PIETER JASPER DEN ENGELSMAN

PIETER JASPER DEN ENGELSMAN November 20, 1932 – October 20, 2023 With his wife of 53 years, Donna (nee Wilkinson) and loving daughters Lisa Cook (Edwin), Sarah Andras (Peter) and Marlena Buxton (Kyle) around him Pieter Jasper DenEngelsman of Assiginack died one month before his 91st birthday on Friday, October 20, 2023 at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington. His family witnessed his peaceful passing knowing his long ordeal of the past two weeks with pneumonia was over and that there would be joy in the promised reunion with his mother Adriana (nee Gijze), his father Jacob Abraham, his sister Sarie Manneke (nee DenEngelsman) and brother-in-law (Jaap Manneke) all of Rotterdam the Netherlands. He left us and greeted them with calm dignity just the way he had always lived his life. He knew he was loved and the family knew he loved them generously. He brought joy and the knowledge of God to all he had the pleasure to meet. He is survived by his brothers Jasper DenEngelsman (Anita Heije) of the Netherlands and Jacob DenEngelsman (Ineke predeceased) of Mississauga and their families. His son and daughter from a previous marriage Gerald (Jake) Morahan (Giselle) and Marjorie Grainge (Morahan) also mourn his passing. Pieter is greatly loved by his grandchildren Melissa (Ryan), Dan (Heather), Taylor, Rhylla (Lucas), Nathan and Sophie; and six great-grandchildren Alex, Emilee and Haylee; Ethan, Emera and Ella. Opa (Abu) is missed already. He was known throughout the Island as Mr. Massey from his many years with Massey Wholesale. The Christian Community will remember him for his work as a lay supply minister who took services at various churches on Manitoulin, Espanola and Massey. Pieter was also a student minister with the United Church of Canada, pastoring a small congregation in Aurora from 1975 to 1979. For 20 years the family owned and operated the Bread Of Life Christian Book and Resource Centre and Abundant Life Pet Store in Manitowaning. He adopted his chosen country in 1956 when he emigrated from the Netherlands and had proudly called Manitoulin home since1979. His friends of 44 years Dawn and Garry Kerr of Little Current and Chuck and Judy Kreuz of Ohio also mourn his passing but….”We do not mourn as those who have no hope!” (1 Thessalonians 4). This is not goodbye. To borrow from our Ojibwe neighbours, “Bamikwe”. “Let not your heart be troubled. In my Father’s house there are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you may be also”(John 14). We are grateful. See you at The House, Pieter!