John Ronald Ten Berge

John ten Berge passed away Saturday evening, March 2, 2019, after celebrating his 82nd birthday with his wife of 60 years. John was born March 2, 1937 in Blesdijke, Holland. In May of 1952 the family immigrated to America settling in Bellflower, California. At that time the family consisted of his parents, John and Louisa, along with his 2 sisters (Dena & Ria) and 4 brothers (Don, Joe, Arnold & Remmie). John was the oldest of the group at 16 years of age. A 5th brother, Jerry, was born later in September of 1952 and that completed the family.

Tragically the family lost their sister Dena in May of 1960 and brother Don passed away in May of 1998. For several years, John, as well as other members of the family, worked at a “Cash and Carry” dairy located in Paramount. John later went to work for the local phone company where he met his future wife, Patricia. John worked downstairs and would watch Patricia walk across the parking lot each day to where she worked upstairs. For several months John would anonymously buy Pat’s orange juice and donuts for her work breaks, leaving her confused as to who was purchasing the snacks for her. After a few months John's co-workers finally brought him upstairs to meet Pat and their story began. They were married on February 7, 1959 at Saint Bernard’s Church in Bellflower, California. Later, in 1959 he began his career at Coca-Cola.

In 1960 John was drafted into the Army and was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington State where their first child, John II, was born in September of 1961. After serving two years of active duty and four in reserve, he was honorably discharged on July 31, 1966 and moved to Lakewood, California and returned to his job at the Coca-Cola bottling plant. He would remain at Coca-Cola for the duration of his career, over 30 years. Over the course of the years John had two more children, Paul born in June 1964 and Julie born in July of 1969. During his career at Coke, he would be transferred to Fresno, California as well as Honolulu, Hawaii. Staying in each location for a number of years to revitalize those plants.

Sadly, on Christmas night of 1995, John suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a bike accident. This injury required many months of recovery and forced his early retirement from his position at Coca-Cola. While John never fully recovered from that accident, he did make tremendous progress and became fully self-sufficient and was able to carry on conversations with family and friends. To keep himself busy in retirement, he ended up taking on the job of mowing many of the yards in his neighborhood while never asking or expecting any type of payment for that work.

Late last year John suffered a series of strokes which had a significant impact to his ability to be as involved with many of the activities that he most enjoyed doing, such as walking and yard work.

John will be missed by all those who knew him and is survived by his wife, Pat, their three children, four brothers, one sister, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Luyben Dilday Mortuary (562) 425-6401