Lillian Y. Bloomstrom

Lillian Y Bloomstrom, age 91, passed away on Sunday, February 27, 2022 at her home on Heartwood Drive in Crosby.

Lillian was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on November 26, 1930 to parents Chosaburo and Misa (Kikuchi) Matsuura. She grew up in downtown, old town, Honolulu on River Street where her mother owned her own barber shop and her father worked at the prestigious Moana Hotel on Waikiki. Her childhood memories included swimming and hibachi picnics on Waikiki beach, seeing Japanese aircraft fly over her home to attack Pearl Harbor, and rowdy sailors and soldiers coming to her mother’s barber shop during World War II. After graduation from high school Lillian attended business school and one of her first jobs was with the US Army. She traveled to Fukuoka, Japan where she served as an interpreter and contract administer. While in Japan she met Glen Bloomstrom, from Brainerd, Minnesota. They were married at the US Army chapel at Fort Shafter, HI. Lillian was an Army wife for the next 15 years traveling with Glen and their son, Glen “Junior,” to Army installations where they lived in unique locations such as Fort Carson, Colorado; Saigon, Viet Nam; Fort Monroe, Virginia; Paris, France and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. After Glen’s retirement from active-duty service, Lillian and Glen moved to Portage Lake near Deerwood to settle on a homestead which had been in the Bloomstrom family since the late 1800’s. Over the next years Lillian became a “true Minnesotan”. In the early years of their retirement, she was recognizable as the “tiny oriental lady” around the Brainerd area. While Glen worked at the Brainerd Post Office until the mid 1980’s, Lillian participated in County Extension classes and learned skills such as gardening, canning and pickling. Lillian also enjoyed cooking, crocheting, knitting, and quilting. She and Glen took many annual fishing trips to Canada for Lake Trout. Lillian served alongside Glen in many volunteer leadership positions including the Disabled American Veterans, The American Legion as well as being active in their church, Temple Baptist Church. Lillian and Glen moved from the homestead into the Heartwood Senior Living Community in Crosby in 2010. After Glen’s death in 2012, Lillian continued to enjoy her life and home at Heartwood. Her longtime love for handwork made her a natural part of the “Knit Wits”, a knitting and crocheting group where she found fulfilment in knitting scarves for troops and children as well as lap robes which she gave to the chaplain for distribution. She always enjoyed having a full basket of chocolates and candy to share with anyone who passed by.
A favorite verse of Lillian’s was: “a pretentious showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life…” Proverbs 13:7 (The Message Translation).
Lillian will be missed by her son, Glen and his wife Ruth of Minneapolis, Grandchildren, Benjamin, (wife Marena), Tokyo Japan, Christine Ivy, (husband Robert), Mt. Lebanon, PA, and Karsten, (wife Meg), Southern Pines NC and 10 great grandchildren.
Lillian was preceded in death by her parents, brothers; Frank and Jackie and sister Ruth all of Oahu, Hawaii, and her husband Glen.
A private family service and burial is being planned for a later date.