Mom taught grades 1-6 in a one-room schoolhouse in Roe Lake in the Cariboo. She was only seventeen and lived mainly on caribou stews at the boardinghouse. Students chopped wood and lit the fire for her each morning in the winter, but the teaching came naturally. Following, she taught in Burnaby. She was especially delighted when several of her grandchildren followed in her footsteps and became educators.
Beautiful, wise, nurturing and intuitive, Mom grew up on a farm in Pinkham, Saskatchewan, sharing chores with her sisters and little brother. She much preferred tending to the horses over milking the cows even when they bolted. The family moved to Vancouver when Mom was a teenager and she was very pleased to move to the city for that is where she met her Wilf and could tell right away that he was “the one”.
Mom married Wilfrid in 1946 and our parents enjoyed an active fairy tale life in Victoria, West Vancouver, Vancouver and in New Brunswick and Toronto. They enjoyed the opera, symphony concerts, sailing, romantic dinners, and travelling in Europe, Hawaii, Israel and Russia, along with numerous cruises, although when they lost each other one afternoon at a Liverpool mall, they decided not to take further risks abroad but rather to stay closer to home and their precious family.
Mom loved hosting large family dinners and themed Sunday meals were her favourite. She was an excellent cook and her home baked biscuits often didn’t make to the table upon removal from the oven.
Grandma sandwiches were legendary and a meal in themselves.
Mom was predeceased by Dad in 2009, and by her brother and three sisters and their spouses. When Dad passed away, Mom bravely carried on for her sons. She challenged herself with cryptic crosswords, read voraciously and started a book club. She received a longtime service award for her involvement with the Vancouver Rotary Club Auxiliary. Her grand children all cherished their grandmother for she was a very good listener, a good storyteller and she respected them and so enjoyed a good rapport with all.
Mom is being lovingly remembered by her four sons: Robert (Evelyn), John (Elizabeth), Jim and David (Christina), eleven grandchildren: Stephanie (Tony), Jennifer (Aaron), Gregory (Teressa), Jeffrey, Katharine (Terry) Erika (Sebastian), Kimberly, (Ryan), John J. (Andrew), Paul, Christopher and Michael and twenty-four great grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Ruth and many nieces and nephews.
The family thank Keiko and the nurses and staff at Hollyburn House for looking after Mom so well for the past two years.
A Memorial Service is being arranged by the family.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of your choosing.
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Helen O Olson Mar. 29 1923 Jan. 10 2020..
Death notice for the town of: Vancouver, Province: Colombie britanique