Parcourez la nécrologie de Tammy Lynn Unruh Clarke May 1 1978 December 31 2022 44 Years Old résidant dans la province Alberta pour le détail des funérailles
Obituary
Tammy Lynn (Unruh) Clarke was born May 1, 1978 at the Olds hospital to Dick and Shirley Unruh. She struggled with health issues from the very beginning and was diagnosed with Truncus Arteriosus Type 1. At 13 months she went down to the Mayo Clinic to have her first open heart surgery completed. Within the first 2 hours the nursing staff came to talk to Dick and Shirley to tell them that Tammy’s heart had stopped with the initial incision and that they put her on the bypass machine and would continue with the surgery. Once the surgeon had finished the surgery, as he went to massage Tammy’s heart to get it going again, it started beating on its own, what a miracle. Recovering in the ICU, Tammy was intubated on a respirator but was having trouble breathing on her own. Her heart would slow down every time they tried to wean her off the respirator. Many prayers went up to help her get off the respirator and by the third day she was able to breathe on her own. It was miracle after miracle.
This surgery was followed by 6 open heart surgeries and dozens and dozens of other procedures including pacemakers, flesh eating disease, infections, catheterizations, stents, etc. over the past 40 plus years. One time she was flown down to the Mayo Clinic by Lear jet because she was so critical.
Tammy lived in Alberta all her life; living in Olds, Calgary, Ryley and Lacombe. During the summers, as a child, she was able to get together with her cousins, Steven, Carmen, Jaala and Jason at Hope camp meeting. There were many times where their parents were unsure where they were and what they were getting into. One time Jaala, Carmen and her, had decided to purchase some sour soothers from the store and were roaming the trails and eating the candy. They didn’t realize how late it was as they weren’t hungry.
When Tammy was 10 she was baptized at Hope by her Uncle Ole.
Carmen and her had made many plans for their future as they both loved animals. They planned never to get married and raise horses. Tammy and Heidi adopted sister cats even though they were only supposed to just pick out one. She had numerous animals; dogs, cats, chicken, rabbits, too many to name.
Tammy attended kindergarten in Ryley, was home schooled from grade 1-4, attended CHAJA/CHCS from grade 5-9, and PAA for grades 10-12. In 2001 she graduated from CUC with a 3 year bachelor of science where she was able to graduate with her sisters, “little brother” Steve, as well as 2 cousins. In 2002 she graduated again with a 4 year degree. She then moved to Calgary to attend the University of Calgary, where she completed her Masters of Medical Science in Immunology. She has been published in 7 journals and completed her thesis “The Role of Lipid Rafts in Rituximab-Mediated Apoptosis” in November 2005.
With Tammy moving to Calgary, she attended the Calgary Central Church where she became involved with the collegiate group and where she met Keith. Tammy was the instigator and invited Keith and his brother Ken over to her and Amanda’s place, her roommate at the time. They had also invited other friends who all had turned down the invite so Tammy became worried that it would look like a setup so she called her sister Pattie up to come to join the group as she was worried that it would be too quiet as Keith and Ken were both very quiet individuals.
On January 17, 2005 Keith took Tammy out to supper and then skating at Olympic plaza. While there, he proposed with a special song: “Some Say Love, it is so special to have a friend like you, Some Say Love, it is forever when two will say I do, In my heart there is no other to share my whole life through, I say Tammy I sure love you and will you say I do?” She said yes.
They were married on July 23, 2006 one of the hottest days of the summer right here at the College Heights Church and spent 2 weeks in Jamaica for their honeymoon.
Tammy enjoyed travelling. She was able to go to Germany with her parents to meet some of her relatives and enjoyed the town of Rothenberg. She was able to travel to Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Michigan, California, Washington, Oregon and New York.
Tammy and Keith were able to go visit France for 2 weeks. Prior to going to France, she had read that the best way to find the best cheese was to wait and watch to see what the French people were buying. Tammy did this at one of the stores and saw what looked to be a popular cheese, so she purchased some. It was one of the most pungent strong cheeses that Tammy and Keith ever tasted. They couldn’t stomach very much of it at all.
The outdoors was something that Tammy also enjoyed. Even though she didn’t have much energy she loved going to Banff, Waterton, Jasper and just camping in general. She went backpacking with Keith at least twice. The last time was two years ago where Tammy was able to go to Eagle Lake with Steve and Pattie. Thanks to Tim and Colleen Butler, Tammy was able to ride with Steve to the lake on their quad. She had the biggest smile.
One time camping in Waterton, Tammy and Keith were just sitting down to eat some soup. Just as Tammy took a spoonful, she saw a bear. Swallowing her soup as quickly as possible, she calmly told Keith that there was a bear and that they need to move to the car immediately and the bear just sauntered through the campsite.
She was adventurous in her travels but also enjoyed cooking and hosting many get-togethers including tea parties for the girls. She would plan her tea party’s months in advance to make sure they were perfect. She always had lists of what she needed to get done and it was always the perfect high tea. As well as tea parties, Tammy enjoyed cooking and was able to cook many ethnic dishes including Ethiopian, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Sushi, and Vegan BBQ.
Along with cooking, Tammy also had many hobbies including gardening, playing games, card making and scrapbooking. She has an extensive collection of rubber stamps and other supplies which she loved using in her craft room. Friends and family always had a steady stream of homemade cards made for them.
Monopoly was one of Tammy’s favorite games to play. In fact, one Saturday night at Dick and Shirley’s house, during her college years, several students were over to play Monopoly and it ended up the guys versus Tammy. Even though they were making deals to help one of the guys win, Tammy was able to out wit all of them and win. Years later she continued to play Monopoly with her nephews, Jaiden and Aeden, which she always enjoyed.
Tammy enjoyed spending time with her nieces and nephews. She was godmother to Aeden and Sissy and enjoyed having them over for sleepovers where they would all sleep in the living room. Sissy and Tammy would craft in her craft room. Kiana came over to bake cookies and Kayden went to a movie with her.
In 2012, Tammy joined the staff of Burman University as the Chemistry and Physics Lab Technician. She enjoyed teaching her students and later was brought on as faculty. She enjoyed working with her student workers and would make them special gifts and treats for birthdays and special occasions.
As you can see, Tammy loved life and put everything into it that she had. In November, she was admitted to hospital as her heart failure was starting to affect her organs. The doctors decided that she needed to have surgery to improve her organs. On December 29, Tammy went through a 15 hour surgery to overhaul her heart. She passed away December 31 surrounded by her family.
She will be lovingly remembered by her husband Keith Clarke; parents Dick and Shirley Unruh; sisters Heidi Cooke (Cam) and their son Jaiden; and Pattie Reasor (Stephen) and their children Aeden and Kay; father-in-law and mother-in law Dan and Diana Clarke; brother-in-law Ken Clarke (Brad); and brother-in-law Kevin Clarke (Donelle) and their children Kayden and Kiana.
The Memorial Service on Sunday will be Live-Stream Broadcast. The link will be available below.
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May 1 1978 December 31 2022 44 Years Old
Décès pour la Ville:Wetaskiwin, Province: Alberta
avis deces Tammy Lynn Unruh Clarke May 1 1978 December 31 2022 44 Years Old
avis mortuaire Tammy Lynn Unruh Clarke May 1 1978 December 31 2022 44 Years Old
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