Barbara Ellen Patik

Cedar Rapids-Barbara Ellen Graesser was born in West Amana, Iowa on April 15, 1926, the fourth of six children and the only daughter of Carl Graesser Sr. and Emilie Schoenfelder Graesser. After graduating from Amana High School in 1944, she graduated from Cedar Rapids Business College, then worked for five years as a stenographer at National Life Insurance in Cedar Rapids. On June 30, 1951, Ellen married Frank Patik of Oskaloosa. The newlyweds took a cruise to Europe, visiting eleven countries over a five-week span, then several northeastern states and Canada.

In addition to being a wife and mother, Barbara Ellen was employed for most of her adult life, working in the offices at Iowa Steel & Iron Works and Century Engineering in the 1960s, then at Area 10 (Kirkwood) Community College. She also worked for many years at several office-cleaning jobs. Mom always said she wanted to work until she was ninety; she missed her goal by two years, retiring at nearly 88 years old. Mom loved cooking, gardening, crocheting, and in her retirement she enjoyed doing Sudoku and word search puzzles. She took guitar and piano lessons for many years and earned quite a few (eleven, to be exact) trophies in several piano recitals.

Ellen was preceded in death by her parents and two older brothers who died in childhood: Edgar in 1929 and William in 1932, another older brother Carl in 2005, her husband in 1991, and her eldest son David in 2020. She is survived by three of her four children: Theresa and Catherine (Cedar Rapids), who were her primary caregivers, and Anthony Richard (NYC); and two younger brothers: Ivan (Marengo) and Robert (West Amana).

Growing up in the Amana Colonies during the Great Depression taught Mom to appreciate the simple things in life and never to take anything for granted or be wasteful. Mom had memories as a little girl, of going into the chicken house at home and pleading with the chickens to lay some eggs so her family would have something to trade for meat and milk at the general store. Other families, who had barely enough to provide for themselves, donated their old clothes to families such as Mom’s, who had even less. Electricity and indoor plumbing were unknown in West Amana until 1937, when Mom was eleven years old.

Mom loved people and always looked for the best in everyone, and she was forever willing to forgive. One of the St. Luke’s hospice nurses related to us how, as Mom’s condition worsened and her pain increased, she did not fail to greet the nursing staff with a gentle, welcoming smile as they approached her bedside, even though repositioning her in bed and other tasks inevitably caused her more pain, if only temporarily. The nurses said they were not used to such kind treatment under those circumstances. But Mom was a special lady.

Mom firmly believed in the power of prayer, and that is what sustained her most throughout her long life. She wished to thank all her doctors and nurses for their care over many years, and her family especially wishes to thank the physical and occupational therapists for their invaluable help with exercises and much-needed equipment that made taking care of Mom at home so much easier.

Private inurnment will be at West Amana Cemetery and a gathering for relatives and friends in memory and honor of Mom’s life will be announced at a later date. www.powellfuneralhomes.com