Alvera E. L. Lustig
1915-2003
OWATONNA -- Alvera Elsie Lillian Lustig, 88, of Owatonna, died January 2,
2004, at Infinia at Owatonna Health Care of a stroke.
She was born March 16, 1915, in Deerfield Township, Steele County, the
daughter of Otto and Minnie (Zeise) Olp. Alvera and her husband of 62 years,
Theodore "Ted" Lustig, were married June 4, 1939, in Owatonna. Alvera worked
as an accountant for a veterinary clinic for 10 years next to their home of
60 years at the Wildung and Ihlenfeld family farms. She retired in 1977.
After her husband's death in July 2001, she moved into an apartment in Park
Place where she lived independently until her stroke on Dec. 21, 2003. She
liked to read, listen to old time music, play "Kings in the Corner" card
game, do crossword and jigsaw puzzles, watch "Wheel of Fortune" on TV, and
play Bingo at Park Place. Earlier in her life, she was very active in the
Hospital Auxiliary and donated three gallons of blood to the Red Cross.
Mrs. Lustig was a member of Redeemer Lutheran Church and in the past had been
active in the Ladies' Aid. For a period of time, she was also a member with
her husband of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Owatonna.
Survivors include her children: son, Ted Lustig Jr. of Mankato, Minnesota;
daughters, Charlene Lustig of Phoenix, Ariz., Marilyn Lustig and partner,
Paulette Joyer, of Minneapolis, Rosalie and Ronald Schnick of La Crosse,
Wis.; sister-in-law, Viola Lustig of Owatonna; and many nieces and nephews.
Preceding her in death were her father, her mother, a son David, and five
sisters (Ella Kelm, Emma Williams, Dorothy Firch, Frieda Krupp, and Edna
Ballenthin).
The family wishes to express a special thanks to Ruth Vizina and Judy Martin
of Owatonna HomeCare/Hospice who cared for Alvera and Ted in their home until
Ted died and then for Alvera in Park Place. Many volunteers and professional
staff then transformed this wonderful service into hospice care until her
death. The family also wishes to extend sincerest appreciation to the staff
and residents at Park Place who made Alvera's last 2.5 years some of the
happiest of her life.
Visitation will be held at Michaelson Funeral Home on Monday from 5-8 p.m.
and at Redeemer Lutheran Church on Tuesday from 10-11. Funeral service will
be held on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Owatonna. The
Rev. Kirk Griebel will be officiating. Burial will be in the St. John
Cemetery in Owatonna.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given in Alvera Lustig's name to
Owatonna HomeCare/Hospice, Park Place, and Healthy Seniors.
Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004 funeral: Eulogies "TO MOM, ALVERA E. LUSTIG"
Written and Presented by Rosalie A. Schnick, Daughter:
On behalf of my sister, Marilyn, and her partner, Paulette, my sister, Charlene, my brother, Ted, Jr., and my husband, Ron, I would like to welcome everyone and thank all of you for coming here today to celebrate Alvera Lustig�s life. We appreciate that some of you may have traveled some distance to be here and all of you came out in very cold weather. She would have found the weather for her funeral to amusing since she used to sit on the furnace grate at home to keep warm.
I would like to use some of Mom�s own words to start this journey remembering our Mom�s life as told to a staff member at Healthy Seniors:
Mom said �I lived on a farm in Deerfield MN, but Dad came from Wisconsin and farmed on 80 acres twelve miles from here. My folks were German and I could understand German. I was the youngest of six girls."
�The Olp Sisters.� This phrase had meaning for many people�all so very strong and unique, each in their own way. Now they are all gone but their children and grandchildren remain to carry on.
Mom was a young adult during the Great Depression and that period of time affected her greatly. She was bright and wanted to have a business career but fate did not allow that to happen. But, fate also brought Mom and Dad together at a dance. They had come to the dance with someone else and they left together. This event resulted in a marriage that lasted 62 years.
Mom said "I was married in 1939�.
One of Mom�s favorite memories was of their honeymoon in their Model A across dirt roads and the Missouri River on a raft to Montana to visit friends. Mom loved western movies, particularly Gene Autry so that trip was very special.
Mom said �I lived for four years in house owned by Henry Wildung where the Happy Chef is now. It was an old house and had no central heat or electricity.
Mom lived in that house, gave birth to two children and survived. Mom and Dad then moved to the house that they lived in for 60 years before Mom moved to Park Place after Dad died. In the early years, Mom butchered chickens and hogs, canned meat, and made sausage, head cheese, sauerkraut, and soap.
A major tragedy occurred in Mom�s life in 1947 when a truck driver killed her first child, son David, as he was getting off the school bus. She was devastated but she survived.
Two more children came along and Mom ended up with four children that, in my opinion, are beautiful, kind human beings.
Mom said �I never learned how to drive or ride a bicycle.�
Because Mom never drove a car, we (Dad, us children when we learned to drive, and wonderful neighbors like Donna Ihlenfeld) would take her to various activities. After Dad died and she moved to Park Place, she utilized the services of the Healthy Seniors and appreciated those services very much. She thought it was very special when the drivers would wait for her during a doctor�s appointment. When one of the Healthy Seniors died, the family recommended that the flowers be given to Mom because the Healthy Senior thought so much of Mom.
