Margaret "Maggie" Schrafel

Margaret “Maggie” Schrafel was born to George and Reka Vogelsang of rural Dexter Township, Mower County, MN on December 31, 1931, Maggie was the 7th of 12 siblings. Only her younger sisters, Helen Colburg of St. Cloud, MN and Mary Halverson of Phoenix, AZ, survive her. She spent her youth on the farm, west of Dexter, and attended School District 121 (Monitor School) through the 8^th grade. She married Donavan Scheer in 1951 and she and Donavan had 6 children, Marjorie Anderson (deceased), Allan and Lory Scheer of rural Stoddard, WI, Jordan Scheer of rural Barnard Castle, England, Janiese Scheer and Tim O’Conner of rural Sogn, MN, Jan Scheer of rural Byron, MN, and Donna Croney of Brownsdale, MN. She had eight grandkids and seventeen great grandchildren. The life Maggie lived made her an example of a hardworking, strong, self-reliant woman and a role model for us all.

Maggie had three passions in life, family, gardening, and art.

Maggie believed that the family was all-important and ensured that the family remained close through the decades. She practiced the belief that the family that worked and played together stayed together. She instilled in her children a sense of wonder at the world around them, a love of family and a sense of accomplishment.

Maggie learned the art of gardening while on the farm and she carried that learning into adulthood, providing for her own family and earning supplemental cash selling the excess during the 1950s and early 1960s. As time went by flowers became more of a passion supplanting the required vegetables of earlier years. She was always ready to instruct anyone with an interest explaining not only the common name but the scientific name and how it was best propagated. She taught that a gardener sometimes just had to be brutal.

Maggie had another passion, that of drawing and painting. Without any formal training she learned to sketch animals around the farm. She loved to sketch horses and developed a talent that would lead her to take up both oil and watercolor painting in later years. Her love of art made her homes and gardens a beautiful extension of herself.

She was able to spend her final day on earth in a great family celebration of her 91^st birthday and departed this world peacefully, at home, on the 1^st day of 2023.