Edie Pekarek
By Beverly Alderfer
I spent a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon visiting with Edie Pekarek at her home in Arlington Heights and learned about her life’s journey from Ontario, Canada to Arlington Heights, Illinois. I truly believe that all things, whether good or bad, happen for a reason and if not for some of the events in Edie’s life, we would never have been blessed to meet and share our life of faith together.
When Edie Snyder was born June 23, 1930,the fourth child of six, the
family was living in Bloomingdale, Waterloo County, Ontario on a Mennonite
farm and attended a Mennonite Church nearby. Because the local high school
was such a great distance from where the family lived, Edie was only able
to attend school through the eighth grade. Edie, however, had dreamed
of someday becoming a nurse and with God’s help and her perseverance,
that would become a reality.
At the age of twenty one, Edie attended the Mennonite Bible Institute
in Ontario and went to Toronto to complete her GED to get her high school
diploma. When a relative from the U.S. was visiting the family and suggested
she attend Goshen College, she moved there in 1954 and began attending
nursing school.
After graduation, Edie met Harry Pekarek when she was his Father’s
nurse at Elkhart General Hospital in Indiana. They were wed in 1966 at
Sermon on the Mount in Elkhart and two years later, Edie gave birth to
twin boys, Steven Dean and James Bradley. When her sons turned two years
old, Edie returned to nursing at South Bend Hospital. Edie’s career
in nursing spanned nearly 40 years altogether.
When Harry’s company in Indiana went out of business, he found a
new job in Illinois and the family moved to the northwest suburbs of Chicago.
Edie first began to teach at a nursing school for about a year, before
going to Lutheran General and then moved to Glenbrook Hospital for the
next 18 years.
After moving to Illinois, Edie began attending Mennonite Fellowship in Palatine. When the church located in Schaumburg, Edie had second thoughts about the drive to Schaumburg and was attending a Presbyterian Church near her home in Wheeling. Twenty years later she helped close that church and went to a Presbyterian Church in Arlington Heights.
Around that same time, Pauline contacted Edie about making some school bags for the overseas missions. A church member, Nancy Michels, who lived near Edie, could stop by to pick the bags up when they were finished. Nancy and Edie soon became friends after learning of their common career choice and since they were practically neighbors, Nancy offered to pick up Edie on Sundays so they could attend worship together.
A quilted wall hanging in Edie’s dining room traces the steps along her path from Canada to Illinois. It’s a testament to her skill with a needle and thread and her wonderful imagination in creating a piece of art that tells her life story.
Edie believes that she can see God’s hand at work in the events that came together to allow her to remain a part of this faith community. We are truly blessed to have Edie Pekarek as a member of our faith family.
In parting, Edie left me with these words of wisdom:
“Life is too short to go to bed mad.”
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