Hazel Dworschak was born to James and Minnie Gentry in Deer Island, Oregon, September 14, 1903. She passed into eternity on December 31, 2003 in St. Helens.
More than 100 years ago, Deer Island was one of many tiny, isolated logging communities that sprang up in Western Oregon. But as history has often demonstrated, some of God's finest work has been started in obscure places.
Hazel was born in a log cabin on a 20-acre farm surrounded by forested hills. She attended a one-room schoolhouse up Canaan Road. She recalled the simple pleasures of growing up a country girl. She remembered licking and eating sweet pears, balancing the rail fence that surrounded their property, splashing in a cold stream on a hot summer day. She recalled her fear of a big Black bear that was helping himself to the family's fruit trees, and the relief and joy she felt when her father trapped and killed it and sold the carcass for a whopping $10. Like all country girls, she learned that the best things in life are free. But she also learned that the best things don't always last.
After her parents' marriage ended, she moved in 1912 to Yankton at age 9 with her mother and her sisters, Norah and Frances, and her brother John. Her mother bought a 40-acre plot, and she remarried in 1913 to William Kister.
In 1918 Hazel met Bill Dworschak, a Navy veteran of World War I who was working in a sawmill. They married on December 27, 1920. Bill later worked for the Milton Creek Logging Company and then for many years as a timber feller in Wilark.
Bill and Hazel bought 10 acres in Yankton with a two-room shack, where Veryl was born in 1921. With help from their friends, they built a larger home where Opal was born in 1924 and Don was born in 1930.
In those days, of course, country people grew their own fruits and vegetables and had their own cows, pigs and chickens. They eked out a living as best they could. Hazel kept raspberry and strawberry patches and sold the berries to a local cannery. Somehow they managed to buy a 1925 Star, an automobile which today would be known only by an antique expert. Hazel refused to waste the prestige of such a purchase on herself. For 25 cents she bought a driver's license and then learned to drive, so that she could help her neighbors when they needed transportation to the grocery store. Hazel found a lot of joy in helping her friends.
But the Great Depression of the 1930's wrested that pleasure from her for awhile. Bill and Hazel sold their car and bought a flatbed truck so that Bill could cut and haul firewood to make ends meet. He worked long, hard hours, but he found an ample market in St. Helens.
"The good thing about being poor in those days," recalls Dworschak, "is that everybody was poor. So we didn't even know we were poor. Somewhere in the 1930's, Hazel began attending Yankton Baptist Church, after Virli and Opal had come to know Christ as their personal Savior at revival meeting, Hazel loved what she heard in that simple country church. She heard about God's love for her, revealed and demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ when He died on a cross. She, too, welcomed Jesus as her Savior and Lord. Bill could see that she meant business, and he, too, came to Christ in the early '50's at an old-fashioned tent meeting.
The Dworschak home earned a reputation in Yankton as a real house of hospitality. Itinerant preachers didn't have to guess where to find a warm meal on Sunday afternoons. Bill and Hazel didn't have a lot to offer, but they offered whatever they had. Hazel knew how to manage her household well. Meanwhile, Bill was the family entertainer. Virli, Opal and Don remember groaning as their Dad told and retold the same old stories and jokes each and every Sunday at suppertime.
There was much laughter and happiness and stability in the Dworschak home. Virli, Opal and Don grew up knowing that the best things in life are free.
But they also saw that "free" is often costly. There were times when Bill and Hazel simply had no money to tithe for the church. So they gave of what they could scarcely afford to give -- their time. Each week they tithed of their time and diligently cleaned the church together.
They were rich in the things that money can't buy. They were faithful and loyal. If there was a meeting in the church, they were there. Sunday evening service, and Wednesday night prayer. Not by compulsion, but by desire and delight.
Then in a cruel twist of irony, Bill and Hazel's home was, burglarized and ransacked in 1973. Here were two dear people who had for many years opened their hearts and home to others with sheer pleasure, and now they felt violated and afraid to stay where they had always felt so safe. Don arranged for them to move into an apartment in St. Helens.
After Bill died in 1978, Hazel continued her faithful service among her friends and family. She kept taxiing her friends around town until she turned 90.
Don felt they could summarize their mother in a few simple words: faithful, honest, hard-working, giving, kind, helpful, hospitable, and for a woman of few words, she meant what she said and she said what she meant. She took her stand for right and wrong, and she wasn't afraid to tell you. She was a little lady with very big convictions. In her final years, Hazel was fond of telling everyone who would listen, "I'm ready to meet the Lord!"
