April 28, 1928 – September 9, 2016

A page has turned and a chapter has ended, but our family story continues. Our mom quietly closed her eyes and fell asleep at home last Friday night, September 9th with her husband and children at her side. Another angel is in heaven. She was born in Wettringen, Germany on April 28, 1928. Our mom arrived in Canada in 1956, happy to leave a war-torn country for this wonderful new land, after being coaxed to come by her two sisters, who were already here. After meeting our dad, Otto, they were married in 1958 – two had found each other. They spent their first six years in Saskatchewan and then decided to go west and make a home in Kamloops, where Dad began a successful plumbing contracting business. Mom was the glue that held things together in our family – really, it was a partnership – dad’s business flourished and mom held the home front together. Instinctively, she became ‘super-mom’, baking, preserving, cooking meals, sewing costumes for those many new (to her) Canadian occasions, and always being available to supervise our homework – skills we took for granted but that sadly now often fall by the wayside in today’s families.

Education was very important to our parents and mom modeled that by acquiring her own Canadian high school equivalency. She ensured that we all pursued higher education and got into good professions. Mom was curious, interested and wondered about things. She was a pacifist and was very adamant about Canada not becoming involved in international conflicts. She was engaged in current affairs until the day she left us. Mom was a news addict, a CBC listener, and committed to the principle of a prosperous and free Canada – she was particularly satisfied that the Conservatives had not experienced success during the last federal election. 

Our parents felt privileged to be able to acquire recreational property and our family get-away at Shuswap Lake became a paradise for her. Although Mom wasn’t particularly religious despite being raised Catholic, she believed that God was everywhere in nature, and especially at Magna Bay. She was the driving force behind many of the improvements there for which the rest of us are now extremely grateful. 

Mom outlived all of her siblings and remained sad about having lost two of them during the Second World War. She provided our family with guidance and sober second thoughts as we started our own life chapters. Her pride and joy were her seven grandsons, Kurt, Tristan, Adrian, Evan, Noah, Alex and Jordyn. She never stopped telling us how proud of us all she was and that she knew we felt the same. Left behind to remember her are our dad and her husband of 58 years, Otto, her four children, Edna (Manfred), Esther (Norbert), Sue-Ann (Greg) and Paul (Josey). Please join us in celebrating our mom’s life on Saturday, September 17, 2016 at Schoening Funeral Service, 513 Seymour Street at 2:00pm.

Condolences may be expressed at www.schoeningfuneralservice.com

• Date : 2016-09-09
• Location : Kamloops, B.C.