Van Wyk, Leta Mae (Grandia)

VAN WYK, GRANDIA, VAN DONSELAAR

Posted By: volunteer (email)
Date: 7/21/2005 at 17:43:47

Funeral services for Leta Mae Van Wyk, 88, of Pella were held October 16,at the First Reformed Church in Pella, the Rev. Kenneth A. Dykstra officiated and Rev. James P. Ebbers assisted. Music was provided by organist Barb Nunnikhoven, a duet sung by Denise Van Wyk and Patti Van Zante, and a song played by Shalene Zylstra, flutist.

Interment was at Graceland Cemetery in Pella. Casket bearers were "The Grandsons". Honorary casket bearers were "The Granddaughters".

Leta Mae Grandia, the second child of Jacob B. and Marie Van Donselaar Grandia, was born on December 2, 1913 east of Pella. She attended the Pleasant View Country Grade School in this vicinity and graduated from Pella Public High School with the class of 1932.

Leta Mae continued to reside with her parents who had moved to town in 1942 and then worked at the Rolscreen Company in Pella for nine years.

On February 1, 1946 she was united in marriage with Cornelius Gerrit Van Wyk at the home of her parents. Leta Mae and Cornie, as he was known, began their married life together farming north of Pella where Cornie was already living. They lived there for five years until moving east of Pella in March of 1952. Late Mae and Cornie were blessed with five children in a span of seven years. Their first three children were: Delmer Wayne, Lola Gayle and Lois Ruth. In September of 1954, three months before their fourth child was born, Leta Mae was stricken with polio. Following this diagnosis, their remaining two children were born: Cheryl Rose and Glenn Eugene.

Leta Mae was diagnosed at the Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines where she stayed for 11 months and then was treated for three months at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She was selected as the "Mahaska County Polio Mother of the Year" in 1958. In 1976 they built a new home just north of Pella to accommodate her physical needs. They were able to live their together until 1999 when their needs required additional assistance. Since May of 2002 she had been a resident in the Long Term Care Unit at the Pella Regional Health Center in Pella. Leta Mae passed away early Sunday morning, October 13 in the Pella Regional Health Center.

She is survived by her faithful and devoted husband of 56 years, Cornie, a resident of the Long Term Care Unit at the Pella Regional Health Center in Pella; her five children and their spouses: Delmer W. Van Wyk of Pella, Lola G. Van Wyk and James Peterson of Des Moines, Lois R. and Sid Bruxvoort of Leighton, Cheryl R. and Doyle Heyveld of Peoria, Illinois, and Glenn E. and Denise (Wyngarden) Van Wyk of Pella. Of her original family, Leta Mae leaves her younger sister, Lora Marie Grandia of Ottumwa.

She was preceded in death by her parents: her father, Jacob B. Grandia who died July 4, 1958 and her mother, Marie Grandia on September 9, 1963; and her older brother, Murry L. Grandia who died on November 11, 1964.

Arrangements were handled by Van Dyk - Duven Funeral Home in Pella.

Memorials may be designated for the organ renovation fund of the First Reformed Church in Pella.

The Pella Chronicle, October 25, 2002