Elizabeth (Betty) Gleisner

life story

MS FIXIT

Betty was a homebody and private person who was happiest using her MANY tools to fix things, around the house and for others. She enjoyed gardening, gambling, traveling, playing cards with friends, dancing, singing, listening to country music and a good beer.

In her younger years she played softball, volleyball and basketball and maintained friendships from those days.

Betty and Family

Betty is survived by her best friend and life partner of 56 years, Joyce St John, who will forever hold her in her heart.

Betty fought a courageous battle against cancer for a year, determined to do as much as she possibly could for as long as she was able. Her nurse called her feisty!

She was tender hearted, loyal, honest, considerate and helpful, with a whimsical sense of humor which seemed to intensify as she lived her last months to the fullest.

Betty enjoyed spending time with her family in the New Ulm MN area where she was born.

She graduated from New Ulm High School and the University of Minnesota. During her life she worked at Northwest Airlines, 3M and Northwestern Bell as the only female installer and pole climber.

She is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Kenneth and Donna Gleisner, sister-in-law, Agnes Gleisner and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Fred and Mary Gleisner of St George MN, her sisters, Rita and Karen, her brothers, Robert and Richard, her nephew, Gary Gleisner and her niece, Dianne O'Brien.

Thursday, July 1 we will celebrate Betty's life with mass at Spirit of Hope Catholic Community, located at:

St Anne's Episcopal Church, 2035 Charlton Road, Sunfish Lake MN 55118

Visitation 9:30-10:30 Mass 10:30

There will be no graveside service.

Luncheon is private.

Flowers are being provided by her buddy, Kent.

Dress colorful and casual. Many know that Betty's idea of dressing up was to wear a blouse rather than a sweatshirt with jeans.

memorial service

Celebration of Life Homily/Eulogy by Rev. Colleen Woodley

Betty was a beloved woman, a curious and intelligent woman, and a courageous woman. She was someone who went above and beyond and barriers didn’t necessarily faze her.

I imagine that Betty had more than a few episodes in her life when she, like Thomas in today’s Gospel, didn’t exactly know the way. But I’m fairly confident that between her own steadfast determination and her quiet faith, she knew she would find the way. The way to be a multi-sport athlete in an era that was much different for women than our present time. In her work life, Betty found her way to become an asset to three of Minnesota’s most prominent companies.

She had a way of being a kind and loyal friend, continuing to nurture and cherish friendships over many years. She found her way into the hearts of those friends.

Above all she found her way to Joyce, and together they found a way to weave and really to forge a loving relationship that would last a lifetime. Betty and Joyce found their way to a life that would naturally have its ups and downs but would reach its summit, its zenith in Betty’s last days.

You may wonder why I would say that Betty’s last days would be the high point of their relationship. Well, some of you know that I worked for many years in the hospice program at St Joseph’s Hospital so I certainly do not make this comment lightly. However, I mean it sincerely and I have spent many hours with people in their last days and hours.

The months since Betty’s illness was discovered have been a marathon of days when these two women tried diligently and desperately to find the way.

How do you find a way through the maze of scans and bloodwork, through appointments and phone calls and waiting for results, through doctors, nurses, pharmacies, therapists…all during a pandemic caused by a novel virus that caused devastating and unpredictable illnesses worldwide. But they did find the way and they found it together, with the help of you all, family, friends, and healthcare workers who were working their hardest in a difficult and confounding time.

They found their way through prayer and the love of God, sometimes hard to discern but ever present nonetheless.

Betty and Joyce lived through days and nights of waiting and wondering. They experienced fear of the uncertainty and then as the diagnosis was discovered, fear of the things that were certain.

I was privileged to see the enigmatic combination of fierceness and tenderness in both Joyce and Betty when I visited. A fierce desire to help and to care, fierce attempts to learn and take in new information and revise their normal routines. Fierce dedication to each other and to stay with each other as long as possible. They also had a special and poignant tenderness toward each other as they cherished the precious time.

Through it all Betty continued to find her way, as she always did. She found a way to get up and try to continue to walk, to raise herself up out of her bed. Weak and painful, exhausted and ill, she kept trying to find a way to get up and walk by herself. Lots of folks try to keep going, keep getting up, but Betty took it to a higher level, she was still climbing, slowly and painfully, out of her hospital bed, against all odds…but then what would we expect from a fearless woman who scoffed as she scaled poles.

We believe that Jesus has prepared a place for us, for Betty. There must be many dwelling places or rooms in God’s house and I believe that Betty is dwelling there in glory, in God’s presence and is well aware that the love she shared is indeed everlasting. In the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, death lost its power, death cannot claim victory because love wins, love always wins!

Finally, after Betty passed, I asked Joyce and her sister if anyone was German, they looked at me with a smile and asked me “what do you think?” I did imagine that it might be the case so I shared these words that have been a comfort to me in situations of sorrow and loss.

“Those of us who live in the Lord never see each other for the last time.”

A German proverb

Funeral/Cremation Provider: Twin Cities Cremation