Bertha Maria van de Crommert

Please pray for the repose of the soul of
Bertha Maria Vissers –  van de Crommert

June 22, 1924    -    December 28, 2017

                                                           Born                               Died 

De Heer zeide tot haar in antwoord, “Martha, Martha, je bent angstig en bezorgd over vele dingen. Er is slechts een ding nodig. Maria heft gekuzen voor de betere deel en zal niet worden genomen van haar.”  - Sint Lucas

Bertha was born on June 22, 1924 to Gerard and Johanna (Steinbakkers) Vissers in rural Dinther, Netherlands. She was the oldest daughter of six children. She was baptized at St. Servasius in Dinther and attended school through the eighth grade. Following her formal education, she later attended vocational school in home economics, not only mastering food preparation, but also the fine art of needle and thread.  While still a young girl, she witnessed the untimely passing of her Mother, Johanna, at the age of 38 years. The doctor had made a house visit upon her Mother’s illness telling the family: “Ze zal slapen al seen roos.” (“She will sleep like a rose.”) As Bertha often recalled, “Mother did sleep like a rose, because she never woke up.”

Awoken at such a young age to the harsh reality of life by losing the woman we call “Mother”, Bertha’s teenage years were further marred by the loss of life through World War II. Living under German occupation from 1940 – 1945, Bertha and her family were forced to flee from their farm at the close of the war, while allied soldiers occupied their residence. Upon their return to their home, as they rebuilt their livelihood and lives, she also began to build a relationship with a young man named “William”, who came to her family farm on Sunday afternoons.

On February 3, 1953, Bertha was joined in the Sacrament of Matrimony to William van de Crommert in the church of her Baptism, St. Servatius, Dinther. In opposition to the idea of immigrating, she reluctantly followed her young husband to the United States. Moving from Colorado to Minnesota, she was a natural when it came to motherhood, even though she had not grown up with her natural mother. Together they welcomed six children into the world: Adrian, Gerard, John, Mary, Paul and Lucia.

She was a true “Martha” of the scriptures, as there was no Mother on earth who believed more that extreme cleanliness was Godliness as she scoured, scrubbed, soaked, starched, shined, and swept. There was nothing she could not do from carrying heavy loads of wash, hanging wallpaper, hoeing the garden, helping with a paint brush, or handling hundreds of jars for canning. Bertha was equally a “Mary” of scriptures, as there was no one on earth that believed more than she that her Catholic convictions could carry a soul to the Kingdom of God, from the Sacraments to saying the Rosary. Sharp in her senses to the end, she was still seeking answers to the spiritual questions that the saints of old equally asked regarding heaven and the final reign of the Christ’s Kingdom.

Bertha received the Sacrament of the Sick on Tuesday, December 26, 2017. She received Viaticum on Tuesday, December 19, 2017. She passed away peacefully on the morning of December 28, 2017, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, at her residence in Slayton, Minnesota. May she now, too, “sleep like a rose” in that eternal sleep and be raised with joy, along with William, at the end of time by the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, to everlasting life. May she rest in peace. † Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for Bertha. †

Mama, Mother, Oma, thank you for your life and all that you have done for us!
                                                             -The van de Crommert family