Miriam Jean "Mim" Erb Mast was born July 15, 1951 in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, to Ezra and Vernice (Stutzman) Erb, the fourth of five children. She passed away at the age of 73 on Palm Sunday morning, April 13, 2025, in Weatherford, Oklahoma, with a full moon in the sky, music playing, and her family at her side.

Home in northwestern Minnesota was a great place. Miriam and her siblings Elaine, Lorraine, Kenneth, and Loretta grew up on a beautiful farm at the end of a half-mile lane, with several ponds, wonderful woods, and always flowers and gardens. Miriam was a doer - she always wanted to be active and involved. The outdoors was her happy place and she loved working on the farm. Alfalfa hay was their main crop and she was able to rake hay, bale hay, and buck bales onto the wagon as well as many of the guys. She helped with harvesting oats, shocking bundles for drying in preparing for harvest with the threshing machine. Miriam milked the cows, cleaned out the barn, fed the young stock, moved cattle, and generally did whatever needed to be done - with one exception: she never went near the Holstein bull.

Miriam discovered "playing ball" as a first grader and became an addict. The Minnesota Twins were her team and first real passion in life. She knew every player and stat - keeping her own records in a dedicated notebook, even sometimes getting in trouble for listening to games on her transistor radio instead of doing her chores. For her tenth birthday, she received her very first mitt, which she treasured dearly and counted as the very best birthday gift she ever received growing up. While she never played organized team sports, her development as an athlete and good student significantly shaped her self-esteem, determination, and positive competitive spirit.

Learning to read unlocked new worlds, and Miriam remembered her first bookshelf with great pride as she added books to her personal collection. Her formal education began in a one-room schoolhouse, attending District 51 for grades one through six, then Frazee Public Schools. She graduated with honors from Frazee High School in 1969, where she was active in French Club, Honor Society, and the staff of the yearbook and newspaper. Hesston College not only provided opportunities for independence and academic and personal growth, but was where Miriam gained the nickname "Mim." After graduating from Hesston in 1971, she continued her undergraduate studies at Goshen College, earning a B.A. in Psychology in 1973. She counted her Study Service Term in Haiti in the spring of 1972 as a significant challenge and achievement, spending a semester far out of her comfort zone, speaking French. In 1973, Mim returned to Kansas to join the staff at Hesston College, working in various roles in Student Life, including Assistant Dean of Students. While serving as a leader of a student Gospel Team, Mim traveled with the group to Hydro, Oklahoma in 1978, where she met Daryl Mast.

Life on the farm continued in a new chapter after marrying Daryl on May 26, 1979 at Hesston Mennonite Church - one week after graduating from Hesston College again, this time with a degree in Respiratory Therapy. "Who needs a honeymoon when we can set up our home together?" they said, and promptly began wheat harvest days later. Daryl and Mim farmed together, while Mim also worked part-time as a Registered Respiratory Therapist, first at Thomas Memorial Hospital, then later at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City for nearly thirty years. Farming wheat and cattle gave way to a more diversified approach of raising ostriches, peanuts, peppers, and a variety of other crops. Mim was never afraid of hard work or thinking outside the box, both of which were essential when charting a less common path in agriculture.

Together Daryl and Mim designed and built a house on the farm where he grew up, raising their daughters Lisa (born in 1982) and Robyn (born in 1985). She had a deep and abiding love for her daughters, and found great delight in Lisa and Robyn - watching them grow, supporting their dreams, and celebrating the women they became. Their home was one of open and generous hospitality, welcoming guests not only from their family and community, but from around the world. Deep relationships with families in Australia and Albania, in particular, were a source of great joy. Mim and Daryl thoroughly enjoyed visiting both countries and also welcoming those friends, whom they count as family, to their home in Oklahoma. Sunday dinner guests were a given, long after the practice was standard tradition for many. Homemade bread was one of Mim's specialties along with peanut brittle at the holidays. Harvest from her garden was often bountiful, and her flowers and landscaping beautiful. Gardening wasn't only a source of sustenance, but also a spiritual practice and her sanctuary. She had a special knack and satisfaction for reviving plants from the Lowe's clearance section!

Mim was a woman of deep faith, with a hunger for learning and asking questions. Her love of reading was lifelong and she thoroughly enjoyed discussing topics of theology, spirituality, and personal growth. She was an active member of Pleasant View Mennonite Church where she taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, delighted in planning worship, and spent many years serving on the Christian Education Commission. She led by example in living out her faith. In 2006, Mim and Daryl took a sabbatical year in Harrisonburg, Virginia, for Mim to attend Eastern Mennonite Seminary and also enjoy being closer to her sisters, who all lived in Virginia at the time. After returning to Oklahoma, Mim was diagnosed with Parkinson's in the fall of 2007. She was determined that the disease would not define her and she courageously fought to maintain her independence and mobility, while also growing in her compassion and empathy towards others, and her relationship with Jesus.

Mim was a free spirit, non-judgmental, warm, intelligent, kind, fierce, funny, witty, and undeniably a force of nature. To know her was to know gentleness wrapped in determined strength. She loved deeply, gave generously, laughed easily, prayed fervently, and listened with her whole heart. Her life was not loud, but it was vibrant. She will be missed beyond measure, and remembered by all whose lives she touched.

Miriam is survived by her husband Daryl (Weatherford, OK); daughter Lisa and her fiancé Christopher Bryan Martin (Tulsa, OK); daughter Robyn and her husband Daniel King, grandsons Luke, Aaron, and Ryan King (Hutchinson, KS); siblings Lorraine Erb (Weatherford, OK), Kenneth and his wife Carol Erb (Frazee, MN), and Loretta and her husband Norton Rubenstein (Richmond, VA); and brother-in-law and sister-in-law Delvin and Anita Mast (Weatherford, OK), along with many nieces and nephews and extended family and friends who loved her dearly. She was preceded in death by her parents, Ezra and Vernice Erb; sister Elaine Alderfer and brother-in-law Harold Alderfer; and father-in-law and mother-in-law Levi and Dorothy Mast.

A celebration of Miriam's life will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 26, at Pleasant View Mennonite Church north of Hydro, OK, with a meal and fellowship to follow. Visitation will take place Friday, April 25, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., also at PVMC. In accordance with her wishes, her remains were cremated. The livestream of the service can be viewed at https://pvmcok.org/

Contributions may be made in Miriam's memory to the Hesston College International Student Scholarship Fund, PO Box 3000, Hesston, KS 67062 or online, designating the memorial gift with her name. https://www.hesston.edu/give