Barbara Meyer of Wiota Township died peacefully the evening of May 22, 2024, at Monroe Clinic Hospital, not long after a warm gathering of family and her pastor dispersed for home. She was 89. Barbara's enshrouded remains were laid to rest May 28 in a natural burial service at Miller Cemetery, Wiota.
Funeral - 11:30AM, Sat. July 6. Resurrection Lutheran Church, Monroe, WI. Visitation to begin at 10AM at the church, with lunch and informal visiting time following the service.
Barbara Jane Eastwood was born November 12, 1934, to Ralph and Selma (Berget) Eastwood, at their dairy-farm home near Wiota, Wisconsin, the seventh of eight children.
Barbara went to Wiota's one-room grade school, then Darlington HS, graduating in 1952.
She started piano lessons in second grade, and by age 11 was accompanying her sister's cornet solos. In high school, she continued playing piano for groups and soloists and joined the DHS band. She learned to play French horn, becoming so accomplished she was chosen to join UW-Madison's Symphony Orchestra.
She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Nursing, where she became an R.N. and, in 1958, earned a B.S. in Nursing Ward Management and Teaching. While an undergrad, Barb worked as a staff nurse on the Thoracic Surgery Floor of UW Hospital. After earning her degree, she served the UW School of Nursing for one semester as Assistant Instructor of Medical Nursing. She applied and was accepted to grad school. But her calling toward leadership in the nursing profession was interrupted by another kind of call. As she would say, God had other plans for her life.
Barb's mother and her Norwegian ancestors were Lutheran, but she was not raised in the church. In Madison, she joined a class for newcomers at Calvary Lutheran Chapel on the UW campus. One evening, a young vicar named John Meyer subbed in for the pastor who led the class. Shy seminary student though he was, he couldn't not get to know the earnest, bright-eyed, redhead across the table. And that is how Barbara Eastwood became a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran, and fell in love with a German-American boy from Allegan, Michigan. She was baptized at Calvary in 1957. John & Barb were married there on July 26, 1958.
The couple made their first home at the Trinity Lutheran parsonage in Friesland, WI, where they were blessed with the births of five children. After 8 years, John accepted a call to serve two parishes in Wisconsin's north woods. In the depth of January, 1967, the growing family moved to Rib Lake, in Taylor County. There, God blessed Barb with three more healthy births—the last one at home.
Barb & John were true companions, enjoying a loving, egalitarian marriage that would endure over 60 years. Together, they kept house, canned peaches & applesauce, froze corn, beans & squash, and raised eight self-reliant children who kept their dad company while he worked from home in the parsonage ‘study' or gardened, so that Barb could enjoy what became her lifelong ritual of taking an afternoon nap.
Barb's community life expanded in1969, when she became a 4-H leader and organized a new club with a few other energetic moms who had practical skills to share. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Rib Lake's Lucky Lakers 4-H Club provided the Meyer kids and dozens of others a chance to do theater, public speaking, & hands-on projects not offered in school.
Barb & John were strong supporters of Rib Lake public schools, supplying them a steady stream of scholars, athletes and artists. Barb was a superb pianist, accompanying many student singers and musicians for solo-ensemble festivals & concerts. She also led and sang with the Lutheran church choirs in Rib Lake and Spirit, where John was pastor.
Barb worked a short time in hospital nursing after marriage, then withdrew from the healthcare workforce for 20 years, until her youngest child started school. She then became an EMT with the local ambulance service and taught CPR classes for the technical college. She began working part time as an R.N at the Rib Lake Health Care Center. There, she could finally apply her UW-Madison Nursing Education degree. She taught nursing assistant classes and coordinated the staff's inservice programs.
In 1982, she learned about a new approach to care of the dying-- hospice care--which was just beginning in this country. When she shared the info with her nursing home colleagues, it inspired them to join her as the core group of volunteers who founded Hope Hospice, Inc., an independent nonprofit based in Rib Lake that served all of Taylor Co. and beyond. In 1985, Barb became its first Executive Director and served in that role and as patient-care coordinator and hospice nurse for 15 years.
Barb & John retired in 2000 and moved closer to family, buying a house near Woodford in Wiota Township, just a few miles from where Barb grew up. They enjoyed many suppertime visits full of lively discussions and reminiscing at the nearby farm homes of Barb's sister Mary & cousin Patsy. Every day, they went for a two-mile walk through Woodford and surrounding countryside, getting to know neighbors along the way. They enhanced their little farmstead with an orchard and wildflower beds until it became a haven for birds. Barb had their grassy hillside and barnyard planted with prairie flowers and grasses. They joined the county Home and Community Education (HCE) club, Wiota Happy and read to preschoolers with Wisconsin Bookworms. For many years, they sang with a wonderful spring concert choir, The Mount Horeb Chorale. From 2006, both Barb & John canvassed neighborhoods getting out the vote with the Lafayette Co. Democratic Party, meeting like-minded people who became new lifelong friends.
Their family grew to include twelve grandchildren, who made Christmastime and summer reunions and all the kids' and grandkids' visits what Barb lived for and worked many hours in the kitchen preparing for.
They joined a nearby WELS church, Resurrection Lutheran of Monroe. In their old age, Barb & John deeply appreciated visits from Rev. Andrew Ewings, and his wife Ivy. More than pastoral colleagues, they shared true Christian friendship & light.
As their years lengthened, Barb & John's daily walks grew shorter. In May, 2019, John died of cancer after four months of hospice care at home.
In her last years, a heart valve damaged by decades of atrial fib weakened Barb's body, but her intellectual life and her positive involvement with the world stayed strong, thanks to reading & non-stop Wisconsin public radio listening. Adept computer user, she stayed active as a citizen who wrote letters to the editor and emailed policymakers. The world came to her through virtual church & concerts. Her last years of life were peaceful and fulfilling, with the constant companionship of the family's cats and their spaniel, Teddy, and light help from her daughters freeing her to live independently. Ever shorter of breath, she kept up daily walks. She lived on, fueled by anticipation of the next family visit, heart buoyed by grandchildren who called her on their commutes home from work. And how beautifully she still played the piano.
Barb was preceded in death by her husband John, her daughter Kathryn, and her siblings, David, Wade, John, Ruth Holub, Elton, Mary, & Basil.
Surviving Barb include her children: Stephanie Eastwood & Christine Meyer of Wiota Township; Philip (Jennifer Topping), Portland, OR; Carolyn, Madison; Peter (Shannon), Rib Lake; David, Hayward; & Jennifer (Jerod) Schroeder, Greenfield. Children-in-law, Tim Smith of New Ulm, MN, and Mary McInnis, Chicago.
Grandchildren: Elsa Meyer (Ryan) Hull, rural South Wayne; Maisie & Gabriel Topping; Jonathan, Benjamin, Peter & Eric Smith; Alex Meyer, Rib Lake; Cullan & Duncan Meyer, & Abbie & Adam Schroeder.
The family warmly thanks Rev. Andrew Ewings and funeral director Justin Erickson for their support to the family & for collaborating with Barb in planning her funeral.
In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund was created.
