Cook, Mina
Age 98, left this earthly life on August 25, 2018, in the home she shared with her daughter, surrounded by loved ones.
Born July 19, 1920 in the tiny hamlet of Ulrum in the state of Groningen, The Netherlands, to Meint and Menke Kampstra, Mina immigrated with her family to the United States at the age of three. She grew up and spent most of her adult life living in the Chicago area, but perhaps it was that long voyage across the Atlantic that first planted the seed that would grow into a passion for traveling later in her life.
She married Ben Cook on May 16, 1942 in Chicago and they later moved to Oak Park, IL. Mina and Ben loved children and had four of their own, but “Aunt Mina” and Uncle Ben” were loved by every child who ever met them.
Mina’s first long trip after her voyage to America was a road trip in the mid 1940s in a Model A Ford to Wisconsin. In 1960 they drove a 1951 Buick from Chicago to Los Angeles on Route 66. It would not be her last trip. She traveled around the United States by car, train and airplane. She whitewater rafted and tobogganed down a ski mountain in Colorado at the age of 80. She loved to camp and never missed an opportunity to meet new people on her journeys. Later, she traveled abroad. She visited Greece aboard a sailboat and climbed a mountain at the age of 79. She rode in a trishaw in Singapore, visited a Kava farm in Fiji, pet a kangaroo in Australia, and traveled through the canals of The Netherlands on a traditional Dutch sailing barge, celebrating her 84th birthday in Ulrum with family from both sides of the Atlantic.
The last member of her family in her generation, Mina was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, most of her friends and her sisters, Grace Sheehan, Trudy Wassner and Rena Niemeyer.
She is survived by her children, Michael (Robin) Cook of Tin Can Bay, Queensland, Australia, Linda Leicht of Springfield, MO, Ben (Camille) Cook of Springfield, MO, and Kristina (Robert) Stacey of Allen, Texas; seven grandchildren, Connie (Peter Mackay) Cook of Ocean Grove, Victoria, Australia, Jennifer (Eric) Roach of Oak Park, IL, M. Joshua (Hallie) Leicht of Conway, AR, Michael Udom (Kristin Thomas) Cook of Fairfield, CA, Jarvis Matthew (Renetta) Walton of Springfield, MO, Kaitlyn Stacey of Allen, Texas, and Dylan Stacey of Allen, Texas; 11 great-grandchildren, one greatgreat-grandson; and dozens of nieces and nephews.
Memorial services will be held September 1, with visitation at 10 a.m. and services at 11:30 a.m., at Ebenezer Christian Reformed Church, 1300 S. Harvey Ave., Berwyn, IL, with interment in Mount Auburn Cemetery. Mina requested that memorials be made to Ebenezer CRC.