Anna Glaser

Anna Glaser, age 82, of Glendive, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at the Glendive Medical Center. Visitation will be on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 from 10:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. at the Chapel of the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home in Glendive. A Vigil service will be held at 6:30 P.M., Wednesday, February 13, 2008 in the Chapel of the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home in Glendive. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 A.M., Thursday, February 14, 2008 at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Glendive with Father Joseph Ponessa officiating. Rite of Committal will be in the Dawson Memorial Cemetery in Glendive. Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home of Glendive is entrusted with arrangements. Anna was born on March 5, 1925 in Glen Ullin, North Dakota, the daughter of George and Rose (Doll) Emter. She was raised and received her education at a country school at Glen Ullin. Anna was united in marriage to Kasper Glaser on October 13, 1947 in Glen Ullin. In March of 1951, Anna and her husband moved to Glendive from Dickinson, North Dakota and have made Glendive their home since. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Anna loved playing cards and games with her grandchildren as they were growing up. She had a special bond with each of her two granddaughters and eight grandsons. Anna loved cooking German dishes as requested by her family. Her homemade bread, vegetable soup and apple pie were a special treat. Anna enjoyed her marathon phone conversations with her daughters which could last from 2 -3 hours! Anna enjoyed spending time with her friends and always had a smile and was ready to visit with anyone as she never met a stranger. Many times Kasper would be waiting in the van ready to leave and she would still be visiting! A special time in Anna's life was the weekend of October 13, 2007 when the family celebrated Anna and Kasper's 60th wedding anniversary - it was togetherness! Anna was a member of the V.F.W. Auxiliary and the Catholic Daughters of America. She was preceded in death by her parents. Survivors include her husband, Kasper of Glendive; her son, Jerry Glaser and his wife Corinne of Glendive; her daughters, Carol Hales and her husband Bob of Redmond, Washington, Lynette Harada and her husband Gene of Havre, Montana and Mary Jean Ellison and her fiance Dave Buck of Great Falls, Montana; her brother, Eddy Emter and his wife Eleanor of Glendive; her sisters, Alvina Metzger and her husband Ervin of Renton, Washington and Clara Goldador and her husband Jim of Chicago, Illinois; 10 grandchildren, Randy (Trish) Glaser, Jerrod (Ann) Glaser, Todd Bailey, Travis (Tonia) Bailey, Chad Bailey, Joey Bailey, Tim (Ashley) Harada, Nick (Paula) Harada, Nichole (Kevin) Portales and Shayla Ellison; five great grandchildren, Cheyanna Portales, Calib Bailey, Hunter Bailey, Madisen Harada and Nolan Harada. Anna will be greatly missed by her family and friends - for someone loved is never lost and she was loved so much. We love you mom, grandma and great grandma. Memorials are suggested to the Relay for Life or the Catholic Daughters. Celebrant Service: "Togetherness". For Anna Glaser there was nothing better. Let us be aware of our "togetherness" as we honor and remember Anna. Good Morning! I am Sandy Silha with the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home and on behalf of the family of Anna Glaser, I would like to welcome each of you here today. Anna Glaser was an important and special lady and in her 82 years of life, Anna touched many lives. It is my honor to share with you a few of the memories and stories the family has of Anna. “To live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die.” Anna was not a complicated person. For Anna, life was simply about people, about family and friends, about family and community, about family and church. With her German-Russian heritage, Anna grew up in a German speaking household and even after leaving her German roots, she carried her accent with her throughout her life, as her son, Jerry, and her grandson Jerrod, can attest to. Her family loved her accent, even though they would tease her about it. Sometimes even her family would misunderstand her words. While shopping one day, Anna mentioned she wanted to get “seets”. Her family could not understand why she wanted chairs. She didn’t, Anna was talking about sunflower “seets”. Anna grew up on a farm in rural North Dakota during the depression. Her mother died when Anna was only 14, and as the eldest of the children, it fell to Anna to help raise her younger brother and two younger sisters, and do household and farm chores. But life was not all work and no play. Anna would go to local dances and developed an enjoyment of dancing that was lifelong. She began dating a young fellow who lived in the area, Kasper Glaser, and corresponded with Kasper while he served his country during World War II. After the war, Kasper returned home and he and Anna began a 60-year life journey together as husband and wife. Anna was a strong presence in the lives of those around her. As a