Gertraud Kopka

Gertraud Martha Kopka passed away peacefully on Saturday, November 22, 2025, at St. Joseph Medical Center in Brainerd, Minnesota, after suffering a stroke eight days prior. Her beloved family was sitting vigil at her bedside.

Gertraud was born in Altkirchen, East Prussia on February 4, 1933, to Marta and Rudolf Jelinski. As the second oldest of seven siblings, she helped her mother care for the needs ofthe family as her father served in the German Army. After fleeing westward as refugees towards the end of the war, barely escaping the advancing Russian Army, the family found home in Bederkesa, West Germany. It was here she finished her schooling, followed by taking on various jobs including as a nanny in Switzerland and a teacher at a school for the blind, traveling from job to job on her bicycle.

In the spring of 1960, leaving her family behind, she boarded a ship headed for the United States to meet the man with whom she had been exchanging letters for two years. They both grew up within an hour of each other in East Prussia but didn’t meet until he picked her up from a train station in Chicago. Soon thereafter she married Wilhelm Kopka in Pequot Lakes. Together they raised five children, numerous dairy cows they milked by hand, a handful of farm dogs, barn cats, chickens, and a garden that could feed a multitude. During those years, Gertraud also worked cleaning homes and as a home health aid. After Wilhelm passed, she found new life helping care for alpacas alongside her daughter, Esther, and son-in-law, Dave, who lived in the ‘back 40’. She loved sitting on her back deck watching the alpacas graze, listening to birds, and breathing in the ‘frische luft’ (fresh air).

Gertraud loved to garden, cook, sew, meet regularly with a circle of ladies at church, watch her grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up, visit family in her motherland, and tell stories of her younger years. She enjoyed playing the recorder, listening to classical music, and singing German folk songs - always encouraging her children to appreciate music. In spending time among the lakes, trees and fields, she found solace, grounding and peace. She was a strong and courageous woman, steadfast in her faith, sweet, spontaneous, and even mischievous, at times. She was deeply loved.

Gertraud is preceded in death by her beloved husband Wilhelm, her parents, and siblings.

She will be deeply missed by those whom she leaves behind; her children, Hanna (Niels-Jorgen), Esther (Dave), Christa (Jim), Mark (Jill), Heidi (Mark); her 10 grandchildren; 5 great-grandchildren; sister-in-law, Ruth; and many other family and friends.

Her funeral service will be held at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Pequot Lakes on Monday, December 1, 2025, at 2:00, with visitation beginning at 1:00. Funeral arrangements are being made by Brenny-Kline Funeral Home in Pequot Lakes.

In lieu of flowers, memorials donated to Our Savior's Lutheran Church is preferred.