Obituary for Thelma Doreen Neudorf
Eulogy for Thelma Neudorf
Thelma Doreen Presley was born at her parent’s home near Edam, SK to Robert and Ethel Presley on May 13, 1933. Being a tiny premature baby, her mother placed her in a shoebox on the oven door of the wood stove not expecting her to live. She proved to be a fighter right from the start and beat the odds living almost to her 90th birthday.
When Thelma was 5 years old the family moved to a homestead in the Blue Bell district. Her father joined the army, and her mother was left to do a majority of the work on the homestead. Being the second oldest in a family of 8 children meant Thelma had a lot of responsibility to pitch in and help.
There was no school in the area until Thelma was 12 years old. Because she only attended school for 3 years, she never felt she could read well, but because of hard work and effort she did go on to graduate from Caronport Bible School in 1957 and in the past few years even learned to enjoy Word Search.
On December 8, 1957, she married Reuben Neudorf. They were married almost 60 years before she lost the love of her life in October 2017. Reuben and Thelma farmed at Loon River. Thelma was a constant at home, managing a household of 6 children. She creatively figured out how to build things like a chicken coop or fence from next to nothing, using whatever she could find around the farm. While looking after milk cows, raising chickens and on occasion a few turkeys, she also had a huge garden to provide for her family. She loved gardening but over the years as the family grew and left home, Thelma was able to focus on her passion for flowers. She loved getting the new seed catalogue in late winter and would begin imagining her garden and flower beds in full bloom! She shared her love of flowers with others, supplying arrangements for the front of the church on Sunday mornings as well as numerous other special occasions. She was the ‘go-to’ person when her children or extended family wanted to know the best carrots to grow, what flowers would survive on the north side of the house, or at what phase of the moon you should plant root vegetables. After moving from the farm in 2000 she continued growing beautiful flowers at Meadow Manor, outside her suite at Northland Pioneer Lodge, and even after she was confined to her wheelchair, she took great pride in tending the potted plants at the lodge so they would be beautiful when they moved them to the new lodge for the grand opening this past summer.
People were important to Thelma and when they moved to town, she began keeping track of birthdays. She annually called family, friends and neighbors using their birthday as an excuse to touch base and learn what was going on in their lives. She loved kicking our butts in Yahtzee and spent hours working on puzzles.
Thelma’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ was important to her. She loved Jesus dearly and faithfully started each day with Scripture and prayer. She continued to worship through television programming when she was no longer able to attend church in person.
In the last couple years, though circumstances in her life did not afford the luxury of physically being with family as she had enjoyed in the past, the phone was her connection to their lives. She was dearly loved and will be sadly missed by: Her surviving children: Ruth (Ken), Sharon (Gordon), Dale (Leanne), Alma (Brent), Larry (Sheila), and Joyce. Grandchildren: Greg (Joni), Brad (Deanna), Jordan, Chantel, Brennan (Katie), Jessica (Lucas), Ben, Chris (Ally), Colin, Carlie (Jordan), Tyanna, Kendra (Dustin), Kalissa, Rheanne, Thomas, Abby. Great grandchildren: Cohen, Sylvie, Julia, Amanda, Brandon, Primrose, Danica, Teagen, Damien, Marcus, Sorin, Rowan; and numerous extended family members.
Thelma Doreen Presley was born at her parent’s home near Edam, SK to Robert and Ethel Presley on May 13, 1933. Being a tiny premature baby, her mother placed her in a shoebox on the oven door of the wood stove not expecting her to live. She proved to be a fighter right from the start and beat the odds living almost to her 90th birthday.
When Thelma was 5 years old the family moved to a homestead in the Blue Bell district. Her father joined the army, and her mother was left to do a majority of the work on the homestead. Being the second oldest in a family of 8 children meant Thelma had a lot of responsibility to pitch in and help.
There was no school in the area until Thelma was 12 years old. Because she only attended school for 3 years, she never felt she could read well, but because of hard work and effort she did go on to graduate from Caronport Bible School in 1957 and in the past few years even learned to enjoy Word Search.
On December 8, 1957, she married Reuben Neudorf. They were married almost 60 years before she lost the love of her life in October 2017. Reuben and Thelma farmed at Loon River. Thelma was a constant at home, managing a household of 6 children. She creatively figured out how to build things like a chicken coop or fence from next to nothing, using whatever she could find around the farm. While looking after milk cows, raising chickens and on occasion a few turkeys, she also had a huge garden to provide for her family. She loved gardening but over the years as the family grew and left home, Thelma was able to focus on her passion for flowers. She loved getting the new seed catalogue in late winter and would begin imagining her garden and flower beds in full bloom! She shared her love of flowers with others, supplying arrangements for the front of the church on Sunday mornings as well as numerous other special occasions. She was the ‘go-to’ person when her children or extended family wanted to know the best carrots to grow, what flowers would survive on the north side of the house, or at what phase of the moon you should plant root vegetables. After moving from the farm in 2000 she continued growing beautiful flowers at Meadow Manor, outside her suite at Northland Pioneer Lodge, and even after she was confined to her wheelchair, she took great pride in tending the potted plants at the lodge so they would be beautiful when they moved them to the new lodge for the grand opening this past summer.
People were important to Thelma and when they moved to town, she began keeping track of birthdays. She annually called family, friends and neighbors using their birthday as an excuse to touch base and learn what was going on in their lives. She loved kicking our butts in Yahtzee and spent hours working on puzzles.
Thelma’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ was important to her. She loved Jesus dearly and faithfully started each day with Scripture and prayer. She continued to worship through television programming when she was no longer able to attend church in person.
In the last couple years, though circumstances in her life did not afford the luxury of physically being with family as she had enjoyed in the past, the phone was her connection to their lives. She was dearly loved and will be sadly missed by: Her surviving children: Ruth (Ken), Sharon (Gordon), Dale (Leanne), Alma (Brent), Larry (Sheila), and Joyce. Grandchildren: Greg (Joni), Brad (Deanna), Jordan, Chantel, Brennan (Katie), Jessica (Lucas), Ben, Chris (Ally), Colin, Carlie (Jordan), Tyanna, Kendra (Dustin), Kalissa, Rheanne, Thomas, Abby. Great grandchildren: Cohen, Sylvie, Julia, Amanda, Brandon, Primrose, Danica, Teagen, Damien, Marcus, Sorin, Rowan; and numerous extended family members.