Amee Brandt

Amee Jeannette Brandt

Amee Jeannette (Gunlikson) Brandt was born the second child of Anun and Jorgina (Jennie) Gunlikson in August of 1918. Her parents homesteaded on a 160 acre farm three miles outside of Zahl, North Dakota.

Amee and her older sister Herma helped her parents on the farm. In particular, Amee enjoyed looking after her two very young brothers, Julian and Willis. She learned cooking, sewing, and other homemaking skills from her mother. These skills would prepare her for life as a missionary in the highlands of New Guinea. Amee also enjoyed following her father as he plowed the fields with his horses; she would follow along with her dog Blackie ("he was a black dog," Amee would explain, with a twinkle in her eyes).

Amee said her mother enjoyed hosting company, and it was most often family that came to visit. She enjoyed preparing and serving a meal that would be a special event, with every detail meticulously attended to. Amee continued this tradition throughout her life and seemed to be troubled toward the end of her life when she was no longer capable of being the gracious hostess she had always been.

Amee experienced tragic loss early in her life. Her best friend Bernadine died when Amee was 12. When Amee was 17, her mother died. Later that same year, her father came down with rheumatic fever. Family and friends helped the family survive. However, they continued to struggle. This was especially true of families during the Great Depression where the lack of rain ravaged farms across the United States. Amee's sister Herma was working to complete teachers' training, and both girls worked to help their father raise Julian and Willis. In time, Amee graduated from high school and was the valedictorian of her class.

Amee's love for learning did not go unnoticed. Their pastor, Reverend Simundson, recognized Amee's academic strengths and contacted Reverend Stavig who was a pastor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Reverend Simundson arranged for her to live with the Stavig family and earn her keep while attending St. Olaf. Amee recalled that Reverend Simundson even paid the $50 train fare because her family could not afford the expense. The Stavigs were very kind, and Amee often reflected on how much she appreciated their generosity and kindness.

Amee completed one year at St. Olaf and passed the exam which qualified her to teach. She then moved back to Zahl to help support the family. For the next two years, she taught and lived in a one-room school down the road from her sister Herma.

As Amee pondered furthering her education without money for tuition, she thought of nursing. She knew that nurses worked their way through training and thought that nursing might provide the solution she soughta�"even though nursing was not her primary interest. Lutheran Deaconess Hospital in Chicago provided the opportunity for training and simultaneously the connection to her life partner and husband, Roland. Amee ended up being roommates with Aloha Brandt, Roland's sister. Amee and Aloha graduated from nurses' training together, and Roland continued to date Amee until their marriage in December 1944.

Amee and Roland shared a commitment to post-World War II mission work. Amee had thought she would go as a nurse to Madagascar; however, Roland heard of a need for missionaries in New Guinea. At the time of the World War II conflict in New Guinea, the German missionaries in New Guinea had been put in prison camps in Australia. The German Lutheran Church asked their sister church in the U.S. if they would send missionaries to help support the newly Christianized people in that countrya�"halfway around the world. Roland and Amee accepted that call, and Roland left for New Guinea while Amee spent time with her family in Zahl, waiting for the call to join Rolanda�"post war government travel restrictions necessitated the separation. Their first child, Mary, was born in Zahl, North Dakota. Finally, in October of 1946, Amee and Mary were reunited with Roland in the highlands of New Guinea.

After a time, they were asked to build a new mission station at Omkolai and they continued to work at that effort until 1967 when they returned to the U.S. for a two-year furlough.

While Roland worked to build a church, schools, and other facilities, Amee taught the domestic skills she learned growing up in North Dakota to young helpers at Omkolai. She also applied her training as a nurse to establish a health center where she cared for individuals with common illnesses like leprosy and yaws, and developed a baby feeding program that helped fathers and grandmothers of motherless babies. This program helped save many young lives. From time to time, when Roland was away from the station, Amee took over and made sure that operations continued in his absence.

Raising a family on a remote outstation meant children were sent to a mission boarding school for their education. The Brandt children were sent at very young ages to Wau, New Guinea, followed by Brisbane, Australia, and were gone for the entire school year. Sending her children away was extremely difficult for Amee as well as for her children. She put extra effort into making Christmas holidays, when everyone was together, special for the family. When the children returned to school, Amee was faithful in writing letters to each child. She will always be remembered for her beautiful penmanship and the love she showed through these letters. This was a practice that she learned from her mother, Jennie, who was also separated from her family.

