November 23, 1930 — October 22, 2024

With gratitude for a life of adventure, art and community, we have said goodbye to a wonderful mom. Nora led a rich and full life on the Prairies, in Hawaii, and BC. She was a loving, patient, and creative daughter, sister, wife, mother, auntie, friend, grandmother and volunteer, sharing her love and gift of friendship and always good advice.

Raised in Eastend, Saskatchewan by Scandinavian parents, Nora was the third of three girls and grew up riding horses, driving a grain truck, and enjoying all that the Cypress Hills could offer her. She was very bright, skipping two grades and then studying at Regina College School of Music after graduating at 16. Nora trained in nursing at Regina General Hospital, graduating in 1952 and started a career that took her to Edmonton, then Honolulu for two exciting years and St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. She completed her advanced degree in Public Health at UBC and then moved to Prince George, embracing a vast territory as a public health nurse up and down the Hart Highway.

Unknowingly set up on a blind dinner date by mutual friends, she met her husband Tony, marrying in 1959. They lived their life together by the North Thompson River in Kamloops for 61 years until he passed in November 2020. Nora then moved to Berwick on the Park and enjoyed life in what we kids called “The cruise ship on the hill”.

Nora was an artist – a painter and wool spinner – and very involved in the arts community. Part of the original Board of Directors, she helped establish the Kamloops Art Gallery and became one of its first managers in its original Seymour Street location. She worked hard to bring in notable artists and teachers and often taught painting classes at Heritage House.

With the great outdoors being their common love, Nora, Tony and their vast group of friends skied, camped, canoed, hiked, and fished all over the province. Always keen and curious, Nora took guided trips on horseback, on various sea vessels, and explored Canada and North America with her husband in their camper.

She was blessed with so many kind and interesting people in her life, making friends easily, always with a smile and a kind word. Whether spending time with the arts community, the United Church, or volunteering with the Can-Go Grannies, she loved what Kamloops had to offer.

Nora leaves her daughters and their husbands Taya and Mike, Karen and Derek, and her grandchildren Simon and Lindsay, all of whom she absolutely loved to pieces. She also leaves sister-in-law Heleen Berkhout, nieces and nephews Leslie Morris, Don (Deb) McArthur, Randy (Shannon) Morris in Canada and Sandra, Ariette, Jeroen (Yvonne), Rebecca (Jonathan), Judith (Leon), Floris and Lotte Berkhout in Holland.

A celebration of both Nora and Tony’s lives is set for: March 1st at 1:30 pm Cordillera Room Sandman Signature Hotel 225 Lorne Street, Kamloops Please let us know you are coming and if you have a memory, photo or story to share, we would love to have that too. Please reply to: RSVPBerkhout@gmail.com

• Date : 2024-10-22
• Location : Kamloops