Oliver John Rentmeester

Oliver John Rentmeester flew to Heaven on the night of October the 23^rd, 2023 following a 237-day battle with an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor. He was so strong and brave and did absolutely everything asked of him. His body went through so much, but he always did it without much of a fuss.  He was a true ninja fighter. 

Funeral services and Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for Oliver at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, October 28, 2023 at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, 4105 N. Division Street, Davenport.  The Mass will be livestlive-streamed by clicking OLV Livestream The family will greet family and friends on Friday from 4 until 7 p.m. at Our Lady of Victory. Please wear green in honor of Oliver. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the family so they may share Oliver’s helping spirit in multiple ways or please share an act of kindness or give blood.  Halligan-McCabe-DeVries Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.

Oliver was born on December 4, 2017 in Bettendorf to Ashley (Beyhl) and Jared Rentmeester.  He was in kindergarten at Neil Armstrong in Park View.

Oliver always had a kind heart and a worker’s spirit. When he first started watching TV, he could only watch Daniel Tiger. The other kids shows stressed him out with the problems. He felt so much emotion for the characters. 

Oliver hardly ever played with toys. He used toys to work. His big dump truck collected laundry or garbage. He would build and create. He spent hours “painting” the driveway or deck with water. He was always frustrated that it would start to dry before he could get the whole thing done. 

He would say, “do you have any jobs for me?” Or “is there anything I can do to help?”   He helped pack lunches, vacuumed, unloaded the dishwasher, and could run a load of laundry from start to finish independently. He helped mow, bring in the garbage bins, pile wood, build, paint, vacuum with the shop vac. 

He was the best brother. He loved Eliza and would look out for her. He was great about tattling on her too. She was always where he was. They always talked about how when they grew up they would marry each other, live across the street from Jared and Ashley and have them over for dinner. June 28,2022 they planned a ceremony and got married to each other in the living room. 

Oliver loved school and learning. All he wanted to do was to go to kindergarten instead of doing the additional chemo treatments.  Some of his favorite activities when waiting to go to preschool was to do his numbers on the calculator in mom’s classroom and to sharpen pencils for my teacher friend he named Pencil Ashley.  

Mom and Oliver had great conversations that stemmed from his questions.  Some of these questions needed Siri’s help.  He liked driving around the neighborhood in the fall looking at blowups and the Christmas lights.  Some of his favorite blowups were the T—Rexs. 

Oliver loved math/numbers, asking questions, Legos, puzzles, holiday yard blow ups, tractors, his power wheels Jeep, school, Mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, Rice Krispies, sugar cookies, sprinkle doughnuts, sleeping with his hand behind his head, the color green, and Hulk. 

Those left to cherish Oliver’s memory are his parents: Jared and Ashley Rentmeester, Park View;  sister, Eliza; grandparents: Randy and Bonnie Beyhl, Davenport and Paul and Christine Rentmeester, La Crosse, Wisconsin; aunts and uncles: Emily (Jake) Pries, Davenport, Dylan (Madeline Rodriguez) Beyhl, Scottsdale, Arizona, Jason (Brie) Rentmeester, Rogers, Minnesota, and Leah (Matt) Steele, Onalaska, Wisconsin; cousins: Asher and Adeline Pries, Mason and Camden Rentmeester, and Athena Steele; great-grandmother, Dorothy Moreland, Lakewood, Colorado, and a host of other loving extended family.

Oliver was greeted at the gates of Heaven by an “Angel Sibling”

This past week was full of memories for Oliver and his family including losing his first tooth, riding his jeep around the yard, and harvesting his first crop (tomatoes, carrots, and corn) from the seeds he planted in July.  The seeds he planted on this earth will continue to grow in the hearts of all who knew and loved him.

Oliver’s family are eternally grateful to the community as well as nurses and staff at the Mayo Clinic as well as Child Life Specialist, Emily and Oliver’s team at the Stead Family Children’s Hospital, Dr. Andrew Groves, Jacey, Madison, Grace, and Clare for all the compassionate and loving care they shared.  A special thank you also to the University of Iowa Dance Marathon and Hudson Strong Foundation for their support.