The LaCrosse Tribune wrote........
Two centenarians memorialized as caring, thoughtful
And the Chippewa Falls, Wis., resident did, reaching the milestone Oct. 7, before dying at St. Joseph’s Hospital on Thursday.
Baecker, formerly of Independence in Trempealeau County, was one of two Coulee Region centenarians who died this week. Justina Paskaleff of Warrens died Wednesday at Agape Acres in Tomah.
Baecker, who farmed for 60 years, and his late wife, Romelle, raised Klimek after her mother died when she was 8.
“He was one of the nicest gentlemen you’d ever want to know,” recalled the 62-year-old Klimek, of Chippewa. “At 99, he still was running ahead to hold the door open for women.”
He also was a fiercely independent man who still hopped on his riding mower to trim the grass on his three acres at the age of 96.
Baecker was healthy throughout his life, she said, although he did get a pacemaker at a La Crosse hospital about 10 years ago.
“We don’t know if it was working because he never got it checked because he didn’t want to make the trip to La Crosse,” she said, adding with a laugh, “It must have been, though.”
He became a tad frustrated about not being able to do chores after moving to an assisted-living facility about 18 months ago.
“He’d say, ‘The bushes need trimming, but they won’t let me trim them, and they won’t give me a shovel when it snows,’” she said.
He recently contracted an infection and seemed to tire after that, Klimek said.
The other centenarian who died, Justina Paskaleff, turned 100 on Oct. 4. She grew up poor on farmland near Millston, said her nephew, Dan Smrekar, chairman of the Millston Town Board.
Smrekar said he didn’t know his aunt much while he was growing up because she lived in California for most of those years, working as a nanny for a family of entertainers.
She and her husband, John, also ran a restaurant in the Golden State, Smrekar said. John died about 40 years ago, so she moved back to Wisconsin to be close to family.
Despite being afflicted with scoliosis, Paskaleff “worked, and she worked, and then she worked some more,” Smrekar said.
He attributed her concern for others to her own illness.
“If she saw a child in church and something was wrong, she would say, ‘I hope their parents are taking care of that,’” he said. “Something inside of her made her care.”
Grandpa Ed's obituary in the Leader Telegram:
........until we meet again, Grandpa Ed.......
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." Revelations 21:4
