Dorothy E. Berggren, 88, of Lincoln, formerly of Axtell, passed away on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at Pemberly Place Senior Living in Lincoln. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, April 17, 2023 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Axtell with the Rev. Gale Dorn officiating. The service will be live streamed to the church's Facebook page. Interment will be held following the service at the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Axtell. Visitation will be held from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 16, 2023 at Craig Funeral Home in Minden. Memorials in Dorothy's honor are kindly suggested to Trinity Lutheran Church in Axtell. Arrangements are under the care of Craig Funeral Home in Minden.

On April 11, 2023, Dorothy (Kindschuh) Berggren completed her earthy journey and joined her husband, parents and brothers with our Heavenly Father. She was five days beyond her 88th birthday. In her family, she was the last of her generation.

Mom often fondly spoke of her years growing up near Uehling and Oakland on the small family farm. While she frequently mentioned the challenges of growing up on a farm in the Great Depression, it was never with a sense of regret, but always with fondness of the simplicity and joys of family that it brought. Her brothers, whom she loved dearly, would walk her to school so she wouldn't get chased by the neighbor's bull. In the evenings, in a home not wired for electricity, she quietly read by candlelight in the same manner as generations before her.

During her high school years, when the family moved to Axtell, she was courted by and married Gary. Together they raised four children, who extended their family to 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. They became avid sailors on the small but windy lakes of Nebraska, frequent skiers into their 70s, and world-travelers to visit the family as it vastly spread. Over a century after her father left Saxony as an immigrant to America, she returned to Gumpelstadt to visit the Church of his Baptism.

Anyone who knew Mom knew of the hours she passed in her garden. It was an island of renewal and life in between the snow-covered winters and hot, dry, windswept summers of western Nebraska. It was there that she both found beauty and taught beauty to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It was not a worldly beauty of aesthetics as most know the concept today, although her garden certainly was that. Rather the beauty of her garden was that of the Grace of God present in the simplest and most meaningful ways. Any child that ever sat with her in a rocking chair while listening to a bedtime story would have heard the classic Sunday School song "Oh, who can make a flower? No one but God can do."

Decades ago, Dorothy's brother Gene remarked in passing that she believed there was magic in music. The wisdom of this rang true immediately, even through young ears. The feelings, memories and healing that music can bring is something that Mom always shared in the Trinity Choir, Handel's Messiah, our family record player, and the living room piano. Anyone that knew her will recall she always hummed a tune, most of the time without even knowing it and often not even realizing the song, she carried the magic and Grace of music with her always.

She is preceded in death by Gary, her husband of 65 years, her parents Emil and Ebba, brothers John, Gene and Dave. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

For Mom, surely somewhere between the family farm of her youth and her garden in Axtell are the reflections of Eternal Reward in which she now rests with the family she loves, the magic of music and the Grace of her Savior.

Tributes and memories can be shared with the family at www.craigfunerals.com .