WEISSTOCK, Maria (nee Fortuna)

April 19, 2024 — December 29, 2016

Maria passed away peacefully at her home in Kelowna on December 29, 2016 in the comfort of her youngest son and two of her grandchildren. She will be lovingly remembered for her contagious laugh, her devotion to family, her wonderful home-cooked meals, her extraordinary work ethic, and her beautiful, award winning gardens. Maria was born in Italy in September of 1925, and after surviving the Second World War, she moved to France, and then to England. While living In Worthing, she met and befriended Kathleen Ames, who sponsored her to Canada as a companion and as a nanny for her four young children. Maria met Willy Weisstock in Vancouver while attending English language classes for new immigrants. They married in June 1953, and together they carved out a life in Canada, raising four children in Vancouver, before moving the family to Kelowna in 1968. In their spare time, Maria and Willy shared a love of the Canadian outdoors, exploring the country and fishing and camping with their children. By training, Maria was a gifted seamstress, but she was also a smart and successful businesswoman, an incredible cook, and a prolific gardener who had a genius for everything that grows. A big-hearted person by nature, she was always loyal and generous to her friends, but she was also a very selfless, private philanthropist who throughout her life recognized the needs of the less fortunate and attempted to help them whenever she could. Maria loved to laugh; she was always good company, plain-spoken and down-to-earth, and able to share the humour in her not infrequent misuse of English words. As a Mom and a Nona, Maria was fun, generous, thoughtful, affectionate, but also tough and inspiring. Maria was predeceased by her life-companion and husband of 66 years, Willy, her son Walter’s first wife, Cheryl, and by her brothers Antonio and Guerino Fortuna. She is survived by her two siblings, Teresa and Antonetta, her four children, Silvia (Martin), Albert (Tammy), Walter (Shauna), and Tony, as well as her twelve grandchildren: Genevieve (John), Andre, Christina, Stephane, Graham, Albert, Christophe, Sophia, Alex, Dante, Dylan and Quintin, and her great granddaughter Ivy. Prayers will be held at the Immaculate Conception Church, 839 Sutherland Ave., Kelowna, BC, on January 20, 2017 at 7:00 pm, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 10:30 am at the same location.

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