Mary Carol Behrends, age 76, of Prior Lake, MN passed away on November 29, 2021 from complications due to COVID. Funeral service will be held on Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 3:00 PM at Friendship Church, Prior Lake. Visitation time will be held one hour prior to services. Per request of Mary’s family, masks will be required, and they will be available at the door.
Mary Carol was born on December 14, 1944 to Benard and Beatrice (Murdo) Bajari in Minneapolis, MN. She grew up in Minneapolis, MN.
After High School Mary worked a few jobs that involved Bookkeeping and in 1979, she took a job with the Hopkins School District. She was responsible for the payroll for the entire district. Mary and Jim were married on July 10 th , 1992. Mary retired in from this job in 2007. After she retired Mary was able to spend her time with Jim. They loved to travel all over and they had many adventures however her favorite ones always included being by the water, especially the warm ocean. She was a deeply spiritual person and over the years she has made some very close friends through her Bible Study, Sunday school and the time she spent engaging people while she welcomed them at the doors of Friendship Church.
Mary loved being outside in the summer and spending time with Jim while they worked in the garden. She loved the pool just has much as Jim hated it. She played in the pool with her grandchildren and spent time with their friends from the neighborhood swimming. She taught the grandchildren how to swim, how to dive and how to snorkel over the years. When she wasn’t swimming with them she would travel to their sporting events all over Minnesota. She was loudest person cheering person there. She loved playing games with all the grandchildren and she was kinda gullible to their antics. When Mary and Jim got married she went from a family with just her mom, dad and brother who were were soft spoken people to 3 daughters, 2 son-in-laws and a huge extend family that is not soft spoken. Mary and Jim did everything together and he will miss her until they are reunited again in heaven. Mary was taken too soon from her family, and if we could turn back time, we would have tried harder to get the COVID vaccine so she would have many more years with Jim, and those of us who loved her.
Mary will be greatly missed by her husband, James; children, Wendy (Brian) Behrends, Kimberly (Tim) Bryant, Heidi (Jason) Newby; 9 grandchildren; 1 great grandchild; brother, Jim (Sue) Bajari; other relatives and friends.
She is preceded in death by both her parents, Benard and Beatrice Bajari, Sister-in-law Betty, and her great granddaughter, Billie Peterson.
