Colleen Mesenbrink

Colleen Ann Mesenbrink was born September 22, 1957, the daughter of Vern and Dorothy Kinney Mesenbrink. She went to sleep with the angels, on Sunday, April 15, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa, at the age of 54.
Colleen was born in Denison, Iowa. She received her education at St. Rose of Lima and the Denison Community Schools graduating with the class of 1976. After high school she worked at Crawford County Memorial Hospital for one year and then attended nursing classes at St. Lukes and Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. She left St. Lukes after one year to help her mother take care of her ailing father and worked again at Crawford County Memorial Hospital. After her fathers death in 1980, she returned to nursing school. She graduated from Western Iowa Tech in Cherokee, Iowa, in 1981 as a GPN. In 1982 Colleen received her degree as an Associate Nurse from Iowa Central Community College in Storm Lake, Iowa.
In January, 1983, she passed her boards and became a Registered Nurse in the State of Iowa. She began working at Crawford County Memorial Hospital in both the OR and ER. In 1990 Colleen moved to Des Moines, Iowa, and began working at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in the OR suites, later becoming the manager of the OR on night shift. In 2003 she transferred to Maternity Services, working with her babies until December, 2009, when her own serious illness forced her to leave that position. After her own recovery, Colleen began working with profoundly handicapped children at Child Serve in 2010. In late 2010, she moved to Fleur Heights Rehabilitation Center for a year to get experience needed to become a hospice nurse. Before moving on to hospice care, she decided to pursue her long-time dream of being a traveling nurse, and had only recently returned from an assignment working in cardio-vascular surgery at a hospital in Denver, Colorado.
Colleen was a very devout Catholic, and a member of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Des Moines. She was an extremely caring and professional nurse, considering nurses as angels, and a very loving and caring sister and aunt who was devoted to her family. Colleen loved swimming, water aerobics, and cats, especially her pet, Tommy Boy. She also enjoyed the Silver Screen classics and Classic TV, particularly The Three Stooges, I Love Lucy, and Laurel and Hardy. Colleen enjoyed music from the 60s and 70s and watching Steven Colbert and The Daily Show with her nephews on television. She also enjoyed traveling and was able to take many vacations with her family, her favorite trip being to Ireland in1998.
Colleen was preceded in death by her parents; two sisters, Mary Patricia (infant) and Sandra; one brother, Larry; one brother-in law, Walter; a nephew, a niece and one great-niece. Survivors include five brothers: James and his wife, Marge; William and his wife, Judith; Louis Buzz and his wife, Judith; Daniel; David and his wife, Pat; one sister: Celeste and her husband, Bruce; one sister-in-law: LuAnn; thirty-two nieces and nephews and many great-nieces and nephews and great-great nieces and nephews along with other relatives and friends.