Helene Braun

Other Events:

• Name: Helene Janzen
• Eby ID Number: dnf-49351

Helene — Bishop Jacob H. Janzen. Jacob was born 19 Mar 1878, Steinbach, South Russia; died 16 Feb 1950, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , Mount Hope Cemetery, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Hardy Janzen
• Name: Sig Janzen
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-52167

Notes:

SIEGHARD (HARDY) JANZEN Passed away on Thursday, January 14, 2010, at Parkwood Mennonite Home, at the age of 97. Hardy was born on October 20, 1912, in Tiege, Russia, to Bishop Jacob H. Janzen and Helene (Braun). Hardy is survived by his loving wife Erica (Klassen). Dear father of and lovingly remembered by Paul (Janet), Linda Schneider (Jim) and Helene Stevens (Lane), grandchildren Wendy, Heather, Michael, Susan, Nancy, Margaret, Sarah and Ryan, many great-grandchildren, surviving sisters Helga Lepp of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Schura Neufeld of Ottawa, and Marta Schafer of Waterloo, all who will miss him dearly. Hardy was predeceased by his first wife and mother of his children, Anna (Warkentin) in 1974, stepmother Eliese (Neufeld), brother Henry, sisters Erna Wiens and Liesel Kaethler, stepbrothers John Neufeld and Woldemar Neufeld, and stepsisters Kate Neufeld and Elfrieda Rice. Hardy was a devoted member of the W-K United Mennonite Church where he served as Sunday school teacher, choir member and many years on the board of deacons. Hardy, known as "Sig" by his co-workers, was well respected in the automotive parts industry. Hardy earned many General Motors service awards as Parts Manager at Halwig, Forbes, Orr and Stedelbauer Motors. Friends are invited to share their memories of Hardy with his family during visitation at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home, 171 King Street South, Waterloo, on Wednesday, January 20, 2010, from 10 to 11 a.m. The funeral service will follow at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the chapel of the funeral home with the Pastor Nancy Mann officiating. A reception will immediately follow the service in the Fireside Reception Room of the funeral home. A private family interment will take place. In memory of Hardy, and in lieu of flowers, donations made to the Mennonite Central Committee or Parkwood Mennonite Home would be greatly appreciated and may be arranged through the funeral home, 519-745-8445 519-745-8445. A heartfelt thank you is extended by the family to the care team at Parkwood Mennonite Home.


Waterloo Region Record 14 Jan 2010

Sieghard — Anna Warkentin. Anna was born Abt 1912; died 1974. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Marta Schafer
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-227030

Notes:

Lifetimes: A small act of kindness marked Marta Schafer's long life

By Valerie HillSpecial to the Record

It was Christmas Eve, 1924, when nine-year-old Marta Janzen arrived with her family in Canada, after a gruelling journey from their Russian Mennonite community in Ukraine, fleeing famine and political upheaval.

It would be three more days before they finally made it to their destination: the city of Waterloo.

The weather was bitterly cold and a woman who offered to help the family at the Kitchener train station asked her daughter to give Marta her mittens. It was likely the first, but not the last, bit of kindness that would be shown to the girl in Canada, a girl who had already suffered so much.

"This act of generosity had a profound impact on Marta," said her former pastor Mark Harris. "It became iconic of the generosity of spirit that she exhibited throughout her life."

Marta was born Nov. 25, 1915, in the Mennonite farming village of Tiege, in Ukraine, to Jacob and Helena Janzen, the youngest of seven children. Her mother died when Marta was six. Jacob married a widow the next year, and with that marriage came four stepsiblings, children who had suffered their own trauma when their father was brutally executed. Among those stepsiblings was Woldemar Neufeld, destined to become a celebrated artist.

It was Woldemar, 15 at the time, who later recounted how the family had been shuffled from place to place in Russia before they fled. They spent a month travelling by train and ship before arriving at the Kitchener train station. Woldemar recalled the family being met by a horse and sleigh, then driven through Victoria Park, where they were mesmerized by the sight of skaters waltzing to music. "It was so beautiful. I had never seen anything like it," he later recalled.

Marta, at only nine, had trouble letting go of the fear that had gripped her since leaving Ukraine. At a stop in Toronto, her father got off to fetch supplies for the family and missed the train when it left the station. Marta, who had already lost her mother, feared her father was now gone too. He simply caught the next train, which ended up being coupled to the same train his family was on. Marta, sobbed at the sight of him, deeply relieved.

Once in Waterloo, the family was scattered to various billets until Jacob was able to buy a home. Jacob was a Mennonite bishop, a writer, preacher and lecturer, known for having a strong influence on the Mennonite Church across North America.

After high school, Marta completed teacher's training at the Stratford Normal School, though she never taught and instead spent three decades working in the payroll department of Dominion Life. She met Stanley Schafer on a blind date, and the couple married in 1947. Both were already in their 30s, unusual for the times.

Together they raised two sons, Grant and Glen.

Daughter-in-law Janet Schafer adored Marta and was deeply impressed at how, despite everything she had lived through, nothing quelled her spirit.

Granddaughter Nataliya Schafer remembers her grandmother's boisterous belly laughs, and her self-deprecating humour, which turned rather dark as she got older. There were always jokes about what would happen after she died. She loved to rib her son Grant, who would proclaim after a visit that his mother had said the most outlandish things.

"She was always cracking jokes, roasting my dad," said Nataliya. "Even when she was 100."

She also remembers playing endless board games with Marta, and her grandmother's yummy lemon cake, which only later was revealed to be from an instant mix.

"The spirit she had, she never complained about anything," said Janet, Grant's widow.

Both Marta's sons predeceased her: Glen of cancer in 2018 and Grant the following year of a heart condition. Marta, by then well into her 100s, was experiencing dementia and was not aware of their passing. Stanley had died in 1999.

Marta was "wonderful, bright, intelligent, quick-witted - , a lovely, lovely person," said Glen's widow Diana Schafer. Marta didn't have a filter, Diana said \emdash she was rather a "tell it like it is" sort of person.

Marta's legacy is one of resilience and fortitude. She died April 27, 2022, five months after turning 106.

"She is my heroine," said Janet.

"Marta was a keen observer of human behaviour and of the idiosyncrasy of people," said Mark, her pastor. "I never heard her say an uncharitable thing about anyone.

"She saw the humour in people and situations, but was always eager to offer others the same generosity of spirit and largeness of heart that had been extended to her by that anonymous woman on the train platform in Kitchener so many years before."

Valerie Hill is a former Record reporter. She can be reached at vmhill296@gmail.com.

"Lifetimes: A Small Act Of Kindness Marked Marta Schafer'S Long Life". 2022. Therecord.Com. https://www.therecord.com/life/2022/09/13/lifetimes-a-small-act-of-kindness-marked-marta-schafers-long-life.html.

Marta married Stanley Schafer 1947. Stanley died 1999. [Group Sheet]