Marie Linsenbardt

The love of a mother is overwhelming. So it was with our Mom, to whom love and concern came easily.  This is about Marie Linsenbardt.  Like for many women of her generation, life was more about relationship than accomplishment.  Mothers were called housewives and homemakers and were the glue that held everything together and the ones who provided the love that made the world go around.  

Born in Kreutzburg, Manitoba, Canada and growing up in Winnipeg, Canada, she rascaled around with her brother Sam and mentored her much younger sister, Maggie.  She graduated high school and left home at 18, moving to Windsor, then Detroit, then to Philadelphia, where she worked for General Electric, met and married Harold Linsenbardt, and gave birth to her first son, Clive. 

She was a Navy wife and they moved around a lot — to Tennessee, where her next two children, Duane and Brian were born, then Florida, and finally settling in Lemon Grove, California, where she made a lasting, lifelong friendship with Lorraine Paul.  Even after moving out to Spring Valley, the family continued to attend the Lutheran Church in Lemon Grove where Lorraine and her taught in the Sunday school.

She gave love and made friends as she went along.  She was always listening and sharing understanding with women and children in the neighborhoods she lived, the people at Church, and just people she ran into.  After the family moved to Napa in 1964, Helen Barnes, Maria Wiebe, Ugette DeLisle, and Susan Desmarais would become important in her life.  

She liked people and they liked her.  You could see the warmth in her smile.  It came readily and opened hearts.  Not giving advice if it wasn’t wanted, she helped whoever whenever she could.

She lived in Napa, California for 40 years.  Her husband died in 1995.  She moved with her son to Hungry Horse, Montana in 2006, where a house was built on an acre of land and she lived out her days.  Like many women of her generation, our Mom cooked, sewed, knitted, did cross-stitch and needle point, hooked pictures, braided rugs, and always had a garden.  Before she went home to be with the Lord, she had nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren with one more on the way. She was respectful, adventurous, caring, and concerned.  She had a love and appreciation of life and living that made things new.  She was wonderful.

Always loved, never forgotten

Marie Linsenbardt, born April 22, 1918, died April 1, 2016.