This page has been created to honor the memory and celebrate the life of the late Marie Wiens.
You may want to share memories or condolences or simply reflect on her life while listening to peaceful music. This is a time and a place to remember Marie.
Please select music from the album below, as desired. The song "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" is especially dedicated to Grandma's memory.
"Where words fail...music speaks."
Mom was a great cook and industrious housekeeper but she would drop any and all of those activities to play games with her kids (Henry, Carol, John, Bill and me). She would always participate with a twinkle in her eyes and even that rare smile. She loved just being with us and enjoying our competitive little characters.
Marie Wiens is my mother-in-law. She always amazed me at being able to put together a delicious meal out of virtually nothing! Her cinnamon bread is one of her best creations, which we now make occasionally today, using her recipe, of course. When my own mother passed away she put her dear sweet hands on my face, and said, “I’m your mother now.” Indeed, she was. She always prayed for us. What a blessing!
Just finished rereading some wonderful comments about my dear mom.and also a couple new ones posted recently. What a blessing these tributes are. We can all rejoice, knowing she’s still very much alive!
I loved reading through these memories! I have a lot of the same memories as Carolyn, Steph, Lora and Jo, since so many of the times that I spent with Grandma were with my cousins. Reading through these actually helped me to recall a lot of the same things–grandma’s smooth hands. The way her homemade chicken noodle soup, cinnamon bread, pasties and sausages smelled, wafting down from the kitchen into the basement where we slept. Her lovely beauty table in her bedroom, and her voice. I can still hear her voice. I’ve actually had really vivid dreams of her in the past several years, and it’s been a little gift to me, as they’ve helped me to really remember her presence. I miss her and Grandpa dearly.
Lois Korns
I got to know your Mom better when we both lived in Mountain Lake. They pastored in Lustre, Mt. before we did and then they moved to Mt. Lake and we after years between we followed them here. I enjoyed visiting that sweet sweet lady in her apartment often. Sometimes gave her rides to the cities when we went and visited our family there. I am looking forward to seeing your folks again in heaven soon. My husband went to heaven July,22, 2019. What a blessed reunion that will be.
Thanks Stephanie – such wonderful, detailed memories – helps me remember too 🙂
I will always miss going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Sometimes, when I’m feeling insecure, I imagine being tucked into one of the trundle beds in their basement and hearing the family upstairs getting breakfast ready. My stays at their house in Mountain Lake are some of the most peaceful and happy memories I have. I loved visiting them with my cousin Julie, going shopping on the little strip downtown, and playing at the park. I loved arriving at their house after a long drive from Minneapolis, and smell the chicken noodle soup and bread baking. Grandma would set us up with some pictures and some markers on the fold out table, and I can remember the smell of everything, and all the details. The candy in the jar, the coats and hats in the entry way, the rocks and knick-knacks on the shelves. I wish we could go back there! I remember how she wrote out the Lord’s Prayer for grandpa to read before dinner after he got Alzheimer’s disease and couldn’t recall it when prompted. I remember how they had separate bedrooms in their 80’s and 90’s and I would sit at the beauty table in grandma’s room, using her brush and mirrors. I remember the smell of their bathroom, and their simple soap products. I wish I could know her better when she was younger, when she decided that Henry Peter Wiens was the match god wanted for her. She was very strong, to get through so much hard farming and so many moves. Rest in peace, grandma, we live through you!
I have a precious memory going way back to my childhood. I must have been around 10 or 11. Mom, your future grandma, and I participated in a church missions drama in the Lustre E.M.B. Church in Montana where dad, your future grandpa, pastored. We had to wear costumes and even had face paint! We interacted with each other and I saw a new side of Mom that I hadn’t seen before. She was very animated and dramatic. I’m not sure how well I did in acting but it was a special time that I now treasure.
Mom keep busy serving – HELPING the elderly till the last year or 2 of her long life. What a worker bee! Lisa often comments how Mom scrubbed our basement tile floor in Wadena – on her hands and knees!
Carol has this cool memory: A long-ago memory of her is when she and I were characters in a church missions play. That was something very special and I loved playing my little part with her.
Nice to read about Carol’s memories. <3
Sister Carol wrote about Mom keeping the home fires burning and always waiting for her to come home from school. My earliest memories are of waiting for Carol, John and Harold to come home from Center Bell school in Lustre MT. No bus, they walked. Anyway, I remember Mom ironing clothes while telling me Bible stories. My favorite was the one about Hannah and her little boy Samuel who she gave to the high priest Eli. I liked how Hannah really wanted a baby and God answered her prayer. Also how this young boy Samuel had WORK to do, helping in the temple (not much older than me!) and – most of all – how he heard God’s voice speaking in the night. Perhaps my first Bible memory verse (after “God careth for you”) was “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth”. Always King James English of course! On another subject, Mom FORCED me to take piano lessons in 5th grade. And her baking provided the answer to The Lord’s Prayer – “Give us our daily bread”. And more!
What a special privilege it is for me, her only daughter, to give my mother, “Mom” a special tribute on this 2021 Memorial Day Weekend. She was faithful in every way in parenting me. I don’t remember a day, when coming home from school, that she wasn’t there keeping the “home fires” burning! She was an example in her Christian faith as well, leaving me a legacy to follow. I still love her dearly and miss her terribly. But I rejoice that we shall be united forever someday in a Blessed Eternity with other loved ones and friends,
most of all, with our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
My grandma is my role model. I was super impressed by her servant heart. I love that she “volunteered” at senior centers in her 90s. She was always willing to learn. I was impressed she knew how to email, even if it was all in CAPS LOCKS and looked like she was yelling at you. “I LOVED MY DINNER TONIGHT”. Grandma loved to talk about what food she ate. I loved to eat her food, especially her cinnamon bread and pasties. <3 <3 <3 Love you grandma!
Memories of Grandma evoke all of my senses… I can feel her smooth, wrinkled, hands and face.. I can smell her apartment and her soup and her bread… I can hear her voice talking and reading and singing… I can see her teeth when she smiles wide and her little knickknacks and her hand made rugs… She is someone who will never leave me. I miss her, and yet she’s still here with us.
Grandma Wiens was a great blessing to me and my sisters. I know for a fact she prayed for us every day. When I think of her, I imagine playing scrabble and eating her delicious cinnamon bread and homemade chicken noodle soup. She will always be remembered and missed.