Ann A. Greetan

Ann A. Greetan, 66, died of pneumonia March 18, 2020 at Central Montana Medical Center in Lewistown. She was a long-term resident of the Montana Mental Health Nursing Care Center in Lewistown and a former resident of Great Falls, Butte, Helena, and Missoula. Ann was born at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., March 21, 1953 to Sgt. Howard O. and Eva Lou (Chase) Knorr. In 1960, her family moved to Great Falls where she grew up. She was the eldest child of a career military man. Her mother worked as a cashier after her father's medical discharge from the Air Force in 1962. Her father died in 1969, shortly after she turned 16. She graduated from C.M. Russell High School in Great Falls in 1971. While working as a gas station attendant, she met Air Force airman Wallace Greetan Jr. They married shortly after her high school graduation. They had three children.

Ann enjoyed nurse's aide work as a young woman but her passion and goal was to be the best wife and mother she could be.   As a young mother, she was afflicted with major mental illness, which was episodic initially, and gradually became chronic. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder cruelly and mercilessly invaded her psyche. They posed big challenges to her caring for her children and herself. So much so that she spent much of her adult life confined to institutions or under close supervision, despite never having committed a crime. Side effects from psychotropic drugs and shock treatments took their toll as well. However, nothing thwarted or even dampened her love for her family and friends. Although she had ample reasons not to love, it poured from her like water from an artesian well. Growing up, her parents openly favored her bratty younger brother but she doted on him and bragged about him to her friends. Later in life, she was thrilled to become a grandmother and was ecstatic when her grandchildren came to visit. She also deeply loved her parents, her children, nephews, niece, cousins, minister, friends, and especially her Lord Jesus. She loved them all completely, and without reservation. She embraced love and intuitively recognized it as the most powerful force in the universe.                                                                  

     She was a prolific gift-giver. She showered her loved ones with hand-made apparel and bedding items that she sewed or crocheted. She bought fabric, yarn and related supplies with the small sums she earned working in the nursing home where she resided. She produced her hand-made items with an industrial mindset intensity.   She sent any extra money she earned to children she knew for birthdays, holidays or any other excuse she could think of. She was unequaled in her generosity as measured by that which she sacrificed as a giver. Perhaps her greatest gift was the opportunity she presented for others to express love and to receive love. The circumstances of her disabilities and earthly condition gave the good people of Montana a chance to show compassion, charity, and love to her and the people around her that were similarly afflicted.

     She deserved much better than what her life on earth provided. It is without doubt she will be rewarded with God's healing embrace and be joyously reunited with the loved ones that passed before her.

     She is survived by daughters, Angel Greetan of Friendswood, TX and Shawna Cohen and two grandchildren, Wynter and Vedder of Woodinville, WA; brother, Ron Knorr and nephew Matthew Knorr of Everett, WA and niece, Victoria Knorr of Hoquiam, WA.

     Ann was preceded in death by her son Ronald David (in childbirth), her nephew Christopher Knorr, her parents and her ex-husband.

     Graveside Services for Ann Greetan will be Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 1:30 p.m. in Highland Cemetery in Great Falls, next to her mother, as per her wishes. The Cloyd Funeral Home is assisting the family.