Verna Louise Rude

Verna Louise Rude, late of Lake Alma, SK passed away on December 26, 2024 at the age of 66 years.

She was predeceased by her parents, Herbert and Emma (Wee) Hagen; unnamed twin brothers.

Verna will be lovingly remembered by her husband of 43 years, Christian Rude of Lake Alma, SK; children, Rebekah (Robert) Johnson of Oungre, SK and their children, JR, Emma and Seth; Jessica (Adrien) Couture of Moose Jaw, SK and their children, Vera and Hugo; Kaitlyn (Christopher) Milani of Moose Jaw, SK; Derek (Tova) Rude of Lake Alma, SK and their children, Freya and Everly; brother, Kenneth (Grace) Hagen; sister, Sheila (Keith) Tysdal; in-laws, Dennis and Ceta Rude; brothers-in-law, Martin (Michele) Rude and Tyler (Shelly) Rude as well as numerous nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

EULOGY / THANK-YOU

(as prepared/written by Verna's children)

We want to begin by saying Thank-You on behalf of our family. We’re so grateful to each of you who has lovingly contributed your gifts and talents to help us honour the woman we call Mom, today. It would have been difficult to make an event of this magnitude flow so easily without your help. Thank you to the Daae family for blessing us with your gift of music, and friendship. To Pastor Brian, for ministering to our hearts. To Auntie Sheila and Uncle Keith, for the handmade blankets you so lovingly made for the casket to help us wrap Mom in our love. To Sandy, Jess’s mother-in-law, who created the beautiful floral spray for the casket; to our friends in Moose Jaw who assisted Jess & I with the table arrangements; and to others for your thoughtful gifts of florals. Mom would love to know she was surrounded by flowers. And finally, we are still in awe, and full of gratitude for Mom’s beautifully handcrafted casket designed, engraved and assembled by Phil, Derek’s Father-in-Law. Thank-you.

And to each one here today, Thank You. For being a part of our Mom’s life, and consequently our own. For the many things you’ve offered these past few months: prayers, presence, food, & time. Your gentle words & messages, your patience & understanding, we will forever be grateful. We are blessed by your friendship and kindness. Mom’s wishes were for us to tell each of you how very loved you were, and how thankful she was for each of you.

Our Mom, Verna Louise Hagen, was born on the 26th of April in 1958 to Herbert & Emma Hagen, of Lake Alma, SK. A little sister to Ken and Sheila. 

She shared many fond memories of growing up on the Hagen family farm, especially those of her parents, relatives, favourite animals, and travels with her family. Ken & Sheila remember a lot of excitement surrounding their new baby sister. While this new sister may have slowed them down in her younger years, she quickly caught up, inseparable in their play and often leading the way in bravery (unless mice were involved).  Ken remembers chasing her around with a leather-tailed wooden mouse on many occasions. Mom’s way of retaliation was in the form of tickling, to which big brother Ken was powerless. During one of these incidents of tickling, Ken accidentally broke Mom’s pinky finger – it was one of her favourite stories to tell.

Occasional arguments would land Sheila and Mom together in their room where they were told they were not allowed to leave until they kissed and made up, which generally ended in a lot of giggles. Mom must have adopted this tactic, as Kait and I were forced to kiss many times.

Mom’s stories of ridiculous antics, long walks, picnics, and exciting excursions into the hills surrounding their farm with big brother and sister were told with special sentiment, and they remained the best of friends throughout the years. Mom shared her memories often, and while we bugged her about her tendency for frequent repeats, we are thankful now that the memories of her childhood have now become a part of our own.

Many of the special memories she shared involved her Hagen cousins. Being identical twins, the Herb & Olaf Hagen families shared more than a few similar genes. They did everything together;  birthdays, holidays, farming events, and parties spent skating, ski-dooing, tobogganing and playing games. Mom made it clear that Donna, Wayne, Kandis & Janice were more like siblings. 

Mom attended Lake Alma and Gladmar Schools before transferring to LCBI in Outlook for her final two years, as had become their family tradition. She also attended Lake Alma Lutheran Church with her family, and was part of Sunday School and Luther League. Mom made many friends over the years. School and church friendships lasted for decades, but of all her friends, her dearest became Chris. Having grown up only seven miles, and one school year apart, it wasn’t a surprise when Chris set out in pursuit of Mom when she was 17. They were married in June of 1981, and spent the following 43 years growing in love and care for each other and their home on the farm. Dad remembers a ‘special look’ that Mom would share with him - a simple look of gratitude for his presence and the love they shared. The two spent countless hours together. They truly enjoyed one another's company, and were happy to sit quietly side-by-side in their chairs, or walk the path around the farm ‘together’ on pleasant evenings - Mom speed-walking ahead, and Dad in her dust as he’d pause to check crops.

