As the calendar turns to April, March was a month filled with reflection.
On March 7, my mother, Dixie Bergmeier, died at age 87, at Sunshine Meadows Retirement Community in Buhler, Kansas. Mom died from complications of dementia—a familiar disease to many other families. In mom’s diminished state it did not allow any time for closure for myself or my brothers Mark, Mike, Dan, and their families.
When mom drew her last breath there was a touch of sadness, but a moment to rejoice because her condition was no longer a barrier as she headed to a new journey with our father, Gary, who died in February 2023. When mom was healthy, as a Christian she was willing to tell people why she was a believer. Mom and dad both drew closer to the Lord in their later years and that is a gift too.
Mom’s earthly journey was one filled with obstacles, challenges and triumph.
Growing up I took mom’s steady hand and her love for granted. Drawing upon her own experiences as a child, which she rarely discussed, mom definitely was the family’s human resources director. Stories abound of how mom dropped whatever she was doing to make sure we received the care we needed. Many years ago our grandparents told us about the great lengths mom went to for our benefit, whether it was for our health, school, band, church, sports, 4-H (in my case) and Boy Scouts. She not only did it for our benefit, but for our friends, too, who also remembered her kindness.
Dad used to say, we achieved because of our mother, even if we didn’t recognize it at the time. We were truly blessed.
One of mom’s proudest moments came later in life. She fulfilled a dream to become a registered nurse and she achieved her dream in 1989, at the age of 51. With all the bumps, scrapes and bruises we experienced growing up we probably gave mom an added incentive that she might as well get real pay for her knowledge.
All kidding aside. Mom started her dream first in the late 1950s, but tabled it as my parents started raising four boys and dad’s career with John Deere was taking off, first with the company and then as a dealer in the northwest Kansas towns of Hoxie and Philipsburg. When Mark, Mike and myself all had moved out of the house and my youngest brother, Dan, was in high school, mom restarted her dream with dad’s support.
Mom got her associate’s degree at Colby Community College and became a licensed practical nurse in 1984 and five years later finished her dream at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and that led to a successful 10-year run as a registered nurse at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins.
These past two years have been difficult ones because I know that finding closure was not meant to be, but the evidence of her life’s work remains a bedrock for my brothers, their wives, 11 grandchildren and eight grand-children.
Mom’s funeral is set for 10 a.m. April 5, at St Luke’s Lutheran Church, in Manhattan, with inurnment in the Highland Cemetery, Wakefield, where her remains will be close to dad. (Funeral services are posted at elliottmortuary.com.)
Life has a way of giving us many answers, even when we don’t always ask the right questions, at the right time. I am forever thankful my mom was engaged in my life and the life of my brothers. We are all the better for it.
Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or dbergmeier@hpj.com.