wife, mother, and grandmother, Anna was the focal point of the home. With her love of conversations, she made a point of always knowing what was going on with each person in her life. Anna loved to talk on the phone. Anna’s daughter, Lynette Harada, has three cordless phones around her home and can recall times of going through the batteries of all three during phone calls from Anna that would reach into the wee hours of the morning. Jerry would take calls from his mother at work, thinking it could be something important, but Anna was just keeping in touch. Jerry would remind Anna that he was working and couldn’t visit and she would make note of that and go right on talking. Daughter, Carol Hales, and grandson, Randy Glaser, laugh about getting calls from Anna that their answering machine would record. If they were not there to answer, the answering machine would pick up Anna’s voice. Unaware of being recorded, you would hear Anna talking to Kasper, wondering where they could possibly be! And as the grandchildren grew up and had their own homes, Anna would call and visit with them often or they would call her. Anna would have Kasper listen in on another phone, and she always ended her calls saying, “We luff you.” This love of conversation was not just by phone; Anna would talk to whomever, wherever, whenever. Kasper says trips to the grocery store were always lengthy because Anna talked to every person she saw. Daughter, Mary Jean Ellison, remembers taking Anna out to lunch in Great Falls. It was a popular soup and sandwich restaurant in the area, and by the time Mary Jean and Anna left, Anna had went back and visited with the owner. Many times it seemed that Anna was visiting with an old friend, when in fact, she didn’t even know the name of the person she was talking to. There were no strangers in Anna’s world, just lots of people to visit with. She had a smile and words for everyone. Anna’s interest in people was not just about family. Anna was the “neighborhood watch” before there was a Neighborhood Watch. Anna’s curtains were always open. She knew who came and went, and when. Anna was a great neighbor to have. She was always helpful and the neighborhood kids were always visiting Anna and Kasper. Shawna Dorwart, a neighbor for years, tell of many times that Anna would come over and take care of Shawna’s flowers when Shawna would get too busy at work, or come over to hold and walk Shawna’s daughter, Dakota, who had colic. Anna would help without being asked and would bring her positive and reassuring attitude with her. Anna started driving late in life, and even after learning to drive it was a long time before she got her license. Anna had three unfortunate incidents with the car after being licensed. One was when she ran into the side of the McDonald’s building. Another of Anna’s experiences occurred when Anna and grandson, Joey, were grocery shopping at the old Safeway. As she shopped, Anna heard the fire siren go off. The little red Maverick Anna was driving had started on fire in the parking lot. Anna found a phone and called Kasper. She asked Kasper if he could here fire sirens. Yes, he said. Well, Anna replied, they are for your car. The third incident was spinning the car around on ice near the Barry St. underpass. That scared Anna enough to end her driving. She always kept up her license, but from then on, Kasper became Anna’s personal chauffer. And Anna became an expert back seat driver, a trait her granddaughter, Nicole, feels she acquired from her grandmother. If driving a car wasn’t a favorite thing to do, card playing certainly was. Anna had a large group of women friends that would get together, play cards, and visit about everyone and everything. Even granddaughter Shayla can remember going with Grandma and getting to play cards with the “women”. Corrine, Anna’s daughter-in-law, recalls Anna jokingly complaining that she was playing cards so often, she couldn’t get her work done! Kasper and Anna spent many evenings playing pinochle with neighbors, John and Deon Trangmoe, often until 2 in the morning, and then they would head to the Trail Star truck stop for breakfast. Kasper says it was the men against the women and the women usually won, by cheating, of course. The family is sure that Deon and Anna are probably shuffling cards for a hot game of pinochle at this very moment. Family get-togethers on holidays and special occasions would end up being an afternoon of cards. Anna especially enjoyed playing cards and Aggravation with her grandchildren, and she never wanted to quit. Her grandchildren report that Anna could outlast everyone. Anna loved pictures of family and family activities, and her home is filled with these photos. Whenever Anna took a photo, she somehow managed to cut off peoples’ heads. Finally she gave up trying to be the photographer, and instead would just make sure someone was taking the pictures. Anna’s grandchildren were very special to her. She was able to watch them grow to adulthood and be there in their lives to share her love with them. They visited often, and the ones who lived away received many phone calls. She attended many of their activities and special events as they grew up, although Anna spent so much time