Mom played many roles in the community over the years. A loyal volunteer on the Lake Alma Rec Board, Library Board, and at Faith Free Lutheran Church. Throughout her life, she played piano during church, and made many trips with friends and family to provide music at local care homes and community events. Frequent special guests were Dad, Kait & Derek, Dennis & Ceta, or Grace & Marilyn. Early Sunday mornings before church was when she most loved to sing and play the piano (while her kids were trying to sleep…). Mom played the piano as long as her ability would allow, her final songs on the piano were Abide with Me & Great is Thy Faithfulness, songs she specially selected for this day. Their words, a testament to her faith, & the source of her strength. 

Mom was passionate about kids, music and about sharing God’s love. She directed many elaborate Sunday School Christmas Programs and Summer Bible programs, but what she was known for best was the way each child felt in her care. Mom faithfully prayed for those around her. Some of her favourite little people were her neighbour-kids, the Thue’s and the Overbye’s, whom she also babysat frequently over the years. As were the friends we brought home. Numerous, always welcome, and always well-fed. Nephews, Matthew, Kjel & Kyle regarded her as a second Mom. And they most certainly were ‘adopted second sons’ to her. 

Monday morning coffee at the rink with neighbours was a highlight of the week for Mom in recent years. She loved her neighbours dearly and enjoyed swapping stories and sharing laughs around a pot of coffee at any table in any home. 

Mom loved to reminisce on times spent at Midale Lutheran Bible Camp as a kid and teen, especially the year she brought friend Cindy (now Lohse) along and everyone at the camp acquired food poisoning. An unforgettable event. In keeping with tradition, she returned years later with her own young family so we could also build special family camping memories involving mice in our cabin, and several inches of rain. Mom continued to think camping was a great family activity and convinced Dad to purchase tents for the family. After a particularly memorable storm, she convinced Dad to upgrade from tents to a small camper. The Rude family experienced many adventures together in this camper. Despite the challenges of sharing a small space with 6, we did, however, always enjoy the people that camping ‘brought together.’ Annual summer swimming lessons at Oungre Park were spent camping with the Ken Hagen, Wayne Hagen & Alphonse Fradette families, as well as numerous other friends & neighbours.  With the addition of grandchildren came the addition of a newer (and much larger) camper with bunk beds. Nana decided they needed some fantastic memories too, so she and Papa hauled them all to Bible camp multiple summers, where they endured copious amounts of rain & cold, heat & wind, and contracted hand, foot and mouth disease which they brought home to the kids parents to share… And even yet, those special times spent camping with Nana and Papa rate highly on the happy core memories list.

Mom was a caregiver through and through – in addition to caring for her own young family, she also took on the care of her own mother, who was struggling with health problems. By the age of 36, Mom had said goodbye to both of her parents. Her in-laws across the road became like parents to her, and she became like a daughter to them - a precious gift in addition to their three sons. Mom pressed on, putting all of her efforts into being a good mom and loving wife, and poured her efforts into making her house a home to anyone who entered.

As for occupations, Mom had many. After working as a Dental Assistant for 6 years, Mom set aside a career outside of the house to focus on her roles as Wife and Mother— or more accurately, CEO of the family farm. An elaborate role of house-keeping, cooking, book-keeping, gardening, yard care, driving trucks and tractors, inoculating chickpeas, parenting, and chauffeuring kids to various lessons and appointments. When she wasn’t driving her own kids around, she was driving other people's kids around as a school bus driver for 10 years.

In her final months, she acknowledged and was bothered by just how much we had to care for her as she gradually lost her abilities; we reminded her often that our offering of care was hardly a fraction of what she’d done for us over the years. We are forever in her debt. 

It seems an impossible task to contain the childhood memories we have of growing up with our mother to this single document. From a young age, Mom was known for being shy, however in the comfort of her own home this was not the case. In her home, she was quite out-going and often quite silly! Kitchen-dancing was a common occurrence, especially when lefse or flatbread were involved.  She continued this tradition through October while making flatbread and dancing with her girls to silly songs. 

Life with 4 kids couldn’t have been easy.  We spent much of our time outdoors doing cattle chores and yard work. These tasks were largely code for ‘Mom needs a break’. And to be fair, she deserved one.  Inside the house, mom spent much of her time in the kitchen baking cookies, pies, buns, donuts, lefse & flatbread. She also made crab apple juice from her apple trees, chokecherry syrup, relish, and canned peaches & pears. Supper was a family event around a large wooden table, scarred with use from countless meals shared, and later from an infamous game of ‘Spoons’ played by the rowdy teenagers she welcomed.

Mom spent a large part of our childhood scrapbooking family memories. A treasured keepsake. However, if memories were photos, there are a few that didn’t quite make it into an album:

         Board games & puzzles that went on for weeks…

         Step aerobics videos & outfits in the 90’s…

         Two-mile walks up & down our gravel road… 

         Almost daily calls from Auntie Sheila

         Being the first to arrive and the last to leave at church

         Vegetables forgotten in the microwave, never to make it to the table…

         Never-ending piano practice – with 4 kids in either piano or violin lessons, she spent a good chunk of our childhood on a hard bench

         Continual re-arranging of furniture and painting of walls

And then there were her pets, most notably her beloved orange tabby, Milo and her beagle Daphne, who brought her much joy & laughter.  

