Obituary of Evelyn Bouma

On Feb. 1, 1927, Evelyn Bouma was born in Andyk, The Netherlands to Nanne and Anna Vriend. She was the fifth of five girls and the fourth youngest of the 11 children. The family sailed from Holland to Canada on the Volendaam on Saturday, Aug. 12, 1939. Evelyn lived in Houston, BC, until her early 20’s when she attended nursing school in Vancouver, BC. Her brother John, introduced her to Dick Bouma and they commenced a long distance relationship. She decided to continue her education in Grand Rapids Michigan where Dick was attending Calvin Seminary. On June 3, 1954, after Dick graduated from Calvin Seminary, they were married. Dick and Evelyn then sailed to Amsterdam to learn Dutch to enable Dick to able to preach in Dutch. He and his lovely bride then went to minister to the immigrants in Australia in 1955. They lived in Australia serving Blacktown RCA and Moe RCA, until 1962. During this time period Paul, Gresham (Gresh) and Deric were born. In 1962 the Boumas went to Canada to pastor the Grand Prairie Christian Reformed Church (CRC), the La Glace CRC and Blueberry Mountain CRC. . It was while serving here that they adopted a child and welcomed Bethany (Beth) into the clan. In 1965 the family moved to Bozeman, Montana, where the last son Sterling (Ster) was born In 1968, the family accepted a call to serve in Bacolod City, Philippines. In 1971, they returned to the United States, to Lansing, Illinois for deputation. A year later the family returned to the Philippines to settle in the Manila area. Now that the children were in school, Evelyn used this time period to enhance her artistic and musical abilities. The decision was made to move back to the States. They served churches from 1979-1984 in Lynden, WA, and Washington, PA. It was in 1992 that Evelyn experienced the heart wrenching pain of losing a child to cancer. At the age of 30, Deric, the third son passed away. The next years were spent with Dick filling pulpit supply around the US as well as teaching in Korea, Siberia and the Ukraine. Suddenly it was time for the Bouma’s to retire. They settled in Pacific Beach, Washington and a number of years later moved to Viola, Idaho. They enjoyed twelve years of retirement before Dick was called home in 2007. The next few years flew by. Evelyn’s memory was starting to deteriorate and in 2016 she moved to Creedside Memory Care Home in Coeur d’Alene, ID. On September 8, 2021 she was diagnosed with Covid. She succumbed and entered Glory on September 15, 2021. Evelyn is survived by Paul (Hetty) Carly, Nolan; Gresham (Wendy) Caleb, Joshua, Kenda, Elijah; (Carol / Collin Myers) Katie, Sara, Abigail; Beth (Scott) Zack, Marina, Quin; Sterling (Kaari) Lander, Heighlan, Walker and twelve great grandchildren. The entire family is deeply grateful to the Creekside staff and Hospice for their loving, tender affection and care shown to Evelyn.