Doris Bergstrom

Doris Bergstrom, age 87, of Pine River, passed away from complications of heart problems on Thursday, May 5, 2011, at her home. She was born December 2, 1923, in Bock, MN, to John Lenord and Esther (Swanson) Bergstrom. She graduated from Milaca High School in 1941. Her education and work experience was in health care. During World War II she received three years of schooling in the United States Army Cadet Nursing Corps. Her education included a six-month assignment to Hammond General Hospital, an Army barracks hospital built in a vineyard near Modesto, California, for treatment of war injured military personnel from the Pacific area. In 1950 she entered the Sister Kenny Poliomyelitis Treatment program, which included a certificate in physical therapy at the University of Colorado. In 1967 she graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor of science in nursing. Doris worked for twenty years at Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis where she participated in the development of nursing rehabilitation procedures and teaching rehabilitation education to nurses. She worked for twenty years as director of physical therapy at Oak Terrace Nursing Home in Minnetonka. Following retirement in 1988, she pursued her interest in creative writing. In 1994 she moved to Pine River where she continued to attend workshops and was a member of several writers' groups and organizations in the area. Much of her writing was related to nature, and some of her poetry and other writings have been published. For the last several years she lived in her comfortable home along the lovely Pine River.

Doris is survived by brother, Carl J. Bergstrom (Betty Anne) of Helena, MT; sisters-in-law: Marie Bergstrom of Bock, Mary Alice Bergstrom of Colorado Springs, CO; 14 nieces and nephews and their children; and four cousins.

She was preceded in death by her parents; sister, Viva West; and brothers, James and Donald.

Memorials may be sent to the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen, MN.

A private family gathering will be held at a future date. Her body has been cremated, as was her wish, and her remains will be scattered by her family in a wildflower woodland.