Rosthern, Saskatchewan:
“…August
12th. Dear brothers and
sisters in the Lord! I greet you with
peace. This time it is a message of
sadness which I have to share with the dear readers: it has pleased
the dear heavenly Father to call our dear Brother Cornelius Willems out of this life into the beyond. He was buried today in our new cemetery near
the meetinghouse with great funeral participation. The dear brother brought his age to 47 years,
5 months and 21 day. He lived in
marriage 21 years, 4 months and 14 days.
His dear wife and nine children mourn his death. His sickness was liver disease and dropsy
[edema, fluid retention]. He had already
been suffering for a long time, but at the last he was critically ill for five
weeks, and he often had great pain. He
lived in faith [as a believer] for 13 years.
He was a faithful member of our church till his death and we feel the loss
with pain.” J.F. Strausz Zionsbote, 3 Sep 1902.[1]
“Cornelius was the first person to be buried at
the Brotherfield Church which he had helped to organize.” Willems Gen. I. II. III.
Cornelius and Elisabeth Willems moved with
their family to Saskatchewan in 1900, the same year old Gerhard Willems
died. Cornelius was likely one of the
sons who viewed the old man’s body before it was buried. Two years later, Cornelius, too, would be
buried. He was only 47 years old when he
died—of “liver disease and dropsy.” He had been sick for a long time, and “had a longing to be released and rejoiced to
see the Lord.”[2]
There is no obituary for Cornelius
written by the family in the Zionsbote archives. His children did not forget the sorrow and
desperation of that time, though. When
it came time for them to write an obituary for their mother, Elisabeth, they
spoke of the pain and desperation she felt when Cornelius, her husband died:
Elisabeth
Boldt Willems was 43 years old when her husband died. She was a widow with nine children living on
a new homestead on the Canadian prairie, a daunting situation. However, she was not, strictly speaking, alone. She had two, unmarried, fully grown sons—Cornelius,
named for his father who was twenty years old, and my grandfather, Jacob,
who turned nineteen the day before his father died. Those two sons had likely already taken over
the work of the homesteading during their father’s illness. Elisabeth also had teen-aged daughters to
help her in the house—Elisabeth, who turned seventeen on September 12,
and Anna, who turned fifteen on September 14. The two middle sons, Gerhard and Heinrich,
who were ten and almost twelve, were old enough to help their big brothers. Even little Maria, who turned eight on
October 22, would have had chores. She
could have been a big help looking after the two littlest ones, Margareta,
who was two, and Katherina, who was four.
However,
children, even full-grown sons, are not the same as a husband. They are not life partners, intimate
companions. In that sense, Elisabeth was
truly alone. Children grow up and leave
home. They need to live their own lives,
start their own families. How long would
her two oldest sons be willing to stay at home and work her homestead? How long could she count on their help? The future must indeed have looked dark,
frightening.
