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Geraldine Nicholson
In Memory of
Geraldine Agnes
Nicholson
1933 - 2016
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McKenzie Funeral Services
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Obituary for Geraldine Agnes Nicholson

Geraldine Agnes  Nicholson
Geraldine Agnes Nicholson, 1934 - 2016

Geraldine Agnes Nicholson (neé Ford) died peacefully, surrounded by family, on Friday May 6, 2016. Her many friends and family members are imprinted by vivid memories of Geraldine, even as we grieve her unexpectedly sudden loss.

Born in the small grain and ranching town of Didsbury, Alberta, in 1934, Gerry was the eldest of three siblings. She is survived by brothers Lyle Ford (Calgary) and Edward Ford (Prince George). Gerry was a lively, outdoorsy, and musical kid, who played piano, excelled at school, and enthusiastically participated in Christian Girls in Training.

She attended nursing training at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, graduating sixty hears ago this spring.. Her classmates remembered her at the banquet held May 6. Gerry served a nursing practicum in the tiny northern Alberta outpost of Plamondon, an experience that made a lifelong impression on her and deepened her interest in public health.

In 1956, while working as a nurse at the Royal Alex, Gerry met patient Robert Nicholson, an oil engineer who had smashed his hand in a work-related accident. An eventful courtship led to a wedding in Didsbury in 1957, and the young family quickly grew to include Leslie Claire (1958), Stewart (1960), Ford (1963) and Caren (1964).

Bob’s career took Gerry and the children to Texas, the United Kingdom (1969-1976) and a number of interim stops over the next two decades. Gerry nimbly managed the complexities of moving the family, in each new city quickly charming neighbors with her prairie warmth. The UK years were especially rich in friendship and discovery for Gerry and the rest of the family. There, while actively parenting the four children, she worked as a visiting public health nurse, caring for and befriending elderly residents of the county.

When the family moved back to Canada in 1976, Gerry returned to the University of British Columbia to earn her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and worked for many years as a pediatric nurse at Sunny Hill Hospital. By then, the now-grown children were scattering, and Gerry and Bob once again knit together lively communities of friends around their many interests – square dancing, vintage car racing, weaving, canoe-tripping. The family photo albums burst with pictures of picnics, races, riverside camping, garden parties and visits from the many relatives and friends whom Gerry nurtured and adored.

Gerry and Bob moved to Kamloops in 1993, opening a new and vibrant chapter in their lives. Gerry formed deep ties with the Kamloops United Church and made very dear friends through her church activities, gardening, weaving and bridge. Visits to and from the growing crop of grandchildren (many of whom learned to swim in Gerry and Bob’s pool) were icing on the Kamloops cake. These two decades were sweetly steeped in Gerry’s sense of finding home in the Kamloops community.

After Bob died in 2011, Gerry felt the pull to be closer to Vancouver-based family, crossing the Lion’s Gate bridge into West Vancouver in 2014 with the little Nissan’s barely containing her forest of houseplants. Missing her Kamloops people deeply, she nevertheless found new circles of friends in West Vancouver. She was a frequent and welcome presence in the homes of her west coast grandchildren, who referred to her as Ninja Gerry for her ability to materialize on the doorstep.

She is deeply missed by her family, who include Leslie Nicholson, Ford Nicholson, Lisa Wolverton, Stewart Nicholson, Tamara Nicholson, Caren Nicholson, and Joe McGory. She is survived by her brothers G. Lyle Ford and Edward Ford, by twenty much-loved nieces and nephews, and by nine grandchildren who are, chronologically, John Nordin, Cody Severtson and his wife Roxanne Severtson,, Walker Nordin, Chandler Severtson , Hannah Nicholson, Sophia Nicholson, Elle Nicholson, Maya Nicholson, and Stella Nicholson.

All Gerry’s friends and family are warmly invited to a service in memory of Gerry, likely to be scheduled for 12:00 noon. Saturday July 9 at the United Church in West Vancouver. Details will follow.
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