Christine Bertsch
Christine Elizabeth Bertsch was born November 12, 1928, to Valentine(Walter) and Rosa(Schiele) Schaan in Rugby, North Dakota the first one of her many siblings to have been born in a hospital. She was raised on the family farm near Balta, North Dakota along with her 9 brothers and sisters. Another brother died in infancy. She attended Balta public schools and Our Lady of Mount Carmel church. As a young girl she enjoyed riding horses and that love carried with her as she was an avid fan of westerns and any movies or tv shows that had horses in them. Christine passed away on Friday, December 11, 2020. She will be fondly remembered by all who knew and loved her.
She was married to Edward Louis Bertsch on November 18, 1946 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and they moved to Hettinger and Grafton North Dakota with Red Owl stores early in their marriage. Ed’s passion was farming however, and eventually they began farming south of Balta and later moved to a farm in Wells county, North Dakota where she raised her family of 5 children. Besides being a great mother she was a great asset to the farm family helping to unload trucks during harvest and bringing fabulous meals to the fields for her hungry crew. They continued to farm until 1981 when Ed retired, and they remained on the family farm until 1996 when they moved to Fargo. They traveled extensively during these years and spent many winter months in Arizona and Texas with their fifth wheel camper as well as many trips to Europe, Hawaii, Alaska and most of the lower 48 states.
She is survived by her children Rod (Jeanine) Bertsch of St. Charles, Missouri, Renelle (Larry Merbach) Bertsch of Wahpeton, North Dakota, Rocky (Rhonda) Bertsch of Fargo. Randall (Anda) Bertsch of Irvine, California and Russell (Ann) Bertsch of Arden Hills, Mn as well as 9 grandchildren and 11 great grand- children. Her sister Bernie and Bernie’s husband John Duchscher also survive.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, five brothers and four of her beloved sisters as well as two grandchildren.
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Always enjoyed stopping in to see her every several months…except this year..(darn covid). She appreciated visits and mentioned Rocky often as she was getting forgetful maybe because you were around alot……nice job intown helper..! We always hand delivered our Christmas card to her and about 5 years ago she said the 2 drivers at Touchmark were Andy Hagers boy and Vincent Schaans boy. Of course that would be my old roomate Darrel Hager and Reynold Schaan she could never remember their names but always knew them by their parents reference. One time several years ago we were hand delivering Aunt Helen”s card and Helen said “My sister Christine sang to me this morning and I thought oh boy, now Helen is starting to lose it but by golly she was right, Touchmark had a group of ladies (including Aunt Christine )who thought they could sing and drove them around to various nursing homes and Aunt Helen’s was one of those nursing homes.Of course Helen had to say “ya she used to be able to sing but those old ladies can’t sing very good no more”. (Can’t have pride ya know)..it was so cute. Also at Helen’s wake Christine loved running into Darlene Zacher and her mind just became much more clear for a bit reminiscing with and old Balta acquaintance, Rose and Sue may remember that as well as we stood there watching. May our creator bless this classy aunt.
Mom’s are special people.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the whole Bertsch family and especially to Russ and Ann – you are super people.
Aunt Christine was a classy lady. She shared many of her creative projects with us. Our mother , Julia, was Christine’s oldest sister. Mom especially enjoyed the beautiful mirror surround by seashells that Aunt Christine had made for her. I have fond memories of visiting on Sundays at your family farm in Wells county. Aunt Christine always had a warm smile with a sense of humor. Wish we could express our sympathy to you all personally and give you some warm hugs. It is difficult having most of our aunts and uncles gone. We were fortunate to have such a large extended family and fortunate to have a relationship with Aunt Christine.
As I mentioned to Rock and Russ, I loved visiting the Bertsch farm on weekends which we did a few times yearly. Aunt Chris was fun, feisty and a great cook and baker.
She was always busy but she took the time to make me feel special and she was very kind to me. She was also very creative and good at crafts. I proudly inherited and display a candle holder and vase she made for my Mom.
My Mom told me some cute stories about her. She called my Mom one day and said the prior day she and Uncle Ed had gone to Minot and shopped. After they put everything away she was tired but whipped up a batch of homemade noodles for dinner instead of scrambling a few eggs or opening a can of soup like someone else would have.
My, Mom said on Sundays half the family would go to early Mass and the rest of them to the later Mass. But Aunt Chris wanted to go to both Masses so the boys could see how pretty she looked!
My condolences to the entire Bertsch family.
Rest in Paradise Aunt Christine!
Renellle, (Larry) and Rocky and family members, I’m so sorry to hear of the loss of your mother. May you have good memories to look back on.
Dave Wallis