When Erna was 6 days old, her mother died. Her father married Annie Schritt, whom Erna called her second mother. When Erna was 2, the family resettled on a farm in Port Rowan, Ont. Erna accepted Christ at 16 after listening to an evangelist. She attended Eden Bible School for a year. Here she met many friends she kept all her life. In 1947, she met Henry. They welcomed 7 children. After just 11 years of marriage, Henry died of a heart attack while playing hockey with church friends. Erna also lost her son John following an accident, her second mother to cancer, her father to a lung infection, and her son Rodney to cancer. Erna’s cooking skills were evident in her work at a restaurant, day care, a nursing home in St. Williams, Ont., and Heritage Lodge, Simcoe, Ont. Erna loved to volunteer for the Norfolk General Hospital gift shop, the Walsingham School auxiliary, the Mary Martha Outreach, the Port Rowan MB Church food committee, and Camp Crossroads. As Erna struggled with health issues, she moved into Tabor Manor in 1994.
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