyone who knew him would agree that CJ surely possessed the spirit of joy. On January 3, 1921, Clarence John (Klaas Jan) Wiersma entered life in a farmhouse near Sioux Center, Iowa, the son of second-generation Dutch immigrants Sam Wiersma and Hermina (Peters) Wiersma; his mother's older sister, Tena, shared their home. He and his black pony, Rosie, "grew up together." In his last months he would say that his only regret in life was losing Rosie when he was nine. About the same time his only sibling, a brother, Stanley, entered his life. He also had 61 aunts and uncles (Tena never married) and "5479 cousins." In adolescence, he survived smallpox -- untreated -- while his family was snowed in after a mid-winter blizzard. He learned farming in the rich soil of northwest Iowa, and faith in the staunch Dutch Calvinist community there. In the military, CJ acquired his first lessons in finance, his life-long career. CJ came of age in wartime, serving as a staff sergeant in charge of payroll and finance for the Army Air Corps and Infantry for a total of three years and two months, being discharged in February of 1946. He attended Nettleton Business College in Sioux Falls, and became an agricultural banker in the First National Bank of Pipestone, Minnesota. His work included farm insurance, protecting farmers from the hazards of weather and crop failure. After the war, he married Ethel Mol on August 30, 1946. They raised their three daughters, Jacque (Ken Solberg), Jan (Bob Hoxie) and Wendy Bronson, in Pipestone. His confidence in them was unbounded and he remained inordinately proud of them throughout his life, consistently recognizing and applauding their successes and treating their faults and failings with the same grace he felt from his God. He championed small innovative business ventures locally and throughout the state, and was instrumental in bringing a vocational school to the town. CJ also served for many years as elder and leader in the First Christian Reformed Church of Pipestone. The banker in him could not totally repress the farmer; he raised turkeys for a time, owned a herd of beef cattle, and gardened wherever he lived. He and Ethel visited Russia before travel there became common, touring collective farms and opening their understanding to a wholly different way of life. He was passionate about "getting people out of the concrete jungle," and with a friend started an agricultural business he believed would attract people to the good life in the countryside. Their daughters grown, CJ and Ethel moved to Minneapolis. As mortgage officer for Miles Homes, CJ traveled to almost every state in the nation, working with families to negotiate terms by which they could retain their hand-built homes, and appearing as an expert witness in court. In 1980, he lost his beloved wife Ethel to cancer. He approached mourning with his usual energy, planning Christmas trips to his daughter Jan in Japan, and walking on the Great Wall of China (a life-long dream). He shared ideas about electric fence insulators with farmers in New Zealand, and visited his brother Stan and sister-in-law Irene on sabbatical in Australia. With them he walked on the Great Barrier Reef. Shortly afterward, brother Stanley died unexpectedly in Holland, a new sorrow. CJ's first grandchildren, Jacque's sons Jacob and Raphael, renewed his joy and he took the same pride in them as in his daughters. Having survived his own grief, he became enthusiastic about helping others through theirs, joining and eventually leading the local Twin Cities chapter of THEOS (They Help Each Other Spiritually), a support group for young widowed persons. There he met Deloris Brager (nee Niemann), a fourth-grade teacher who would become his wife and closest friend and companion for the next twenty-one years, until his death. CJ delighted in enlarging his family and loved each of Deloris's three children and two grandchildren: Gerry Howie (Rusty), Deb Adas (Pat)and Scott Brager. He enthusiastically followed the athletic adventures of Deb's sons Patrick and Joshua. With retirement from active full-time employment, his faith (and his gardens) came into full bloom. Summers, CJ and Deloris gardened at their lake home on the shores of Mille Lacs Lake; winters, they traveled to Carey, Mississippi to work with a mission of the Christian Reformed Church. CJ "straightened out the books" of several small businesses in this physically impoverished but spiritually rich community. They usually went on from Carey to volunteer at Stonecroft, a Christian conference center in Branson, taking in some of their favorite performances on the side. And they annually toured the country visiting relatives and friends from North Carolina to California. In his last decade, he requested that anyone who wished to give him a birthday, Christmas, or other gift should give him a goat for the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee and he would match it. In this way he donated close to 200 goats to impoverished families in Uganda, and was hugely delighted by his new career as "goat farmer." In 2000, CJ and Deloris moved to Cambridge, Minnesota, to be near her mother. They quickly found deep and abiding friendships in their retirement community and their congregation, Bethel CRC in Princeton. At Grace Pointe Crossing, CJ developed a large garden for residents of their retirement community to share and served as president of the council. Together, CJ and Deloris led four hymn sings a month "for the old folks." Deloris handled the singing and prayers, and CJ provided the message, becoming a confident and enthusiastic preacher. In his 90th year, he embarked on a year-long sermon series on psalms and hymns that he continued until weeks before his death. CJ's later years were marked by health problems that he, naturally, approached with energy and determination. A diabetic for 36 years, his precise bank-ledger approach to recording his "numbers" mightily impressed his health care providers. He was enthusiastic about trying every experimental procedure that might improve his heart and kidney function. On Sunday June 10, after the doctors gently told him that medically nothing more could be done for him and suggested hospice, they asked him how he felt. "Wonderful!" he replied without hesitation. "I've had a great life here, and I have an even better one to look forward to." And he quoted Jeremiah 29:11: " 'I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord, 'plans to do you good and not harm.' " He added, "It's all grace." To all of us who carry him in our hearts, CJ modeled the spirit of living joyfully and faithfully with "family, confidence and enthusiasm." Memorials are preferred to Christian Reformed World Relief Committee - "Give a Goat" Program - www.crwrc.org Crossroads Bible Institute - Prison Ministry - www.crossroadbible.org Minnesota Teen Challenge - www.mntc.org