Memorial Wall for Evi Chase

As a resident of Aftenro Home Society, Evelyn Chase finished her 91 years in the care of wonderful staff. As not only a thank you to Aftenro Home for their care for Evi and others in the past, her family would like to give joy to present and future residents of Aftenro Home by creating a nature mural that incorporates names of residents with space to add new names in the future. 

We want to give the people who loved Evi a way to participate in a memorial, as well as give Aftenro Home a means by which to memorialize other special residents. As Evi said at the end, “91 years sure went by fast. Too fast.”

It was December 7, 1934 when Evelyn “Evi” entered the world in Dixon IL. After a difficult childhood, Evi graduated High School at age 17 and headed to nurses training at the Swedish American Hospital in Rockford IL. Unfortunately, she contracted polio there and had to relearn to walk, but she didn’t let go of her goals. It was at a college church club near the University of MN where she was obtaining her Public Health degree that she met David Chase. They married November of 1957 after Evi finished her RN degree. They spent the next decade + having four children and moving from Minneapolis to Wausau WI to Spencer IA to Guam before finally settling in Aurora CO. Evi picked up and held on to friends all along the way, but the connections she made in Colorado and at Galilee Baptist Church provided her the roots and relationships that sustained her for the next forty five years. Those years were filled with women’s bible studies, Sunday school parties, Gideon’s fundraising events, luncheons and lots of phone conversations! Evi could spend all day on the phone! She was a prolific card writer and took pleasure cutting newspaper articles and coupons to send to friends and family far and wide. After Dave’s death in 2019, Evi’s children moved her closer to daughter Sally in 2022 to help her manage her finances and increasing health troubles. She settled into a one bedroom apartment that overlooked the lake in Forest Lake MN. Her congestive heart failure caused other health issues, the worst of which was the chronic cough. Evi was hospitalized six times over the next few years, and in March of 2024, she almost died and could not return to her apartment. Sally found Aftenro Home 15 minutes from her new home in Duluth. Aftenro turned out to be a wonderful and nurturing place for Evi to finish out her days. She made connections with many of the staff and other residents and they returned the love. Evi always wanted to know all about the personal lives and goals of those around her. She left the earth for her heavenly home on January 7, 2026, one month after her 91st birthday. She leaves behind daughters Amy Mann and Sally (Kent) Lundholm and sons Larry Chase and Tim (Heidi) Chase, eight grandchildren and one great grand. 

Evi’s family hopes to create a lasting monument for the families of the fleeting lives passing through Aftenro Home.