Doris Esther Petrick

May 6, 1937 — May 20, 2024

Doris Esther Petrick (Flarup),87, of Beach Park, IL passed away on May 20, 2024 in Libertyville, IL surrounded by her family.

Doris Esther Flarup was born on May 6^th, 1937 to Neils and Esther Flarup in Clements , Minnesota . Her father Neils was born in Denmark . He came to America and worked very hard. He saved enough money to buy a farm in Morgan, Minnesota, and shortly after Doris was born. Doris’s mother Esther was also 100% Danish although she was born here in America . Doris was Baptized as a baby in the Lutheran Church . She went to a little 2-room country school from 1^st grade – 6^th grade. From there she went to Morgan Jr. High and High School. She was confirmed in the Lutheran Church at age 13. Her Dad knew how to save money and so did her Mom. Her only brother, Carlos was deaf and lived at the deaf school over 100 miles away during the school year. He only came home in the summer and at Christmas. She remembers going to pick up Carlos at the deaf school with her Dad in his brand new 1949 Plymouth (that he paid $2,000 for). As Doris remembers, they were not poor, nor rich… They always had plenty of food and their needs were always met. They did not have all the toys, bicycles, or the best clothes, but she never felt they were poor because there was always food on the table. Her Mother was given the job of taking care of the chickens. She would clean the eggs and sell them to local businesses, and sell the chickens to people in that area. One time Doris was being naughty and chased the chickens. She chased one chicken so hard that it ran very fast into a fence and got it’s head stuck in the fence. Doris tried to free it from the fence, but was unable to and it died. She felt extremely bad about this, but doesn’t remember if she ever told her mom. With the money her mother earned from the eggs and chickens, she wanted Doris to have Piano lessons. So she had saved the $400 to buy a new piano. They had to be on a waiting list to get the piano, because during the 2^nd World War, the piano company. was not allowed to make piano’s since all the raw materials were going to support the war. Doris remembers that her piano was the first one delivered to Sleepy-eye , MN after the war and it is still in her home today. She was able to take piano lessons every other week for 75 cents a lesson. Doris was in the 4-H club and raised 2 lambs, which she showed at the county fair and one of them won a blue ribbon! Doris also worked in the fields pulling the mustard weeds and de-tasseling corn. With the money she earned she bought some of the things she always wanted. She bought a trumpet ($100), a typewriter, and some roller skates. After graduating High School, she worked in Minneapolis for the summer at an Insurance Company. She left for a Lutheran College in Blair, Nebraska in the fall. Her Dad paid the $800/yr tuition and she had saved the $200 she needed for her toiletries and supplies for the year. She started at Dana College in the Fall of 1955, where she started out studying chemistry and to be a medical secretary. She decided chemistry was not for her after just a few classes and just concentrated on the secretarial classes. It was here, at Dana College , where she would meet her future husband Ronald Petrick.

After Ronald T. Petrick graduated High School in 1955, he went to Dana College in Nebraska on a recommendation from the high school football team’s Doctor. He came to college on academic probation and ended up graduating at the top of the class. It was here he met the lady that would become his wife, Doris Flarup. He dated her, on and off for about 3 years. Doris said he would sit at her table in college for lunch and dinner. She said it was not “love at first sight”, but she said he was always goofing around with the other guys and that he was always having fun. She remembers their first date, where they walked downtown and when they came back, he asked her, “If you died, are you sure you would go to heaven?”, and she answered, "No." He was not right with the Lord at that time and was training for football in a fitness gym in Omaha . He trained with a fitness instructor by the name of Daryl Scott who had won the Mr. Nebraska title for weight lifting. One day Daryl was standing on the street corner in front of the gym and an old friend of Daryl’s showed up and gave him the gospel. Daryl got saved that day and was so excited he began sharing the gospel with everyone there. Daryl’s wife also got saved, and his marriage was put back together. Ronald became so convicted by this man’s dramatic conversion, that he questioned his own salvation. Although he had heard the gospel his entire life, he did not have the assurance of his salvation, and he did not have the changed heart and life that he saw in Daryl Scott’s life. At age 23, in his apartment. in Nebraska , Ronald cried out to Lord and was truly saved. He had purchased an engagement ring for Doris , but decided he would not give it to her unless he knew first that she was saved. He shared the gospel with her and she realized that even though she knew all of the Bible stories in her head, she had not accepted Jesus with her heart. So she bowed her head and asked Jesus to come into her heart and save her that day. Immediately after she trusted Christ, Ronald said, - Now, I have another question to ask you,… will you marry me? He gave her the engagement ring and she said, YES!!! They were married on May 16^th, 1959 at Bethany Lutheran Church, Morgan Minnesota.

In June of 1959, Ronald announced to his new bride that he felt God was calling him into the ministry. Doris says that she was shocked and thought…. “That would make ME a Pastor’s wife!!!” “ I’m not qualified….I’m not ready for this!”... But as we all know,... Doris' love for the Lord, her love for her husband and her family,...and her love for people made her the perfect Pastor's wife!

Ronald did not become a Pastor until 1975, when they moved to Beach Park, IL. Before that he attended and graduated from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL. Then he worked in probation and parole in Milwaukee, WI and after that at Rawhide Boy's Ranch in New London from 1969-1975. Then he followed God's leading, moving to Beach Park, IL in the fall of that year to Pastor his first Church. Doris supported her husband in all of the ups and downs of the ministry, and somehow just kept a glow about her that attracted everyone she came in contact with! We love and miss you so much !!

Survivors include spouse; Dr. Ronald Thomas Petrick; children, Jolene Chavarria, Mark (Ramona) Petrick, Brian (Lisa) Petrick, Ted (Nancy) Petrick; grandchildren, Bethany (Micah) Highland, Breanna Petrick, Benjamin Petrick, Duane Smith, Nicolette Smith, Markanthony Petrick, Matthew Petrick, Tamyann Petrick, Louis Petrick, Ricky Petrick (Tania Sajuan), Maritza Petrick (Oswaldo Jimenez), Victor Petrick (Dora Aguilar); 17 great-grandchildren and 1 on the way; cousins, Janice Often, and Joanne Scheurer; several nieces; and former-in-laws, Edith Petrick, and Tonio Chavarria.

Doris is preceded in death by her grandsons, Christopher Brian Petrick, and Josue Chavarria; parents, Niels Jensen, and Esther Sophie Flarup; and brother, Carlo Jensen Flarup.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. until the time of the service at 11:00 a.m. at Biblical Baptist Church, 39236 N. Green Bay Road Ste 1., Beach Park, IL 60087. Burial will follow at Benton Greenwood Cemetery in Beach Park, IL

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