COOPER, Kay

May 11, 1956 — January 2, 2026

Kay’s sudden, unexpected passing early on Friday, January 2, 2026, has left her family and many friends heartbroken.

Kay was a deeply spiritual person who embraced aspects of several religions, including Hinduism, Christianity, and Buddhism.  She was a Reiki master and strongly believed in the healing power of universal energy work and prayer. Kay cared a lot about people, and often sat late at night meditating and sending healing thoughts to family and friends who were sick or troubled. Mom believed in the spirit world and the afterlife, as well as reincarnation, which gives us great comfort knowing her soul lives on.

The road to Kelowna, BC was a long and adventurous one. Kay was born Kamlaish Karwal in Nairobi, Kenya to Bimlavanti and Kapaldev Karwal, who had moved to East Africa from India in search of a better life.

The same yearning for better fortunes later took the family to England in the early 1960s, where her father was a railway breakdown worker. Kay was only six when she left Kenya, but spoke fondly of her early childhood there, and her reluctance to get on the plane that took the family to the chilly, damp English Midlands. She kept the airline ticket from that flight out of Africa all her life.

However, once settled in the industrial town of Walsall, Kay and her family, which grew to seven girls and a boy, quickly adapted to their new life, and discovered some unexpected English culinary delights – buttered toast was a particular favourite.

Kay was the only East Asian girl in her class at school, and with Punjabi as her first language, she had to work hard and fast to become fluent in English. An additional challenge was her reluctance to wear glasses, and she often had to be sternly reminded to put them on so she could see the blackboard. She resolved the problem as a teenager by switching to contact lenses. Some of her English classmates became lifelong friends.

In the Hindu culture at the time, a girl’s life was often mapped out: after education, it was expected they’d have an arranged marriage to someone from their own Asian culture. However, in 1972, when she was 16 and in her last year of school, there was a casual meeting that changed Kay’s life. At a friend’s birthday party, she met 19-year-old Andrew Cooper, a trainee newspaper reporter on his hometown Walsall Observer. Despite their cultural differences, there was an instant connection. Indian girls weren’t allowed to date anyone, let alone an Englishman, but a secret eight-year relationship followed. They discreetly met at places like museums and secluded cafés.

While Andrew progressed to chief reporter of the Observer, Kay became a skilled office administrator, beginning with an insurance brokerage, moving to Walsall Police Station, and eventually the West Midlands College of Higher Education.

Kay faced a personal crisis in late 1975, when a marriage to an Indian man she had never met was proposed by her family. With pressure growing, she left home. Police arranged for her to stay with an older couple, but in January 1976, she was kidnapped in the street by relatives concerned about the family’s reputation in the Asian community. Police quickly arrested a couple of family members and Kay was released unharmed the next day. The authorities also cancelled the arranged marriage, and Kay went back to live at the family home. However, word of her relationship with Andrew leaked out and some extended family members — not her parents — threatened him.

After a few months, Kay and Andrew resumed meeting in secret, conscious of the risks they were running and wondering if they could ever have a future together. Fate played a role when Andrew won a national newspaper award in 1979, allowing him to fulfill an ambition to move to Canada. He left the UK in January 1980, becoming a reporter for the Winnipeg Tribune newspaper. A few months later, with her father’s blessing, Kay joined him and they were married in Winnipeg, MB on June 20, 1980, with Andrew’s parents in attendance.

Kay quickly found an administrative job with the Manitoba Department of Economic Development and Tourism, but unfortunately, Andrew was out of work following the closure of the Winnipeg Tribune in August 1980. Soon after, Kay was expecting their first child and as winter set in, they decided to return to the UK. Over the next five years they reconciled with her family, bought a house, and welcomed the arrival of their three children — Aaron (1981), Sarah (1982) and Daniel (1984). Andrew resumed his journalism career and eventually became a weekly newspaper editor.

Life seemed settled, but they couldn’t quite shake memories of Canada, so they took their young family on a three-week trip in 1985 to ‘get it out of their system’, flying to Winnipeg and then driving to Vancouver, with many stops along the way. One of those stops was in Regina, Saskatchewan, where Regina Leader-Post managing editor John Swan said there might be a job coming available. The process took several months, but in March 1986, Kay and Andrew emigrated for the second time.

The family spent 31 happy years in Regina (aside from the winters), with Andrew becoming city editor of the Leader-Post and Kay returning to work, this time at the Saskatchewan Farm Land Security Board. Eventually, the children grew and spread their wings, all landing in B.C. and Kay and Andrew followed them in 2017. Kay was particularly happy that their children and grandchildren all ended up living close to them in Kelowna.

Marvelling at the beauty of The Okanagan, Kay often said, “We live in a tourist paradise”. She loved finding ‘treasures’ at thrift stores and garage sales and helping her daughter at vintage community sales.

Though she had a ready smile and seemed full of energy to outsiders, Kay lived with diabetes and high blood pressure for over twenty years, and the symptoms worsened over time. As well as taking multiple medications, she needed eye injections every six weeks and regular massage therapy for chronic pain.

Despite these challenges, she will be remembered for her upbeat and lighthearted attitude, always pouring her love into her family.

Predeceased by her parents, and by her brother Anil, Kay is survived by Andrew, her husband of 45 years, and her children: Aaron Cooper, Sarah Rempel (Chris) and Daniel Cooper (Mandy), and by her beloved granddaughters, Ella Cooper, Louise Rempel, and Betty Rempel, as well as by her sisters: Anita, of Austin, Texas; Usha, Roze, Veena, Neelam and Sangeeta in the UK, as well as numerous aunts, nephews, and nieces.

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