What do you suppose she meant by that? How can one be so sure that they are "ready to meet the Lord?" Only God knows the true condition of a person's heart, so how could Hazel Dworschak be so sure of herself'?
You can tell a lot about a person by the kind of things they treasure and tuck away inside their heart. Perhaps an old song they love to hear or sing, maybe a poem or a Bible verse.
Hazel was very fond of cutting out newspaper clippings of articles and items that interested her. These were some of the things she treasured. Her old Bible is an actual treasure chest -- Bible verses underscored and clippings expressing truths that she cherished.
Medically, there is no clear reason why Hazel Dworschak should have lived to be 100. Through the years she suffered many maladies and underwent several surgeries. There were many times when people were thinking of saying good-bye to her. But still she lived on before five generation of her offspring. Faithful, honest, helpful, hospitable, kind, giving, full of conviction, and in the end, "ready to meet the Lord."
Hazel's life was a gift from God to her -- all 100 years of it. And her life was a gift from God to you. How has God spoken to you through her life?
~ Eulogy read at Hazel's funeral.
More than 100 years ago, Deer Island was one of many tiny, isolated logging communities that sprang up in Western Oregon. But as history has often demonstrated, some of God's finest work has been started in obscure places.
Hazel was born in a log cabin on a 20-acre farm surrounded by forested hills. She attended a one-room schoolhouse up Canaan Road. She recalled the simple pleasures of growing up a country girl. She remembered licking and eating sweet pears, balancing the rail fence that surrounded their property, splashing in a cold stream on a hot summer day. She recalled her fear of a big Black bear that was helping himself to the family's fruit trees, and the relief and joy she felt when her father trapped and killed it and sold the carcass for a whopping $10. Like all country girls, she learned that the best things in life are free. But she also learned that the best things don't always last.
After her parents' marriage ended, she moved in 1912 to Yankton at age 9 with her mother and her sisters, Norah and Frances, and her brother John. Her mother bought a 40-acre plot, and she remarried in 1913 to William Kister.
In 1918 Hazel met Bill Dworschak, a Navy veteran of World War I who was working in a sawmill. They married on December 27, 1920. Bill later worked for the Milton Creek Logging Company and then for many years as a timber feller in Wilark.
Bill and Hazel bought 10 acres in Yankton with a two-room shack, where Veryl was born in 1921. With help from their friends, they built a larger home where Opal was born in 1924 and Don was born in 1930.
In those days, of course, country people grew their own fruits and vegetables and had their own cows, pigs and chickens. They eked out a living as best they could. Hazel kept raspberry and strawberry patches and sold the berries to a local cannery. Somehow they managed to buy a 1925 Star, an automobile which today would be known only by an antique expert. Hazel refused to waste the prestige of such a purchase on herself. For 25 cents she bought a driver's license and then learned to drive, so that she could help her neighbors when they needed transportation to the grocery store. Hazel found a lot of joy in helping her friends.
But the Great Depression of the 1930's wrested that pleasure from her for awhile. Bill and Hazel sold their car and bought a flatbed truck so that Bill could cut and haul firewood to make ends meet. He worked long, hard hours, but he found an ample market in St. Helens.
"The good thing about being poor in those days," recalls Dworschak, "is that everybody was poor. So we didn't even know we were poor. Somewhere in the 1930's, Hazel began attending Yankton Baptist Church, after Virli and Opal had come to know Christ as their personal Savior at revival meeting, Hazel loved what she heard in that simple country church. She heard about God's love for her, revealed and demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ when He died on a cross. She, too, welcomed Jesus as her Savior and Lord. Bill could see that she meant business, and he, too, came to Christ in the early '50's at an old-fashioned tent meeting.
The Dworschak home earned a reputation in Yankton as a real house of hospitality. Itinerant preachers didn't have to guess where to find a warm meal on Sunday afternoons. Bill and Hazel didn't have a lot to offer, but they offered whatever they had. Hazel knew how to manage her household well. Meanwhile, Bill was the family entertainer. Virli, Opal and Don remember groaning as their Dad told and retold the same old stories and jokes each and every Sunday at suppertime.
There was much laughter and happiness and stability in the Dworschak home. Virli, Opal and Don grew up knowing that the best things in life are free.
