Katharina (Tina) Wiebe

On May 14, 2015 at 1:30 am our dear Mother, Tina Wiebe nee Krahn of Altona was called to her eternal rest by her Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ at the Altona Hospital due to complications from a major heart attack. Mom’s health slowly had been fading after she fell and fractured her shoulder in 2010. In the last few years when her pain in her hip and knees became too great it caused her to become wheelchair bound.

Mom was born in Chihuahua, Mexico on March 27, 1931 to Cornelius and Anna Krahn and was the 2nd youngest of 15 children. She had 9 brothers and 5 sisters. Her parents moved to Mexico several years before she was born. They lived there until Mom was 9 years old, then they moved back to Canada.

Being raised during the Great Depression to a poverty-stricken family made Mom a very frugal person. She learned to make do or do without. Learning to work was a prerequisite for a large family striving to put food on the table. Mom started cooking for her family when she was 11 years old and didn’t stop until her death. Lending a helping hand to support the family was the top priority. That and the fact that her mother was very ill made her opportunity for schooling very limited.

In 1952, she was baptized upon confession of her faith in Jesus Christ by Bishop Jacob Froese in the Old Colony Church. She married our Dad on August 3, 1952. They were married almost 43 years before Dad’s passing. Together they were blessed with 5 sons, and 2 daughters.

Mom taught herself to speak English by listening to radio programs. This helped her while she was employed as a cook and nanny in the Brandon area in the first year of their marriage.

In between raising her children, she helped Dad by supplementing their income with hoeing beets, selling milk and cream, and taking care of the farm.

 Once her children were all in school, she started cooking for others through the CARE program. This lead to catering numerous weddings, family gatherings and other functions. She did this for over 20 years.

One of the ways Mom showed her love was by cooking a delicious meal for family and friends. A huge table of food was a common site at family gatherings. She was a wonderful cook! Hospitality always came first with Mom, cleanup and dishes could wait while she took the time to visit with guests.

Mom was predeceased by her beloved husband, John in 1995, by her son Gordon in 2008 and 1 grandson Adam in infancy in 1999. Mom is also predeceased by her parents, 9 brothers, and 4 sisters.

Mom leaves to mourn 4 sons and 2 daughters, the late Gordon (Eva) Wiebe, Larry (Christine) Wiebe, Leonard (Mary) Wiebe, Debby Wiebe, John (Anne) Wiebe, Dianne (Ed) Rempel, and Ron (Wendy) Wiebe, 26 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren. She is survived by 1 sister, 2 brothers-in-law and 5 sisters-in-law.

We wish to thank the Home Care and Altona Hospital Staff, Dr. Bueddefeld, Dr. Winning, Wiebe’s Funeral Home, Rev Cornie Peters, the Reinlander ladies serving and youth group, pallbearers, ushers, church caretakers, song leaders, paramedics and for the visitations to Mom.

A special thank you to Ben & Susana Sawatzky for faithfully taking Mom to church while she was still able and to Barb Wiebe Homecare nurse to Mom.

We want to say a heartfelt thank you for all your prayers, phone calls, food and other ways that you have shown support to us the family in our time of grief.

But our greatest thanks goes to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who gave us the one last wonderful day with our Mom. She was so happy, content and at peace with her family around her. We sang, prayed and loved together on her last earthly day.

Although we mourn, we do not mourn as those who have no hope as we have been given the reassurance of seeing our Mother again in heaven. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17 it reads, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

There our Mother will have the family gathering that she always longed for!

The family