Iona Oosterhuis, age 83, of Cambridge passed away April 29, 2017 at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. Memorial services will be held at 1:00 PM on Saturday, May 13th at Common Ground A United Methodist Community. A memorial visitation will be held from 5 – 7 PM Friday, May 12th at Strike Funeral Home – Cambridge Chapel and also one hour prior to the service at the church on Saturday the 13th.
Iona was born on September 27, 1933 in Mora, MN to Walter and Bessie Mart.
On October 8, 1950 she was united in marriage to Lloyd Oosterhuis at the Presbyterian Church in Mora. They had three children, Connie, Lori, and Brad.
Iona was preceded in death by her parents Walter and Bessie, brothers, Claude and Sam, sisters, Hilda and Ruby, and husband Lloyd.
She is survived by daughters Connie and Lori, and son Brad (Beth), grandchildren Chris and wife Alicia, Mandy and husband Long, Ryan and wife Amy, Jordan and wife Jessica, Dustin, Chelsey and fiance Zach, Cole (Sara), great-grandchildren Tyler, Arica, Lacey, Sierra, Julian, Anna, Luke, Dalton, Maddox, Kaiden, and also many loving family and friends.
To the family of Iona Oosterhuis – Connie, Lori and Brad; grandchildren and great grandchildren,
I am a friend of Iona’s the past 3 years. I am so sorry for your loss, and for its sudden and unexpected nature. I had coffee with Iona this past Thursday, the 27th, at Herman’s Bakery. She was so happy. We had a delightful, enjoyable conversation. She expressed that she wanted to see a particular movie, and knew it was showing Saturday evening at 7:14 pm, and invited me to see it with her. We agreed to meet at 7 pm Saturday at the Cambridge cinema. I did go early, because I knew Iona was always on time. It was unsettling that she didn’t come, or call. I learned at church the next morning, Sunday the 30th April, that Iona had become suddenly ill in the evening; was transported to a hospital and passed away about the same time as I was waiting for her Saturday evening. Iona is dearly missed by her church family at Common Ground, where she shared her many talents, her optimism, her beautiful smile, her twinkling eyes, brimming with ideas and plans, to make purpose and fun come together for VIP’s.
Iona has many friends in many communities, among whom she was always creating beauty.
I am praying for peace for Iona’s family, as they are comforted by the Love of Jesus Christ.
My sincere condolences, Eileen Wanous
Iona was such a sweet, wonderful, and creative woman. I have had the pleasure of getting to know Iona over the last year. My daughter had decorated our office for Christmas and Iona loved the snowflakes she made and asked if my daughter would make her one. We came to her house one night to bring it to her. She and her daughter showed us all of the art projects they had done to decorate her house. When I saw her a few weeks ago, she told me the snowflake my daughter made her was still hanging in her living room. I will miss her so much. Thank you, Iona, for being the wonderful and caring woman you were.
Jan and I considered Iona a friend. We were shocked at her death and we will miss her. What a warm, caring and creative woman! So it was a sad kind of surprise that a card arrived for Jan in the mail in Monday, May 1st, from Iona. It is a beautiful home made, hand made card that we will treasure. It was addressed in Iona’s calligraphic hand writing and reads: “Thinking of you. Your friend, Iona.” It had to have been posted the day she died. We will be gone when her memorial service will be held. Please know that we will be thinking of Iona and you all on that day. John Wheelock
We met Iona & Lloyd many years ago in Mesa AZ when they parked their trailer across the street from us. We had many happy visits with them in AZ. Iona was so creative and we have many of gifts in Mesa and home in British Columbia. They were so warm and caring – we’ll miss them both.