Healthy Seniors had many volunteer requests from Mom for such things as shopping trips, accompanying her to the bank, a class reunion, attending a grief support group, and providing rides to church, clinic, grocery store, and hair salon. The Service Coordinator also visited Mom and one of those visits included a trip to the bank to get dimes to play Bingo.
What Mom failed to mention to the Healthy Seniors staff was �I liked to cook and bake for my family and I have a very big sweet tooth.�
Mom excelled at making preserves, baking pies, cookies, and cakes and canning stewed tomatoes, tomato juice, and ketchup (my favorites). Every year she would take these goodies to the Steele County Free Fair and win ribbons, many of them blue. There was a gentle rivalry between Mom and her sister Emma Williams over who could get the most ribbons.
Most days the kitchen was where you would find Mom. The great smells emanating from the kitchen meant Mom was cooking or baking something special. She always wore an apron (just made to tug on). For each of our birthdays (Dad and us kids), Mom would make our favorite cake. Then she would take a picture of the cake and then a picture of us holding the cake or standing by it if we were not old enough to hold it. And, on several occasions during the year, she would make gingerbread men with either raisins or chocolate chips (our brother�s favorite). Mom made the best cinnamon and caramel rolls and something she called �crispies�. These she made special for my husband Ron when he arrived on the scene and indicated he liked them.
Mom put together picture albums for each of us kids and when we left home, she did scrapbooks of our high school classmates�their marriages, divorces, and successes.
Mom delighted in hiding Easter eggs throughout the house, putting money under our pillows when we lost our baby teeth, and getting special presents for us at Christmas time. My best memory was my first bicycle, a brand new one. I can still remember the smell of the new tires.
Mom said �I like to read, listen to old time music, play "Kings in the Corner" card game, and Bingo at Park Place.
Mom loved to read and she used to read to us as children all the time. I remember her reading the whole book �Gone with the Wind� to us. She gave us that wonderful love of reading that we have to this day. Music was also a major part of her life, especially that connected with the �old time� hymns and Marilyn�s violin playing. Mom listened to church services on the radio every Sunday for the message and for the music. Her church and her religion were very important to her. She had been very active in Ladies Aid at Redeemer Lutheran Church prior to moving to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
She was the happiest we had known her to be at Park Place the last 2.5 years of her life. She would regularly call us up to thank us for finding this wonderful place. She loved the view from her living room window especially in the fall when the leaves would change colors. The staff and residents made her life more full. Bingo became an especially fun event for her. As we were looking through the apartment after her stroke, we found numerous pieces of paper with �I won two games of Bingo, November 20, 2003, $3.20.� We children supplied her with jigsaw puzzles and she would have several going at the same time. And, of course, every time we visited, we would play �Kings in the Corner� with her and she would regularly win.
Not to be missed in this remembrance are Ruth Vizina and Judy Martin from Owatonna HomeCare/Hospice. These two ladies brightened her life and cared for her every need for four years. The family cannot thank you enough.
In the hospital after Mom�s severe stroke on December 21, Pastor Griebel was immediately there and, at the suggestion of Marilyn, he got his hymnal and we sang Mom�s favorite hymns and Christmas carols to her. We could tell that she was trying to sing along. We give a special thanks to Pastor Griebel for being there when Mom and us children needed it the most.
Everyone along the way helped Mom and us so much�it was seamless from Park Place to the Owatonna hospital to Infinia. And, the care was incredible!
As Mom breathed her last breath of life here on earth, she was surrounded by her family singing �Rock of Ages� and with our sister Charlene on the phone from Phoenix. What a beautiful and peaceful way to leave this earth. May Mom truly rest in peace.
I wish to close with a comforting thought from Ruth Vizina that she shared with us.
�We seem to give them back to you, O God, who gave them to us. Yet as you did not lose them in giving, so do we not lose them by their return. . . . What you give, you take not away, for what is yours is ours also, if we are yours.
And life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon, and a horizon is nothing but the limit of our sight. Lift us up strong Son of God, so that we may see further. . . .
Draw us closer to yourself, so that we may know ourselves to be nearer to our loved ones who are with you . . . And prepare us for that happy place, so that where you are, we may also be forevermore.
Amen.�
Prelude and Welcome
Opening Hymn: "Just As I Am" #359
Family Reflections/Eulogies
Invocation: Pastor: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. People: Amen
Pastor: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of all mercy and the God of all consolation. He comforts us in all our sorrows so that we can comfort others in their sorrowos with the consolation we ourselves have received from God. People: Thanks be to God.
Pastor: (recalling Alvera's baptism, Romans 6) "Do you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection." This is the Word of the Lord. People: Thanks be to God.
Responsive Psalm, Psalm 23 (NIV)
Pastor: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing
People: He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters.
Pastor: He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake;
People: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Pastor: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
People: Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
All: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Salutation and Prayer
Pastor: The Lord be with you. People: And also with you.
Lessons: Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, Psalm 1:21, Psalm 98, Matthew 2: 1-12
Hymn: "How Great Thou Art"
Sermon: Rev. Kirk Griebel
Hymn: "I know That My Reeder Lives"
Apostles Creed
Pastor: God has made us His people through ur baptism into Christ. Living together in trust and hope, we confess our faith.
All: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Prayers. The Benediction.
Closing Hymn: "Rock Of Ages"
Postlude.