November 28 2021
Obituary The life on earth of Phyllis Anne Boonstra (Wolters) ended on November 28, 2021. She was born on January 1, 1926, daughter of Harm and Betty Wolters, sister of Betty(Bultje) and Ruth(Rossien). Phyllis was blessed with a long and happy life, a loving husband Paul (deceased), three daughters Deborah, Patrice(Ballast), and Cindy(DeHaan), and two sons-in-law Bruce Ballast and Doug DeHaan. She is also survived by her bother-in-law James(Barb) Boonstra, whom she described as “the son I never had”. She adored her five grandchildren Jonathan Ballast, Kelly Ballast(DuBois), Keri Ballast(Degroot), Stacey DeHaan(Opperwall), and Rachel DeHaan, and their spouses Haley Ballast, Ryan DuBois, CJ Degroot, and Tim Opperwall. She lived long enough that, in her words, her eleven great-grandchildren “got to know her while she was well”. They are Nate, Dexter, Zeke, Sadie, and Antu Ballast; Arie, Jansen, and Ryk DuBois; Anneka, Olivia, and Kuyper Degroot. Private graveside services were held. A memorial service is being planned for early in 2022, Memorial contributions may be sent to the Paul and Phyllis Boonstra Memorial Award fund at Calvin University. Mom lived essentially three lives: She was single until she was 25, she was married to Dad for 37 years, and she lived for 34 years as a widow. After graduating from Calvin College in 1948, Mom began her teaching career at West Side Christian School in Grand Rapids, teaching junior high history. In 1950, she married Dad, quit teaching (in those days, married women were not hired), and began raising a family. She returned to full-time teaching at Grandville Christian School when her youngest daughter, Cindy, was in 3rd grade and remained there teaching 6th grade until her daughters finished college. She continued to volunteer at Grandville Christian for 25 years after her “retirement”. Mom enjoyed traveling. By the time her girls had graduated from high school, the family had checked off 43 states while camping in the “tent-trailer” they pulled behind them. Before Dad died in 1987, Mom and Dad traveled together as he visited schools all over the country on a months-long sabbatical from his teaching at Calvin College. She also accompanied him and his Interim class to the United Kingdom. Together, they visited The Netherlands. When he died, she voiced the thought that her travelling days were over. She was wrong. In addition to countless bus trips in the Midwest and New England, Mom managed to visit Alaska, Ireland, Greece, Mexico, Italy, and Scandanavia. She (and they) also made frequent visits to children and grand-children when those children lived in Florida, Colorado, California, Seattle, and St. Louis. From 1988 to 2020, Mom escaped the Michigan weather for three weeks each winter, visiting children in Southern California. Since 1976, when Dad built a small cottage on Lake Michigan near Montague, nearly every summer weekend was enjoyed there at Nooit Gedacht, usually with some family. Mom’s biggest complaint against the Covid pandemic was that it kept her from the cottage and all the happiness that came along with it. When she was at home, Mom spent her time with her book club(she loved to read), her stitchery group(she was a knitter), volunteering at a thrift store, working at the polls on election day, and doing whatever she was asked to do at church.. While a member at East Paris Christian Reformed Church she joked that ad hoc was Latin for “ask Phyl”. Throughout her life, Mom was a member of 5th Reformed Church, Bethel CRC, Hope CRC, Ivanrest CRC, East Paris CRC, and Plymouth Heights CRC. If you knew Mom, you know that she loved people and that she loved to talk. She was a cheerful person with a ready smile. She was a woman of conviction and she held fast to her beliefs, her principles, and her opinions. She was like this until her heart failed, a month before her 96th birthday. She had a good heart and with it she loved many people.
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Phyllis Anne Boonstra November 28 2021.
Death notice for the town of: Grand Rapids, state: Michigan