Remembering Opie

It's already been two weeks since my great-grandmother Tena VerBurg (Opie to us) passed away. I've wanted to write a post about my memories of her since, but needed time to think through what to share.

Just a note on why we call my great-grandmother, "Opie." When I was born, my mom's family figured they should have something special to call her so there wouldn't be any confusion as to who is who. Opie decided she would be called "Opie" and we all just figured it was dutch for grandmother. Turns out "Oma" is actually dutch for grandmother, so we really have no idea where she came up with this name or what it means, but she will forever be in our hearts as Opie!

Here's some basic info about her life for those who don't know. Tena VerBurg was born in Sioux County, Iowa in 1913 and raised on a farm. She grew up as a member of the strict Netherlands Reformed Church. She met her husband, my great-grandfather, while he was working on her family's farm. They dated 4 years and finally married in 1935, which was a bit of a controversy because he did not belong to the Netherlands Reformed Church. They farmed in Minnesota and Iowa until the '60's and then moved to eastern Washington. Opie had to bury her husband in 1979 just before moving back to Iowa. He died of liver failure due to overuse of Valium. She resided in Rock Valley, IA for the remainder of her life and had many fun adventures traveling. She had a stroke, but through therapy was able to continue to live on her own until 2006 when she moved into a nursing home. Her health declined swiftly in the fall of 2009 and was placed on hospice shortly after Christmas. She died at the age of 96.

Some of my favorite memories of Opie include the following:

• Dressing up with blankets, handkerchiefs and wearing her shoes.
  
  
• Fascination with her false teeth and seeing her without them in!
  
  
• Exploring her basement and finding treasures. As a kid I always loved to find her peacock feathers. As a teenager, I found some rumpled and stained embroidery that she had done as a child. They are now cleaned and framed and will hang in my house! My parents say when they were in college, they'd go to her house and she'd get beer out of the basement. Apparently it wasn't appropriate in those parts to have alcohol out in the open...


• Pancakes! Opie made the best pancakes in the world! No one can replicate them. She always just threw a bit of this and a bit of that in, not using measuring utensils. When my mom was a kid she tried to write down the recipe once as Opie was making them. So Opie would put something in and mom would write it down. When mom got home and showed the recipe to her mom, they saw Opie's fun sense of humor as she had told my mom to put in 2 "rooster" eggs! We always joke the rooster eggs were the secret ingredient, but in fact it was coffee!


• Opie's fun and spontaneous personality. Even though she was one of the hardest workers I've ever known, Opie also knew how to make things fun. She loved to go out, which by the end of her life was one of her greatest desires. I think it was because after living a life full of work and play, she was bored in the nursing home.
  

I won't pretend to be oblivious to Opie's faults, for we all have them, but in my mind, her strengths far outweigh her faults. Sure she was stubborn, tended to gossip (what Dutch woman in northwest Iowa doesn't) and wasn't always quick to forgive, but she also made a positive impact in many people's lives, especially mine. She knew and trusted Jesus Christ as her Savior and now she is rejoicing in paradise with him! As my grandmother said at the funeral, people in heaven are having more fun now that Opie is there!