A Celebration of Life service for Rachel Gaalswyk, 90, of Welcome, Minnesota will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, October 24, 2015, at the Evangelical Covenant Church in Trimont, Minnesota.
Interment will be at Cedar Hill Cemetery in rural Trimont.
Visitation will be from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 23, 2015, at Kramer Family Funeral Home in Trimont, and again at the church from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. the day of the service.
Rachel passed away on Wednesday, October 14, 2015, at Temperance Lake Ridge in Sherburn, Minnesota.
Rachel Esther (Olson) Gaalswyk was born in Cedar Township, Martin County on March 28, 1925, the daughter of Josephine and Knute Olson. Rachel graduated valedictorian from Trimont High School in 1943 and graduated with an accelerated teaching certificate from Mankato State in 1944.
She taught in Elm Creek Township until her marriage to Henry Gaalswyk on December 26, 1945.
Rachel spent the rest of her life as a loving, tireless and devoted partner to her husband and as a loving, thoughtful mother, grandmother, friend and neighbor.
Rachel was a woman of quiet strength in both her faith and in every other aspect of her life. Rachel served in many church roles, including deaconess. She was always looking for ways to enrich or brighten a life or make a new memory. Rachel will be remembered for her loving and thoughtful ways, living a life filled with grace and gratitude. Her greatest joy was sharing time with her husband, family, relatives, friends and neighbors.
Survivors include a daughter, Priscilla (Joseph) Maniscalco; three sons, Paul (Deanne), Jerry (Val) and Mark (Denise) Gaalswyk; eight grandchildren, Jon (Kristen), Greg (Kala), Quinn and Kristie (Grant) Pomerenke, Sara (Jason) Rosenberg, Brady (Andrea), Jenna (Jesse) Wolfe and Chris (Lauren); six great-grandchildren, Wyatt, Lilly, Walter, Lucy, Emmett and Simon Gaalswyk; a brother, Robert Olson; a sister-in-law, Mary Jane Gaalswyk; a brother-in-law, John Gaalswyk and many nieces and nephews.
Rachel was preceded in death by her husband, Henry; parents, Knute and Josephine (Johnson) Olson; an aunt, Edith Johnson; sister-in-law, Katy (Robert) Olson and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Teunis, Peter and Henriette, Marion and Merle, Arie and Corolyn, Lavonne (John) and Jacob (Mary Jane) Gaalswyk.