MARGARET KOOIMAN
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August 14, 1924 – January 14, 2023
Margaret Lucille Kooiman was born in Edgerton, Minn., in 1924, and died in Hospice care at Little Hospice in Edina, Minn., on January 14, 2023, at the age of 98.
A memorial service was held on Monday, January 23, at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie.
She had an older sister Alice and a first cousin Dorothy Jean Kratochvil, who was like a sister, too. She met Harold, her husband of 70-1/2 years while he was renting out his ponies for riding, something she did frequently as a young girl. They married in 1948, and within 8 years had 6 children: Bill, Martha, Jim (now deceased), John, Sarah, and Tom. She now has 6 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
Margaret was the valedictorian in her class at Edgerton High school. She later moved to Chicago to attend the Chicago Presbyterian Hospital Nursing School to get her RN degree. Her father, Leonard Scott, passed away shortly after her graduation. She and her mother Calla moved to Seattle, Wash., and lived there until her marriage. With a growing family she became a full-time homemaker and was always known for her great cooking and baking- which she passed on to all the children. As Harold grew in his career at NSP they moved many times for each promotion: Michigan, Richfield, Mankato, Faribault, St. Cloud, Woodbury, and Bloomington. She and Harold finally made their final move to Founders Ridge Presbyterian Homes in 2013: first in Independent Living and then to Assisted Living. Margaret never let a day go by without praising the care and caregivers she had there. They touched her life as much as she touched theirs.
She and Harold were extremely committed Christians, and with every move they sought out a church for the family and became very involved. They went on multiple mission trips themselves, travelling to Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Australia, and New Zealand. Helping others was also a big part of her life with various charitable activities: working with the Native American community and many individual families in need of support.
Margaret was also an accomplished painter and enjoyed that through the last four decades of life. Margaret enjoyed the outdoors with Harold, and each year they had the family out for an annual camping trip. This included a lot of fishing, and she of course was the one that always caught the BIG one, as proven with the large, mounted walleye on the wall of their home. These trips over the years covered the whole US and included many of the US National parks. In later years they decided to get a cabin at Big Sandy Lake near McGregor, Minn., and they welcomed any and all visitors, especially if they loved to play cards! Winters were spent in Florida and then Arizona. Margaret also was an accomplished gardener. She loved adding a new rose bush every year to her Woodbury garden. Many of her paintings were of the flowers she took pictures of.
Margaret was a devoted and loving mother, a faithful, sweet wife to Harold, and above all else a servant warrior of her Lord Jesus Christ.
Mom, this is not a “Goodbye Forever.” It is a “See you Later” till we meet again in heaven.