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Elmer Bartels spent a good share of his final days gazing out the dining room window at Tonto Park across the street from his home in the northwest part of Luverne.
Homebound for 18 months, he found joy in watching families and children play on the equipment and enjoy the outdoors, Eunice said about her late husband.
“We watched little kids and especially day care providers,” she said. “That was really good for him and for me, too.”
After Elmer died last fall, Eunice and her children — Rebecca, Rachel, Timothy and Jim — decided to donate a bench in his memory.
With help from Luverne public works supervisor John Stoffel, a black metal bench now bears a bronze nameplate. “In memory of Elmer Bartels.”
Today, Eunice said it brings her joy to watch from the dining room window as families, children and seniors make use of the Bartels bench.
“It is really being used quite well,” she said. “It makes me feel good.”
Stoffel said the city has been asked by other families about donating benches in memory of loved ones, and two others were installed this spring.
Children of the late Esther Vande Hoef several years ago sought Stoffel’s help in placing a bench in Prairie Moon Park near Fire Leaf Circle where their mother lived for roughly 20 years.
She, too, had enjoyed having a nearby “pocket” park, which she could clearly see from her home, according to her daughter, Elaine Boeve, Steen.
“That was a great memorial for her to put that bench out there, because she would sit on her deck and watch the neighborhood kids and her own grandchildren and great-grandchildren playing in the park,” Boeve said.
She and her siblings were pleased that the city was willing to let them pick out the bench style they wanted (provided it was safe) and public works crews secured it in poured cement.
“He was so helpful,” Boeve said about Stoffel. “He helped pick out a nice iron bench, ordered it and secured it to a poured cement base.”
The bronze nameplate says, “In memory of our mother, Esther Vande Hoef.”
Megan Boyenga considered donating a bench to the park in Iowa where her husband, Anthony Boyenga, died in a drowning accident last summer.
“But we knew we’d probably never go back there, and I wanted it to be somewhere we actually see it being used,” she said.
So she decided to place a memorial bench on the beach at The Lake in Luverne.
“We like going down there,” she said. “The kids like to swim there and have picnics.”
So she contacted the city and Stoffel helped her get it installed.
“They were awesome about it,” Boyenga said. “I wondered if they’d prefer that we use something like ones they already have around town.”
But she said she was pleased the city let her select the one she wanted, a recycled material that looked like wood on a black frame.
“I liked the way it looked; it wasn’t metal and it’s comfortable,” she said. “I was thankful we could get that one.”
Her husband’s name is etched in black letters on the brown background. “In loving memory of Anthony Boyenga.”
The families purchased the benches, and the city of Luverne provided labor and installation materials.
For inquiries about future memorial benches, the Luverne City Hall can be reached at 507-449-2388.