Berta Jo (Ramsay) Bjurstrom, 80

Our dear Berta has gone home to be with the Lord. Born on Jan. 3, 1935, in Tucson, Ariz., she passed away surrounded by the love of her family on Dec. 10, 2015, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Berta grew up happily playing house in the dry Arizona dirt under the pomegranate trees with her sisters and brother. She moved to California in 1955 a short while before she married her sweetheart Fred Bjurstrom. Having met at a church youth group meeting two years earlier, they were married on Jan. 14, 1955, in Fullerton, Calif., and set out to live their lives serving the Lord and raising their four children. Berta spread magic at the first day care center where she worked in Fullerton and has been doing it ever since. She studied and received a certificate there as well as at NIC in Child Development in 1981.

While still in California, she was chosen by a foundation to manage the funds as well as developing a child care program and the facility to hold it. She did all this while their children arrived and their family grew. When allergies endangered the health of one of their children in 1969, she and Fred moved the family to Coeur d’Alene. Soon they were opening the ABCD Day Care Center in the church building on C Street and W. Harrison in Coeur d’Alene. With her skills and determination and Fred’s business sense and initiative and by the grace bestowed on them by the Lord, the center was soon filled with children whose families they nurtured right along with the children. No one could gather an audience of children into the excitement of singing “Going on a Bear Hunt” like Miss Berta. And that is what she did, she gathered all of us in. Fred and Berta would have been married 61 years in January. Berta was preceded in death by her parents, Archie and Glenis. She is survived by her husband Fred, her four children Clayton and his wife Kay of Goshen, Ind., Barbara Farwell and her husband David of Sagle, Idaho, Daniel and his wife Juli of Enumclaw, Wash., and Andy and his wife Chris of Coeur d’Alene; 12 grandchildren who adored making cookies with her; 18 great grandchildren (with more on the way) who loved snuggling in her arms; three sisters Dee Holder of Yakima, WA, Fern Horton of Riverside, Calif., Donna Koker and husband Tom of Upper Lake, Calif., and her brother George Ramsay and his wife Eulalia of Riverside, as well as countless friends whom she gathered in and warmed with her smiles and hugs. A celebration of her life will be held Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 3 p.m. at Coeur d’Alene Bible Church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. English Funeral Chapel has been entrusted with the arrangements. The family requests memorial donations be made to Hospice of North Idaho at 9493 N. Government Way, Hayden, ID 83835 or to Coeur d’Alene Bible Church at 5350 N. 4th St, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815 in honor of Berta and her commitment to serving others. Please visit Berta’s online memorial at www.englishfuneralchapel.com.