Family bonding events also included rock-picking, fencing, cattle work, and farming.  Mom worked hard along-side Dad and while we might have complained at the time, we value the memories and the lessons we learned…

Mom had a close personal relationship with Jesus and valued encouraging her children to walk with the Lord. She loved her kids infinitely, and despite demands of a busy life, she always made time for family Bible stories & prayer. Bible verses were written on cue cards throughout our home, an encouragement to also write God’s word on our hearts. Her Bible was always open. She would often copy passages into her journals, or pen prayers for those in need. Prayer was an integral and intentional part of Mom’s life. She spent much time in prayer with and for her children. Many times she would come in to pray for us after we had fallen asleep, laying her hand atop our heads. We weren’t always sleeping. She really loved the Lord and was never ashamed of it.

One of many answers to her prayers were her daughter and son-in-laws (a.k.a. her ticket to grandbabies). She welcomed them with open arms into her family, her life and her home. The feelings were mutual - she was easy to love!  

Travelling was something Mom and Dad enjoyed doing together, especially when they could escape the cold. Over the years they enjoyed trips to Hawaii, New York, Alabama, Nashville, Texas, Jamaica and Mexico, as well as longer Winter stays in Arizona and BC. They often travelled with Mom’s siblings, as well as other good friends. They also regularly enjoyed taking in the sights of Medora and Norsk Hostfest. In recent years they spent much time on the road attending various bluegrass festivals, camping, or visiting their children, grandchildren, and friends. 

Mom took challenges head on, often with a can-do attitude. She wasn’t competitive, but I think she secretly got a kick out of surprising people with her abilities. We recall her doing a headstand against the wall well after age 60, just because she could. In 2011, Mom reluctantly took on a great challenge in the form of breast cancer. She faced the arduous journey with faith that she’d be healed, and was a proud survivor for the last 14 years. While in remission, she assigned herself a role of praying for & writing letters to other women facing breast cancer, in hopes to encourage & strengthen their faith.

Mom’s title changed to ‘Nana’ just under 10 years ago. She embraced her new role with arms wide open, ready to hold those grandbabies any chance she got. She was generous with her time and energy, providing childcare whenever needed. JR remembers that a regular welcome at Nana’s house often looked something like an immediate game of tag initiated by Nana.

Yes, not only was Nana willing to provide regular childcare, the first word her grandkids use to describe her is ‘fun’. This special type of childcare involved late night movie watching with popcorn, un-ending snacks, sleep-overs, tea parties, long walks in the country, picnics, pasture tours, wagon or stroller rides, funny jokes and belly laughs, pool parties on the deck, side-by-side and 4-wheeler rides, combine & grain truck trips, gardening, flower-picking, baking, crafts and mowing the lawn with Nana.

Nana had also designed an elaborate system of trails through the gnarly trees at the farm, complete with lights, to which earned the name ‘Nana’s Tree Tunnels’. The Johnson kids recall one walk with Nana in the Tree Tunnels, when they were startled by a fawn. Nana jumped up, screamed and promptly ran away, the kids not far behind her. They all had a good laugh about it once they were ‘safe’. After that, hunting for ‘tracks’ became part of their tree tunnel walks.

Mom also broke her ‘I will never buy a trampoline’ rule as soon as grandkids entered the picture. As it turns out trampolines are, in fact, endless amounts of fun, and Nana was a frequent jumper. Nana was an eager participant too when it came to taking the grandkids swimming, skating, tobogganing, camping, to a concert, hotel or on any other adventure. And if the option was offered, she generally preferred participation over observation. She also enjoyed attending any activities the kids were involved in.

As the condolences have rolled in over the last week, it’s become clear that Mom will be remembered most for her kind, peaceful presence, and for her propensity to laugh. Generous with her time and talents, she provided a safe and welcoming home for all. 

Mom was more often found behind the scenes, rather than in the spotlight; she liked to make sure everything flowed smoothly. A most prominent, (though probably unknown) way that she did this was through quiet afternoons at home in prayer for her family, friends, and community. In August, she wrote and courageously delivered a message to her Church community regarding the power of prayer. Her final prayer in this message was that she would “extend God’s love and grace to people that she encountered.” For her life to whisper ‘Jesus’, in good times and in bad, was her greatest wish, and IS her lasting legacy. A true Servant’s Heart. And so we end the same we began, saying thank you, to our dear Mom.

A Viewing was held on Thursday, January 2, 2025 from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. at McKenna Hall, Weyburn, SK. A Funeral Service was Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. at McKenna Hall, Weyburn, SK with Pastor Brian Tysdal officiating. Lunch and fellowship followed after the Funeral Service. For those wishing to attend virtually, please follow the live stream video by opening Verna’s memorial page on RD Family Funeral Chapel’s website starting at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, January 2, 2025. Interment took place on Friday, January 3, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. at Dovre Lutheran Cemetery, Lake Alma, SK.

For family and friends so wishing, charitable donations in memory of Verna may be made to Radville Marian Health Care Auxiliary, Box 459, Radville, SK, S0C 2G0.