But they also saw that "free" is often costly. There were times when Bill and Hazel simply had no money to tithe for the church. So they gave of what they could scarcely afford to give -- their time. Each week they tithed of their time and diligently cleaned the church together.
They were rich in the things that money can't buy. They were faithful and loyal. If there was a meeting in the church, they were there. Sunday evening service, and Wednesday night prayer. Not by compulsion, but by desire and delight.
Then in a cruel twist of irony, Bill and Hazel's home was, burglarized and ransacked in 1973. Here were two dear people who had for many years opened their hearts and home to others with sheer pleasure, and now they felt violated and afraid to stay where they had always felt so safe. Don arranged for them to move into an apartment in St. Helens.
After Bill died in 1978, Hazel continued her faithful service among her friends and family. She kept taxiing her friends around town until she turned 90.
Don felt they could summarize their mother in a few simple words: faithful, honest, hard-working, giving, kind, helpful, hospitable, and for a woman of few words, she meant what she said and she said what she meant. She took her stand for right and wrong, and she wasn't afraid to tell you. She was a little lady with very big convictions. In her final years, Hazel was fond of telling everyone who would listen, "I'm ready to meet the Lord!"
What do you suppose she meant by that? How can one be so sure that they are "ready to meet the Lord?" Only God knows the true condition of a person's heart, so how could Hazel Dworschak be so sure of herself'?
You can tell a lot about a person by the kind of things they treasure and tuck away inside their heart. Perhaps an old song they love to hear or sing, maybe a poem or a Bible verse.
Hazel was very fond of cutting out newspaper clippings of articles and items that interested her. These were some of the things she treasured. Her old Bible is an actual treasure chest -- Bible verses underscored and clippings expressing truths that she cherished.
Medically, there is no clear reason why Hazel Dworschak should have lived to be 100. Through the years she suffered many maladies and underwent several surgeries. There were many times when people were thinking of saying good-bye to her. But still she lived on before five generation of her offspring. Faithful, honest, helpful, hospitable, kind, giving, full of conviction, and in the end, "ready to meet the Lord."
Hazel's life was a gift from God to her -- all 100 years of it. And her life was a gift from God to you. How has God spoken to you through her life?
~ Eulogy read at Hazel's funeral.
Hazel Dworschak was born to James and Minnie Gentry in Deer Island, Oregon, September 14, 1903. She passed into eternity on December 31, 2003 in St. Helens.
More than 100 years ago, Deer Island was one of many tiny, isolated logging communities that sprang up in Western Oregon. But as history has often demonstrated, some of God's finest work has been started in obscure places.
Hazel was born in a log cabin on a 20-acre farm surrounded by forested hills. She attended a one-room schoolhouse up Canaan Road. She recalled the simple pleasures of growing up a country girl. She remembered licking and eating sweet pears, balancing the rail fence that surrounded their property, splashing in a cold stream on a hot summer day. She recalled her fear of a big Black bear that was helping himself to the family's fruit trees, and the relief and joy she felt when her father trapped and killed it and sold the carcass for a whopping $10. Like all country girls, she learned that the best things in life are free. But she also learned that the best things don't always last.
After her parents' marriage ended, she moved in 1912 to Yankton at age 9 with her mother and her sisters, Norah and Frances, and her brother John. Her mother bought a 40-acre plot, and she remarried in 1913 to William Kister.
In 1918 Hazel met Bill Dworschak, a Navy veteran of World War I who was working in a sawmill. They married on December 27, 1920. Bill later worked for the Milton Creek Logging Company and then for many years as a timber feller in Wilark.
Bill and Hazel bought 10 acres in Yankton with a two-room shack, where Veryl was born in 1921. With help from their friends, they built a larger home where Opal was born in 1924 and Don was born in 1930.
In those days, of course, country people grew their own fruits and vegetables and had their own cows, pigs and chickens. They eked out a living as best they could. Hazel kept raspberry and strawberry patches and sold the berries to a local cannery. Somehow they managed to buy a 1925 Star, an automobile which today would be known only by an antique expert. Hazel refused to waste the prestige of such a purchase on herself. For 25 cents she bought a driver's license and then learned to drive, so that she could help her neighbors when they needed transportation to the grocery store. Hazel found a lot of joy in helping her friends.
But the Great Depression of the 1930's wrested that pleasure from her for awhile. Bill and Hazel sold their car and bought a flatbed truck so that Bill could cut and haul firewood to make ends meet. He worked long, hard hours, but he found an ample market in St. Helens.
