Irma left us to be with the love of her life Gerry, on March 3. She is dearly missed on this earth by Debbie, Barbie, Michael, Bruce, Lisa, and grandsons Sean, Charlie and Liam, along with other family and friends on several continents. Irma was humble, elegant, accomplished, so smart, loving, stubborn, and a killer bridge player.
While she experienced profound tragedy in Poland in WW2, Irma never spoke of it or let it define her. Instead, in 1952, she took a leap of faith along with a ship to Canada to reunite with Gerhard and marry him. She put him through university, so he could be an architect and they could build an incredible (now historically recognized) home for their children in Calgary. She trained at culinary school, so was equally adept at creating gourmet meals for 100 friends, or an elegant wedding cake for her daughter. She also went to business school, so was a financial whiz who loved to talk stocks, keep ledgers, and research the best way to grow their hard-earned money. Adding to her accolades, she was an accomplished seamstress, who also made beautiful ceramics, stunning weavings on her loom, and even built furniture. Oh, and she skied, played ping-pong, tennis and golf, where she had 3 hole-in-ones!
Irma had a lifelong thirst for knowledge and was a voracious reader who reveled in discussing any and every topic. She became tech savvy so as to stay even more connected. Later in life, it annoyed her greatly when bankers, doctors, and others would discover her age and call her "dearie", or talk around rather than to her. Let that be a lesson! Although she was always up for any adventure, her greatest joy was in spending time with this family, and she made sure we had a moral compass. Her favorite sayings: "Two wrongs don't make a right" and "When you look in the mirror, be sure you like what you see."Words to live by.