Barbara (Bernd) Bidwa

Barbara A. Bidwa passed away peacefully on April 2, 2025. She lived in Hanover, Pennsylvania, for 47 years before relocating to Columbus, Ohio, in October 2024. Barbara was born in 1944 in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Robert and Zana (Van Valin) Bernd. She graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, where she met her soulmate, Dennis Bidwa, on a blind date — after which he told his friend that she was The One and married her in 1966. She was a registered nurse who worked at the VA Hospital (Long Beach, CA) and Hanover General Hospital and then as a social worker for Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12, until she and Dennis opened their first daycare center and she became Miss Barb at Little People Day Care for the rest of her career.

She was a beautiful and joyful dancer (especially at polka, which she and Dennis learned together and enjoyed for years) and a loyal member of the West Manheim Lions Club. She was gifted at every handcraft she tried, from sewing clothes to needlepoint to counted cross stitch.

She is survived by her husband Dennis Bidwa, her sisters Margaret Smith and Deborah Lamb, and her children Laura Bidwa (Rory Krupp), Daniel Bidwa (Brian Gollum), and Stephen Bidwa (Lourdes Cañizares-Bidwa). She treasured her grandchildren, Isabella and Maxim Bidwa.

She taught her children how to cook a meal, how to grow a tomato, how to mend a shirt, how to treat everyone as equals, and how to see open doors and friendly faces everywhere in life. Dementia stole her away, gradually and then finally, but now she is free and she will be with us forever.

The family will be forever grateful to the staff of Harrison on Fifth in Columbus for taking Barbara into their family and making the last part of her life safe, warm, and friend-filled. To share a memory of Barbara or send a condolence to her family, please visit https://www.egan-ryan.com/listings. No services are planned. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Alzheimer’s Association.

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