Erna Boersma, age 84, passed away peacefully surrounded by her loved ones on Saturday, May 18, 2024, at her home in Patterson, Louisiana.
Funeral services for Erna will take place on Thursday, May 23, 2024, at Ibert’s Mortuary in Patterson, Louisiana. Visitation is scheduled from 9:00 AM until the commencement of the Liturgy of the Word Service, officiated by Deacon Gerry Bourg, at 10:30 AM. A graveside service will follow immediately after at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Patterson, LA.
Erna was living in Pepin, Wisconsin, when she met the love of her life, Joseph Boersma, in 1967. At the time, Erna was working as a waitress and bar tending, while Joseph had just recently come out of the Marine Corps. Their initial meeting was playful, with Erna requesting his ID as a playful attempt to flirt and learn his name. This charming encounter blossomed into romance, and the couple married in 1968. Joseph adopted all six of Erna’s children as his own, and together they moved south to Louisiana to pursue their new life together while Joseph worked in deep sea diving in the Gulf of Mexico’s oilfield. They initially settled in Morgan City before finding what would later become their forever home in Patterson, Louisiana.
When work slowed down, the family relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1986 to 1992, where Erna and Joseph worked together in the cabinet industry and tended to their young family. After their time in Charlotte, they returned to Patterson for good, where Erna continued to focus on caring for her family that had now welcomed newly born grandchildren, while Joseph continued working in woodworking and boat maintenance.
Erna had a passion for cooking, especially barbecuing, where she’d often use her talents in the kitchen to host large family gatherings. She enjoyed solving jigsaw puzzles and loved traveling with Joseph and their children, exploring places like Arkansas, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Colorado. Above all else, Erna cherished spending time with her family, including her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her family had always been her greatest work and achievement from which she found an endless source of pride and happiness.
Erna will always be remembered as the loving and dedicated family woman she was. She will be dearly missed by all those who knew and loved her, especially her family who has known her as matriarch for all these years.
Erna is survived by her loving and devoted husband of 56 years, Joseph Boersma; her six children: Francis Nicklas Boersma, Thelma Hanna, Kenneth Paul Boersma, Marty Laura Abress, Rhonda Mae Savoie and her husband Kerry, Jos Michael Boersma and his wife Mandy; her 20 grandchildren; her 23 great-grandchildren; and her five great-great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her four brothers: Keith, Bob, John, and Terry Newcomb, as well as a host of extended family and friends whom she loved dearly.
She is preceded in death by three of her children: Doris Ann, Hans Otto, and MaryJo; her two grandsons, Jason and Cassidy; her great-granddaughter, Ashley; her great-grandson, Joey; her parents, Kenneth and Martha Newcomb; her three brothers, Elmer, Jim, and Bill Newcomb; and her two sisters, Bernice and Janette Newcomb.
Ibert’s Mortuary of Patterson has been entrusted with the arrangements.