"The good thing about being poor in those days," recalls Dworschak, "is that everybody was poor. So we didn't even know we were poor. Somewhere in the 1930's, Hazel began attending Yankton Baptist Church, after Virli and Opal had come to know Christ as their personal Savior at revival meeting, Hazel loved what she heard in that simple country church. She heard about God's love for her, revealed and demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ when He died on a cross. She, too, welcomed Jesus as her Savior and Lord. Bill could see that she meant business, and he, too, came to Christ in the early '50's at an old-fashioned tent meeting.
The Dworschak home earned a reputation in Yankton as a real house of hospitality. Itinerant preachers didn't have to guess where to find a warm meal on Sunday afternoons. Bill and Hazel didn't have a lot to offer, but they offered whatever they had. Hazel knew how to manage her household well. Meanwhile, Bill was the family entertainer. Virli, Opal and Don remember groaning as their Dad told and retold the same old stories and jokes each and every Sunday at suppertime.
There was much laughter and happiness and stability in the Dworschak home. Virli, Opal and Don grew up knowing that the best things in life are free.
But they also saw that "free" is often costly. There were times when Bill and Hazel simply had no money to tithe for the church. So they gave of what they could scarcely afford to give -- their time. Each week they tithed of their time and diligently cleaned the church together.
They were rich in the things that money can't buy. They were faithful and loyal. If there was a meeting in the church, they were there. Sunday evening service, and Wednesday night prayer. Not by compulsion, but by desire and delight.
Then in a cruel twist of irony, Bill and Hazel's home was, burglarized and ransacked in 1973. Here were two dear people who had for many years opened their hearts and home to others with sheer pleasure, and now they felt violated and afraid to stay where they had always felt so safe. Don arranged for them to move into an apartment in St. Helens.
After Bill died in 1978, Hazel continued her faithful service among her friends and family. She kept taxiing her friends around town until she turned 90.
Don felt they could summarize their mother in a few simple words: faithful, honest, hard-working, giving, kind, helpful, hospitable, and for a woman of few words, she meant what she said and she said what she meant. She took her stand for right and wrong, and she wasn't afraid to tell you. She was a little lady with very big convictions. In her final years, Hazel was fond of telling everyone who would listen, "I'm ready to meet the Lord!"
What do you suppose she meant by that? How can one be so sure that they are "ready to meet the Lord?" Only God knows the true condition of a person's heart, so how could Hazel Dworschak be so sure of herself'?
You can tell a lot about a person by the kind of things they treasure and tuck away inside their heart. Perhaps an old song they love to hear or sing, maybe a poem or a Bible verse.
Hazel was very fond of cutting out newspaper clippings of articles and items that interested her. These were some of the things she treasured. Her old Bible is an actual treasure chest -- Bible verses underscored and clippings expressing truths that she cherished.
Medically, there is no clear reason why Hazel Dworschak should have lived to be 100. Through the years she suffered many maladies and underwent several surgeries. There were many times when people were thinking of saying good-bye to her. But still she lived on before five generation of her offspring. Faithful, honest, helpful, hospitable, kind, giving, full of conviction, and in the end, "ready to meet the Lord."
Hazel's life was a gift from God to her -- all 100 years of it. And her life was a gift from God to you. How has God spoken to you through her life?
~ Eulogy read at Hazel's funeral.
More than 100 years ago, Deer Island was one of many tiny, isolated logging communities that sprang up in Western Oregon. But as history has often demonstrated, some of God's finest work has been started in obscure places.
Hazel was born in a log cabin on a 20-acre farm surrounded by forested hills. She attended a one-room schoolhouse up Canaan Road. She recalled the simple pleasures of growing up a country girl. She remembered licking and eating sweet pears, balancing the rail fence that surrounded their property, splashing in a cold stream on a hot summer day. She recalled her fear of a big Black bear that was helping himself to the family's fruit trees, and the relief and joy she felt when her father trapped and killed it and sold the carcass for a whopping $10. Like all country girls, she learned that the best things in life are free. But she also learned that the best things don't always last.
After her parents' marriage ended, she moved in 1912 to Yankton at age 9 with her mother and her sisters, Norah and Frances, and her brother John. Her mother bought a 40-acre plot, and she remarried in 1913 to William Kister.
