Mary E Braun (Oct 16, 1936 – July 29, 2021)

Mary Emma Braun was born to Herman and Katharina Lenzmann in Rosetown, Saskatchewan, on October 16, 1936. She was the oldest of five children, with three sisters and one brother. When Mary was almost one, she spent two years in the Belgium Congo, where her parents served as missionaries. On their return to Canada, Mary’s parents settled in the Fraser Valley, where Mary’s father became minister of the Yarrow Mennonite Brethren Church, and famously grew raspberries, strawberries, and other fruit on the family yard. Mary was often tasked with picking the berries and overseeing her younger siblings doing the same. Mary attended elementary school in Yarrow and junior high school in Chilliwack, but she had particularly fond memories of her years spent in high school at the Mennonite Educational Institute in Clearbrook and of the close circle of life-long friends from that period.

Following graduation, Mary studied for three years at the Mennonite Brethren Bible College in Winnipeg, where she met her future husband, John. Asked by John if he could walk her home from a private Valentine’s Party in February 1958, Mary consented, and a romance was born. Mary and John were married on August 14th, 1959, in Yarrow BC, a union that lasted almost 62 years.

During their courtship, Mary completed her Teachers College Training and after her marriage began teaching in East Kildonan, Manitoba. She excelled in teaching, whether as an elementary school teacher and music teacher, by teaching women’s Bible studies, or contributing to adult studies in the churches she attended.

After three years of professional teaching, Mary took time off from the classroom to raise her three boys: Brad and Bruce, born in Coaldale, Alberta, in 1962 and 1964, and Geoff, born in Lethbridge in 1968. The family moved to Calgary shortly after Geoff’s birth. During these years, Mary taught piano in her home and a steady stream of children, teens, and young adults, including her three sons, would sit for weekly lessons in the Braun living room. Music was one of Mary’s passions. She was an accomplished pianist, taught herself how to play the organ, and loved singing, whether in women’s groups, quartets, or the much loved A Capella choir, in which she performed while in College.

When she returned to formal teaching, Mary worked with young children, helping them learn to read and write. It was as a resource teacher that Mary found her true passion, taking a keen interest in the lives and success of the students most in need of her tutoring, often working closely with teachers and families to ensure that students received the best instruction possible. The greater the challenge, the more time Mary put into it.

After her retirement at the age of 56, Mary spent three semesters teaching with her husband, John, at the Lithuanian Christian College, in Klaipėda, Lithuania. Here, again, she excelled in teaching people how to read and write, now working with young adults learning English as a foreign language. Later, she volunteered annually at the International Wycliffe Center in Dallas, Texas, and, later, the Wycliffe Mexican Center, in Catalina, Arizona, just north of Tucson. These were some of Mary’s most cherished memories. After so many years enduring Canadian winters, Mary basked in the warmth of the US Southwest and in the fellowship of other volunteers. When advancing age made travel to Arizona more difficult, she volunteered at a Wycliffe boutique in Calgary and continued to enjoy the community at Bethany Chapel, the church she attended with John.

Mary was a loving and devoted mother who endured a household of rambunctious boys. Perhaps out of self-preservation, but mainly owing to her values, she expected that everyone would pitch in to maintain the household – cooking and cleaning – at a time when most boys and men were still getting a free pass.

Mary also loved to travel. After her retirement, she and John traveled widely, not only to Lithuania, where they taught, but Nicaragua, the Middle East, Mexico, Russia, the Ukraine, and a number of other European countries. She was equally fond of retiring to the Canadian Rockies, enjoying the beauty and solitude, often armed with a load of reading materials. Mary always enjoyed meeting new people and spending time with her children and grandchildren, a love for socializing that was painfully interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a year of relative isolation due to the pandemic, Mary suffered a series of strokes in mid-April from which she would not recover. She died on the afternoon of Thursday, July 29.

Mary leaves to mourn her husband, John, sons Brad (Lana), Bruce (Morgan Adamson), and Geoff; six grandchildren, Carmen, Eric, Jocelyn, Evan, Reese, and Althea; and a host of family and friends. She is also survived by her four siblings, Elvira Lysack (Victor), Luella Pauls (Henry), Edwin Lenzmann (Kathy), and Irene Warkentin (Edward). A memorial service was held at Bethany Chapel, in Calgary, on August 6.

If friends desire, donations can be made to Wycliffe Bible Translators Canada and/or CanLean Society for Persons with Learning Difficulties.

YourTube link to Mary's memorial service: Mary Braun's Memorial Service.