June 27, 2020
Forever Together.
Ingrid passed away on the 27th of June, this year after a long period of sickness. I'm her husband Gunter and I will describe what an amazing woman she was. Ingrid grew up in Wuppertal/Germany. She had two brothers and one sister. All her family have passed away, except her niece Iris. We met on a camping trip in 1953. A year later we got engaged and in 1954 I emigrated to Canada to join my parents. Ingrid was a superb athlete and in the same year she won the German championship in High-jump and was selected to go to the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia in 1956 or come to Canada and get married. In the end, she gave up her Olympic dream and came to Canada. I was so happy and we got married in March 1955 in Victoria that was 65 years ago. Ingrid adapted well to Canada and she liked it here so much. It took a while but eventually our daughter Christine was born, followed by our son Mark. Next we were blessed to receive three lovely grand-daughters from Mark and his wife Beverly, they called Ingrid Oma and me Opa, that's the German words for grand-parents. Nicole is 21, Alicia is 19, and Hailey 16. Let's go back a bit, Ingrid worked for a photo-finishing company for several years, then stayed home for twenty years to raise a family. After that she became a home-care worker until she retired and then she volunteered her services in the same field. As mentioned before, she was very good in sports, and in Canada she was very good in curling and she was an excellent golfer. Ingrid loved gardening and we loved camping. We traveled to many places in the world, by truck and camper to Alaska and Alberta, and many places in BC. Several cruises, Alaska and Hawaii and Mexico. Many holidays in Germany and other places in Europe. Unfortunately, Ingrid has been sick for about three years. She recovered several times but in the end it was just too much. Ingrid was the " Love of my Life " and I am thankful for all the good years we had together. Our children and grand-children loved her so much and she will always be in our thoughts. Ingrid wanted to be cremated and there will only be a small family service.
If you would like to contact me my email is gunter.koch@shaw.ca