visiting with everyone in the stands and bleachers, no one is sure just how much of the grandkids’ performances she actually watched. She babysat them often when they were growing up and Shayla remembers spending weeks of her summers with Grandma, learning to cook, playing cards and shopping. Anna has eight grandsons and she often had several staying at one time. A favorite story from the times of having the grandsons stay, was of their bath time. Anna would put all the boys in the tub with water and say, “Be sure to wash your -------!” Anna had quite a cute word for their behinds. And she would check; if they weren’t clean, she would wash them herself. This made an impression on her grandsons, and later in life, a family tradition was started. It began at Grandson Nick Harada’s wedding. Anna and Kasper were running out of steam at the wedding reception and decided to retire early. Anna had an instamatic camera and asked her family to finish it off with pictures of the reception so she wouldn’t miss anything. They obliged and with only a couple left to take, someone suggested a group picture of the grandsons. You could call it the “Moon Shot” as the grandsons wanted Anna to see that they all still did wash their behinds. This picture tradition still goes on and Anna would take these photos to show her “women”. Anna had a wonderful sense of humor and a fun-loving spirit. And of course, her grandchildren could do no wrong! Another favorite activity Anna enjoyed doing with and for the grandchildren was making “shoop noodles”. These are a small, German noodle, made with a flour and water dough, that are rolled and fried. Anna liked the grandkids to help roll the noodles. Many unique and somewhat questionable shapes were created out of the dough. In the summer, Anna would serve picnics of ‘shoop noodles” and watermelon, a family favorite. When growing up, Anna’s kids thought having store bought bread was a treat. They came to realize the real treat was Anna’s homemade bread. Anna’s grandchildren are all adults now, some with families of their own. When they speak of Anna, there are many smiles, much laughter, and an awareness of how fortunate they were to have Anna as part of their lives. Joey spoke for all the grandchildren when he called Anna “inspirational”. Anna was always such a happy person, content to enjoy her husband of 60 years, and have the togetherness of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Anna wore this happiness like a warm and colorful coat. She was the best grandmother they could have had. This past October 13 marked a very important event for the Glaser family, the 60th wedding anniversary of Anna and Kasper. Their family planned a huge surprise party for them in Billings. It took months of planning and many white lies to get all of the family to Billings for this special event but their efforts paid off in a most memorable week-end. Jerry and Corrine brought Anna and Kasper to Billings on the pretext of seeing grandsons, Jerrod and Randy. Anna and Kasper were told everyone else had other commitments. Lunch was planned at Fuddruckers, and upon their arrival they were seated in a room with a folding door. Behind the door waited the remaining members of the family. The folding door was opened to people clapping and yelling Happy Anniversary. In the confusion of the surprise, Anna and Kasper thought they did recognize some of the people. When they realized what was going on, Anna and Kasper had a wonderful week-end. They spent the week-end visiting the homes of the grandsons who lived in Billings, playing games, eating, and having long conversations. There was laughter and hugs all week-end long. It truly was a special week-end for Anna and Kasper to have all their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and their families together. As Anna would say, “There’s nothing better than togetherness.” Ay, ay, ay, Anna! You will be greatly missed. Anna will be missed for her bright smile, her sense of humor, her fun-loving spirit, her long conversations, her phone calls. She will be missed at the card table, in the kitchen, at family events and get-togethers. Anna was such a presence wherever she went. Her family will probably be amazed at the number of people who will speak of Anna and remember her in the coming days and months, people her family didn’t realize Anna had touched with her smiling conversations. Can we tell the story of Anna Glaser in these few minutes? Certainly not! Anna’s story will continue to be told by those whose lives she has touched. Anna will be remembered with great love and although a hole is left in your hearts with her death, she has left you many gifts and memories, the greatest being the pride and love she had for all of you, and her lesson about importance of “togetherness!” Hold Anna close in your hearts; she is a part of each of you. We are all better people for having had her touch on our lives. Thank you, Anna.

Anna Glaser

March 5, 1925 - February 14, 2008

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Anna Glaser

March 5, 1925 - February 14, 2008

What We Do

Flowers & Gifts

Plan Ahead

About Us

Resources

Obituaries

Grief & Healing

Contact Information

365 Days of Grief Support