Arlene Vein

Arlene Elizabeth Vein, age 93, of Grand Forks, ND, peacefully passed away on January 21, 2021, in Grand Forks, ND, after a brief battle with pneumonia. She will be dearly missed.

Arlene was born on July 12, 1927, in Fordville, ND, the first of five children born to Stanley and Tillie (Holwerda) Skibicki. She grew up 2 miles west of Fordville in a 3-room house with no running water. She graduated from Fordville High School in 1945 and attended Valley City State College for her teaching certificate. She taught in 2 different country schools. On November 28, 1947, a day that was -20° F, Arlene and Gordon Vein, high school sweethearts, were married at Fordville Presbyterian Church. They had six boys: Gerald, John, David, Charles, Kenneth, and Chris. They lived and farmed in the Fordville/Niagara, ND, area. Tragically, Gordon drowned in a fishing accident in 1965. Arlene and her boys moved to Grand Forks in the fall of 1968. She worked at the candy counter of Norby’s Department Store for one year before working as a secretary at Belmont Elementary school for 23 years. She retired in 1992. She was a longtime member of Calvary Lutheran Church. Spunky, strong, and independent, she lived on her own in her Cherry Street townhouse until 2018 when she moved to Parkwood Senior Living.

Arlene lived the fruit of the spirit.  She was full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control just as described in Galatians 5:22-23. She loved her family and friends tremendously. She was extremely proud of her boys and all their accomplishments. She graciously welcomed her sons’ spouses and grandchildren’s spouses into the family. Despite many devastating and unexpected losses, she kept a positive outlook on life and never gave up. Her Christian faith was extremely important to her. Even when she could no longer attend church services in person, she faithfully watched church on TV. Arlene loved cooking and baking and making sure that anyone who was in her home was well-fed.

Arlene is survived by her sons Gerald (Mary) Vein, Charlie (Leeza) Vein, Ken (Deb) Vein, and Chris Vein (Christopher Read); Junella Vein; grandchildren Eric (Jen) Vein, Alexa Vein, Melissa (David) Rystad, Tom Vein, David Vein, Daniel Vein, Laura Vein (Alex Jackson), Amy Senger, Jennifer Vein, Michelle (Adam) Darbonne, and Nicole Fontaine; and great-grandchildren Wyatt, Savannah, Alaina, Haydn, Colton, Nora, Sutton, Caroline, and Hayes. She is also survived by her brother Donald and sister-in-law Laurel, and many nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews.

Arlene was preceded in death by her husband Gordon, infant son David, son John, grandson Marc, parents, brothers Harold and Marvin, and sister Dorothy.

A service will be held at Calvary Lutheran Church in Grand Forks on Monday, Jan 25, at 10:00 am. Social distancing and masks are required. The service will be live-streamed on the Calvary Lutheran Church website: calvarygf.org. There will be a visitation one half hour before the service.  Following the service, there will be a burial at 12:00 noon at Elk Valley Lutheran Church in rural McCanna, ND. A celebration of life will be held at a later date.

God bless her memory until we meet again.