Helen Faye Sluis

Helen Faye Sluis was born on a farm about 4 miles west of Orange City, Iowa on April 20, 1948 to Harold and Eunice (Muilenburg) Oolman.

Helen was born the middle child. Her older sister, Marla and younger brother, Harlan, always accused her of suffering from “middle child syndrome”. She often teased them about this title, and it brought many smiles and laughs. As a young girl, Helen discovered she really loved living in the country. Her family worked hard on the farm, and she loved helping with the chores, mowing lawn, and any outdoor tasks. They had cows, pigs, and chickens to raise. The only thing Helen didn’t like was sweeping out the outhouse weekly! Helen would much rather have been doing anything outside than be inside the house. She loved those “good old days” when neighbor kids got together after supper to play ball, or hide-and-seek, or eeny-iny-over and many other games they just made up. Cousins, neighbors, friends – they were just all one big family. Helen’s special cousin/friend Mary spent many days together with Helen in the summer. Helen had such good memories of their childhood adventures.

Then sadly, Helen’s Daddy died the day after her 18 th birthday and the family had to sell the farm and move into town. In high school, Helen worked part-time at the hospital. She graduated high school in 1966 and continued to work full time at the hospital. After working a couple of years, Helen went to the vocational school in Sheldon for a year. But, she was bored. Helen had already learned nearly everything they were teaching at her job. She hung in there though and graduated at the top of her class. She continued working at the hospital until a friend set up a blind date with a guy in Minnesota (Mr. Bill) and they dated for 10 months and got married on May 26, 1972.

Helen is survived by her loving husband, Bill. Three wonderful sons who will always be her little boys: Michael (Amy), Douglas (Terri) and Greg (Kristen). 14 grandkids always to be her grandbabies – Dylan, Hunter, Jordan (sons of Mike); Darian, Mason (Jenny), Briley (children of Doug); Gabrielle (Tylor), Dawson, Keegan, Austyn, London (children of Greg). 6 beautiful great-granddaughters always her great-grandbabies: Thea, McKinley (daughters of Darian); Sage, Dove, Ivie (daughters of Gabrielle); Delaney (daughter of Mason). What joy they all brought to Helen’s life! Helen always felt that nothing better than family!

Bill and Helen farmed until the farm crises in the 1980’s and then were forced to change occupations. Helen went to work at Pipestone Livestock Auction Market as the bookkeeper/secretary and worked there for 32 years until she retired. Retirement was good but she missed goofing off with the gals in the office and the farmer customers and buyers. Helen was also the bookkeeper for her church for many years. She was active in her church through choir, RCYF counselor, and Bible studies for many years. Helen truly loved her church.

Helen was always a simple gal – she loved to work outside in the summer, she loved mowing the lawn (she wouldn’t let Bill do it most of the time), gardening, working in the flower beds, feeding the birds, and watching God move in His beautiful creation. Bill and Helen have done lots of camping over the years with family and friends – those were awesome times and special memories for them! One of their favorite trips was the last trip Bill and Helen took before Helen got cancer – a trip to Glacier National Park. Talk about God’s beautiful creation!!! She also loved to fix jigsaw puzzles, work on crossword puzzles, and read.

Helen is welcomed into heaven by her parents, grandparents and many aunts and uncles.

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