SJSanders

 

Shirley "Joan" Sanders November 19, 1934-October 9, 2026 

This is a picture of my mother's 2nd youngest sibling, the last of the Aunties for us 8 nieces and nephews and our families. Joan was born in Saskatoon, lived in Vanscoy for the first part of her life (her parents and grandparents operated J.J. Sanders General Store from about 1908 until moving to Choiceland in the 1940s where Joan and three of her siblings  completed school.  In Choiceland they lived behind their father's business on the Main Street, W.B. Sanders International Harvester). They also spent time at the family farm near White Fox, the current home of Joan's nephew and wife, Rex and Debbie Rempel).

Joan was a bright, artistic child and young woman.

One of the bedroom walls in Grandma's house was decorated with small people meticulously drawn in pencil and left there as a gallery of Joan's childhood talents. In later life she studied art and jewelry-making (with Ragnar Bertelsen of the original  RAGNAR Vancouver jewelry design studio and jewelry store).  She was also a superior seamstress who used classy Vogue patterns, and she knit, macramed, wove, batik'd, and by herself, put on big gourmand Christmas dinners for her extended family. For her parents’ 50th Anniversary it was Joan who organized and herded the family off to dinner and to an Irish nightclub in Vancouver so we could watch Grandpa do an actual bit of jigging. It was also Joan who organized their trip to Hawaii to celebrate their anniversary, even though they had never traveled anywhere so exotic in their forty years of marriage. When I (Cynthia) came to stay with her for some time afterI finished high school, she lived on the main floor of an old West End mansion (on Nicola St., long gone) that she graciously decorated to accent the big old fireplace with alcoves on each side, and the wisteria-covered balcony overlooking a big old lawn (that is likely a parking lot now).

Along with downhill ski-ing and touring through Europe (essentially like hearing fairy tales for us Saskatchewan nieces and nephews), she was a pioneer Dental Hygienist, BC's second President of the Dental Hygienist Association in the mid-sixties. She worked for Dr. Jinks who specialized in doing dentistry with children. I heard a lot of stories about the difficulty of working with kidlets, especially  kids who would bite down hard on her finger, given the opportunity. She worked as a hygienist for several years in Vancouver (on Broadway) and bought her first house in the Dunbar area in the late 1970s.

She also moved around quite a bit when she left her job on Broadway.

She later lived and worked at Christina Lake, where she retired from Dental Hygiene, buying a home in White Rock and diving into some agriculture Continuing Education classes at UBC. She was particularly  interested in mushrooms.

Joan had a salon style of living-- she enjoyed having people over to drink a glass (or more) of wine and to talk about all the hot issues of he day, politics being a major one. She entertained friends she had grown up with and met through work, as well as providing a temporary home for various family members (like my grandparents and me) as they transitioned through a former life into a West Coast life.

In the wave of Trudeau-mania I recall going with her to some empty upper floor warehouse on Hastings Street(?) and painting Liberal candidate posters that were to grace some boat in a regatta,  She never married, but she was fiercely attached to her family all her life. She kept a close eye on my grandparents (the-child-becomes-the-parent thing) when they retired from Choiceland and moved to Vancouver's West End. There were also a number of Grandma's extended family living in the West End and elsewhere in BC who would pop in to visit. I got to know more about McDonalds by moving to Vancouver.

In the 1980s Joan bought a small house in Saskatoon near to where we lived at the time. In 1983 my grandfather passed away in Vancouver and Joan had her mother come to live with her. My grandmother was discovered to have cancer. Joan provided loving care and was close enough to Dr. Burry, Grandma's physician at the Saskatoon Community Clinic, that he could nip over and see how Grandma was faring on his lunch break. I still marvel at that, but those British doctors and their socialized medicine background, still made those kinds of house calls!

A while after my Grandmother passed away, Joan moved back to BC, buying a condo in the small town of Logan Lake, stating that she liked the serenity of living away from the city, etc.  And she lived there for quite a few years, a little too far away for drop-in visits.

A rew years ago she showed signs of cognitive decline and advanced arthritis.  My cousin, Shelly, eldest daughter of Joan's closest sibling, stepped up to care for her in the same compassionate way that Joan had cared for our grandmother. And Shelly lived in another province, so there was lots of driving involved. Joan did not have children of her own, but she had a niece like Shelly and a nephew like Tom, who both took an active interest in her over her declining years. Shelly helped her sell her property in Logan Lake and settle into the right seniors'' villages. Joan had some adventures with floods in the first complex she lived in, and she moved to Alberta, to a home closer to her nieces there. When Shelly and her husband Bob moved to Ponoka, Alberta, they located a place for Joan in a care facility close-by. 

Joan was predeceased by her parents, William Bertram (Bert) and Verna Mae McDonald Sanders. All of her siblings passed away before her, along with their marriage partners: Catherine (Fraser) Rempel, Geneva (Sterling) Gibson, Vernon (Eileen) Sanders, Pat Wall (John Wall), and Ester (Ron) Richards. She was also predeceased by nieces Cheryl (Gibson) Moline and Amy Catherine Rempel.

Nieces and nephews and their families surviving Joan are: Cynthia (Ed Zirkwitz), Rex (Debbie) Rempel, James Rempel, Curtis (Merle) Gibson, Tom Sanders, Shelly (Bob) Duchesne, Gaelynn Wall, and Erin (Pieter) Broere. Grandies: Philip (Malyn) Zirkwitz and their children, Alyza and Angelika Zirkwitz, Conrad Zirkwitz, Ryan (Carrie) Rempel and children, Brad, Amber and Kane Rempel, David (Jessica) Rempel, Trieva Nicole McBeth, John Edward (Rose Carter) Duchesne, Ryan Gibson, Rhett Gibson, Dayle Dube, Devon Dube, Lyric Broere (Alan Young), and Zephyr Broere

All the nieces and nephews will have their individual memories of our Auntie Joan (or more likely, just "Joan"). She was a strong, bright woman who could hold her own, and did.  She certainly stands out as a mentor for the girls in the family. She will be remembered and she will be missed.

Joan was christened in the United Church and was actively involved in CGIT as a youth in Choiceland. She loved singing hymns during the services at Northcott. In her senior years Joan considered herself an adherent of the Buddhist Way of Life. She modeled for her family the Christian spiritual principles she grew up with. If she were to leave them a piece of Scripture to reflect upon and act on, it would likely be from Philippians 4:8 which advises:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (and: Have faith!)

 The family will gather at a later date to celebrate  Aunt Joan and to send her ashes up a river to the Pacific Ocean, as per her wishes.

The family would like to thank the staff at Northcott Home Care for all the care they tenderly gave Joan during her last days. We also recognize the kind and expert medical care of Dr. Chan.