The normal furlough was one year, but in 1968 Amee and Roland decided to take a leave of absence from mission work to help the older children transition through high school and college without another disrupting move back to New Guinea. Amee took a position as night shift nursing supervisor at Deaconess Hospital in Minneapolis and became the family bread winner.

One year later, Amee and Roland, along with the youngest children (Jennie, Sam, and Lois), moved back to New Guinea where Roland became the Principal of a teacher training school, Rintebe, in the highlands. Amee helped look after the care and feeding of about 100 students who were boarded at the school. Unfortunately, this assignment took them out of the U.S. on the occasion of Mary and Dave's wedding in 1970.

After three more years of mission service, Roland decided to seek a call in the U.S. The family moved to Sherman, South Dakota in August of 1972. Once again, Amee obtained work as a nurse in the nursing home in nearby Garretson, South Dakota. That church community was warm and welcoming, and Roland and Amee made friendships there that continued for the rest of their lives. The second wedding in the family took place in Sherman in 1974 when Roland performed Fred and Ranelle's marriage ceremony.

After five years in Sherman, an opportunity arose for them to return once more to the country that was now called Papua New Guinea. The boarding school attended by all seven of their children needed a chaplain, caretaker, nurse, and cook supervisor. This need was filled by the partnership of Amee and Roland for the next three years.

In 1980, Amee and Roland settled in Denver, Iowa to live close to Roland's parents in their last years. Roland continued working as a pastor and Amee worked the night shift in a nursing home in Waverly, Iowa. Throughout her post-missionary life, Amee was dedicated to her church family and actively participated in service work. Her life was a living example of Philippians 2:3-4.

In 1989, Amee and Roland moved to Stillwater, Minnesota to live closer to the largest concentration of their childrena�"Mary, Fred, and Mark and their families. Other children lived in Australia, Atlanta, Albuquerque, and Denver. Throughout the years, Amee and Roland travelled often to visit their children and grandchildren. They particularly enjoyed attending special occasions like baptisms, confirmations, high school graduations, and weddings. When they were not able to travel, Amee would take the time to write letters and send meaningful cards.

With family around the world, it was impossible for them to be at every special occasion, but Amee and Roland were grateful that they officiated or participated in each of their children's weddings. Participation in Mary and Dave's wedding occurred after the fact in New Guinea when Mary and Dave took their honeymoon to visit the family in Rintebe. While living in New Guinea, they participated in Tom and Ena's wedding, and then traveled half way around the world to be a part of Mark and Merrily's wedding in Minneapolis.

Amee and Roland were an inseparable Christ-centered team and in January of this year they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in Bayport, Minnesota surrounded by their seven children and their families. Amid laughter and tears, they shared stories and happy recollections of life togethera�"a lifetime togethera�"and with her ever-keen mind, Amee recited the following poem for her beloved family:

Seventy Years

Seventy years we've lived together
years of happiness they've been
and with all of them
through paper, up from cotton, wood, and tin
first as acquaintances
then as sweethearts
then as old folks, man and wife
we put our feet upon the portals
of a cottage and a life

We've had struggles and reverses
we've had trials and distress
but through storm
we've seen the promise and
the bow of happiness

Year by year we've clipped the coupons
on the bonds of love we've known
and the greater our affection
the more profits we have shown

We've reflected our devotion on our yearly dividends
and the more we've been together
we've collected many friends

We've been partners, pals, and sweethearts
and we're more in love today
than we were back there in '44
when we started out this way

Amee was preceded in death by her life's companion, Roland. We can only imagine how lonely life must have been without him. Mary, Fred, Mark, Jennie, and Lois were with Amee in her last days along with many caregivers. She was at peace and surrounded by loving family when she died.

We rejoice in the promise that Amee is reunited with Roland and they will live together in Eternity.

Funeral services 7/25/2015 11:00 am Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Bayport, Minnesota.

In lieu of flowers the family requests Memorials to Bethlehem Lutheran Church or Croixdale Staff Appreciation Fund.