Every Senior has a Story - Arie Lanser

Born in 1912, 99-year-old Arie Lanser grew up on a farm in the Lynnville-Sully area and attended the Sully Christian Grade School. Thereafter he and his older brother farmed with their dad. Even though his parents had six boys and six girls, Arie said softly "There was never a day when we didn't have enough food. We always had clean clothes ready. It was a good, happy, contented life."

And so he remained on the farm until 1935 when he married Johanna Wielard, with whom he shared the next sixty-five years. They rented or owned their own farm following their marriage, raising both crops and animals. "The farm was river-bottom land," he said, "so some years we were flooded out, and some years we did pretty good." He saw tremendous changes in agriculture over the years, of course, from the use of horses, to his first tractor, purchased in 1938.

Lanser did not have to fight in World War II. "They didn't take married farm folk, and by then we'd had our first child." The couple had four children together, Ilene (Meppelink), Gladys (Stravers), Melvin and Arvin. His children remain in the area, and he now has fifteen grandchildren, 41 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.

"We're a close knit family," he stately simply. "We meet together a lot. We help each other." He will occasionally leave the long-term care unit at Pella Regional Health Center, where he has lived since 2002, to go to special church services in Sully, and then will share a meal at the home of one of his children. Fortunate to have so many off-spring, his room is decorated with dozens of family pictures, and he knows them all.

Johanna and Arie retired from the farm (but not farming) in 1972, when they moved to town. Arie continued to help his sons on the farm. The couple liked to travel, though, too, and he recounted trips all over the United States, twice to the Netherlands, and once to the Netherlands that included a tour of five other European countries. They had also traveled in the States with their children when they were all at home.

As if farming weren't time consuming enough, Arie was also heavily involved all those years in his church. "There was always a lot that needed doing," he said. There were 150 families in the church, and he visited each one, often accompanied by Johanna, teaching the catechism, teaching about religion, to church members of all ages. "I enjoyed it, but it was also a labor that had to be done," he said.

Two years ago, Lanser was asked to be the marshall for the Sully Parade. "I was asked because I was the oldest living graduate (1925) of the Sully Christian Grade School. It was fun going down all those streets and seeing so many friends from before!"

Quiet, pleasant, and humble, Lanser says he likes living at Pella Regional. "I have everything I need here, and get very good care. I can't think of anything I'd change."

marty racheter 052011

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