Ethel Brunner

On August 16, 2015, we celebrated the 92nd birthday of our mother, Ethel Brunner. She wasn't with us because she had died on Saturday; nevertheless, we are celebrating rather than mourning. Memorial services will be held at 1:00 pm Thursday, August 20, at Parkway Funeral Service, 2330 Tyler Parkway, Bismarck, with Rev. Craig A. Schweitzer officiating. There will be no visitation, cremation has taken place.Burial will be held at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, Mandan, where she will be buried alongside her husband.Ethel was born August 16, 1923, in Garrison, ND, to George and Edith Boots. She lived in Garrison for her entire life with a few interruptions. She went to school in the old Garrison School that used to be at the end of Main Street, attended the Congregational Church which is close by and was active in the church for decades. She was the church treasurer, active in the sewing circle and the Civic Club.When Ethel was a child, Garrison was a little town, not very old, and, it was small. She knew everyone and everyone knew her. Everyone grew up together and grew old together. As the town grew, she added more people to her list of friends, and as they all grew old, as is the rhythm of life, her list of friends began to shrink. Only a few friends remain, and now she's no longer on that list.During World War II, she lived in Vancouver, WA, where she worked in the Kaiser shipyards as a pipe fitter, along with her grandmother, Dora Ulrich. They built destroyers for the US Navy. While she was there, she met and married Walter D. West of St. Mary's, GA, in May of 1944. She had one son, Danny in 1945. They lived in Fort Leonard Wood, MO, for a while and then she moved back to Garrison, and they divorced in 1946.In February of 1952, she married John Brunner of Minot, ND, and they lived together in Garrison for almost 60 years. When they were no longer able to live alone in their home, they moved to the Manor in Garrison where they lived for a couple of years. Their children Mark Brunner of Bismarck and Sheri Baxter of Mandan convinced them to move to the Edgewood Vista, an assisted living apartment complex in Bismarck. They lived there together until John had a stroke and went to live in St. Vincent's Nursing Home, where he died in June of 2014. They were married for 62 years. Ethel continued to live in Edgewood Vista until June of 2015 when she was no longer able to live alone. She moved to Sanford off Collins care facility in Mandan, ND, where they hoped to help her regain her strength so she could go back to her apartment in Bismarck. But, it was not to be. Her strength improved for a short while, but then began a slow decline that ended August 15, 2015.As she recently told us, she had a long life and accomplished a lot of good things. She did almost everything she wanted to do and she raised three children. We shall miss her.The people who celebrated her birthday on Sunday are her three children, Adam and his partner, Abelardo, Sheri and her husband Clay, and Mark and his wife Sheila; daughter-in-law Estella Brunner; her six-grandchildren, Georgiana Brunner, Nolan Baxter and his partner Kylie Sunderland, Derek Baxter and his wife, Becky, Megan Toman and her husband Josh, Stephanie Lacher and her husband Tyler, Steven Brunner and his fiancé Sarah Bulger; her six great-grandchildren, Katelynn Baxter, Sydney and TJ Lacher, and Emerson, Abigail, and Penelope Toman. She is also survived by her sister Vera Esperseth; and brother Earl Boots.She was preceded in death by her husband, John; her parents; her sister, Dorothy; and grandson, Ricky.