In 1918 Hazel met Bill Dworschak, a Navy veteran of World War I who was working in a sawmill. They married on December 27, 1920. Bill later worked for the Milton Creek Logging Company and then for many years as a timber feller in Wilark.
Bill and Hazel bought 10 acres in Yankton with a two-room shack, where Veryl was born in 1921. With help from their friends, they built a larger home where Opal was born in 1924 and Don was born in 1930.
In those days, of course, country people grew their own fruits and vegetables and had their own cows, pigs and chickens. They eked out a living as best they could. Hazel kept raspberry and strawberry patches and sold the berries to a local cannery. Somehow they managed to buy a 1925 Star, an automobile which today would be known only by an antique expert. Hazel refused to waste the prestige of such a purchase on herself. For 25 cents she bought a driver's license and then learned to drive, so that she could help her neighbors when they needed transportation to the grocery store. Hazel found a lot of joy in helping her friends.
But the Great Depression of the 1930's wrested that pleasure from her for awhile. Bill and Hazel sold their car and bought a flatbed truck so that Bill could cut and haul firewood to make ends meet. He worked long, hard hours, but he found an ample market in St. Helens.
"The good thing about being poor in those days," recalls Dworschak, "is that everybody was poor. So we didn't even know we were poor. Somewhere in the 1930's, Hazel began attending Yankton Baptist Church, after Virli and Opal had come to know Christ as their personal Savior at revival meeting, Hazel loved what she heard in that simple country church. She heard about God's love for her, revealed and demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ when He died on a cross. She, too, welcomed Jesus as her Savior and Lord. Bill could see that she meant business, and he, too, came to Christ in the early '50's at an old-fashioned tent meeting.
The Dworschak home earned a reputation in Yankton as a real house of hospitality. Itinerant preachers didn't have to guess where to find a warm meal on Sunday afternoons. Bill and Hazel didn't have a lot to offer, but they offered whatever they had. Hazel knew how to manage her household well. Meanwhile, Bill was the family entertainer. Virli, Opal and Don remember groaning as their Dad told and retold the same old stories and jokes each and every Sunday at suppertime.
There was much laughter and happiness and stability in the Dworschak home. Virli, Opal and Don grew up knowing that the best things in life are free.
But they also saw that "free" is often costly. There were times when Bill and Hazel simply had no money to tithe for the church. So they gave of what they could scarcely afford to give -- their time. Each week they tithed of their time and diligently cleaned the church together.
They were rich in the things that money can't buy. They were faithful and loyal. If there was a meeting in the church, they were there. Sunday evening service, and Wednesday night prayer. Not by compulsion, but by desire and delight.
Then in a cruel twist of irony, Bill and Hazel's home was, burglarized and ransacked in 1973. Here were two dear people who had for many years opened their hearts and home to others with sheer pleasure, and now they felt violated and afraid to stay where they had always felt so safe. Don arranged for them to move into an apartment in St. Helens.
After Bill died in 1978, Hazel continued her faithful service among her friends and family. She kept taxiing her friends around town until she turned 90.
Don felt they could summarize their mother in a few simple words: faithful, honest, hard-working, giving, kind, helpful, hospitable, and for a woman of few words, she meant what she said and she said what she meant. She took her stand for right and wrong, and she wasn't afraid to tell you. She was a little lady with very big convictions. In her final years, Hazel was fond of telling everyone who would listen, "I'm ready to meet the Lord!"
What do you suppose she meant by that? How can one be so sure that they are "ready to meet the Lord?" Only God knows the true condition of a person's heart, so how could Hazel Dworschak be so sure of herself'?
You can tell a lot about a person by the kind of things they treasure and tuck away inside their heart. Perhaps an old song they love to hear or sing, maybe a poem or a Bible verse.
Hazel was very fond of cutting out newspaper clippings of articles and items that interested her. These were some of the things she treasured. Her old Bible is an actual treasure chest -- Bible verses underscored and clippings expressing truths that she cherished.
Medically, there is no clear reason why Hazel Dworschak should have lived to be 100. Through the years she suffered many maladies and underwent several surgeries. There were many times when people were thinking of saying good-bye to her. But still she lived on before five generation of her offspring. Faithful, honest, helpful, hospitable, kind, giving, full of conviction, and in the end, "ready to meet the Lord."
Hazel's life was a gift from God to her -- all 100 years of it. And her life was a gift from God to you. How has God spoken to you through her life?
~ Eulogy read at Hazel's funeral.
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