DESJARDINE, Rose Marie “Rosemary”

January 1, 1970 — January 1, 1970

Rose Desjardine, passed away on Saturday, March 28, 2020 in Kelowna, BC, at the age of 89, just seven days short of her 90th birthday.

She is survived by her beloved daughters Pamela Desjardine of Kelowna, Janet Desjardine Lockwood (Ron) of Lake Country, BC, Bonnie Foster (Desjardine) of Drayton Valley, AB; grandchildren: Christopher Clarke (Megan), Eugene Urchyshyn (Angela), Krystal-Rose DeHaan (Glen), Karla Lockwood (Mark), Ross Lockwood (Sarah), and Tiffany Moser; great-grandchildren Breanne Seely (Anthony) Shawna and Taylor Clarke, Cooper, Hudson, Camden and Crosby Urchyshyn, Locke and Renan Hoffman; as well as her great-great-grandchildren Alice and Baymen Boyer. She is also survived by her brother Raymond Hakes; four sisters-in-law Lorraine Denolf Hakes, Olga Patykewich Hakes, Patricia Zeiner Hakes, Muriel Munton Hakes Mason; brother-in-law, Adlard Lessard; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband of 54 years, Awlly, by just four months, they were together for 57 years. She was also predeceased by her daughter Michelle Desjardine, and 8 brothers and sisters: George, Hubert, Bryan (Betty Fitzgerald), Lloyd, Kathleen (Victor) Martin, Lenore (Archie) Wakefield, Jean (George) Kuzi, and Marilyn Lessard.

Rose was born on a farm near Landis, SK on April 4, 1930. Growing up on the farm, she took care of the animals, and she was a natural veterinarian. Her family nickname was Biz – as she was always busy. Some of her occupations in her earlier life were sewing GWG jeans in Edmonton, AB, and she served in the air force. In her vast travels in the U.S., she was an interior decorator, a waitress, a mural installer, a pet store owner, she made high-end wedding dresses with fancy beading in Texas, and she was a long-distance truck driver swamper on the west coast. She even served John Wayne once. She waitressed in many places in the Yukon, Dawson City, Haines Junction, and Whitehorse (where her three oldest daughters were born). After leaving the Yukon she worked on the green chain in the Edmonton plywood plant. When the family moved to BC she went back to waitressing. She led a Brownie pack for some time, worked in a glass shop, milked cows for a local dairy, and was a census taker.

They made their home outside of Salmon Arm, BC in Gleneden on five acres with a big garden, pigs, chickens, geese, ducks and the occasional cow or steer. She was an excellent cook. She and Awlly were fish and game members. Rose loved gardening and house plants, loved exploring garden centres and digging up unusual plants on the side of the road (she always carried a shovel in the trunk of her car). She was an avid birdwatcher, and enjoyed fishing, hunting and camping. She was an excellent marksman, and she taught wilderness reclamation, hunter skills, and animal identification at the high school. Rose loved reading and instilled in her children a lifelong love of books and plants. She kept her young girls in homemade sewed dresses, hand-knit sweaters, and socks, etc. The shelves were always stocked with canning and jam and she liked to share it with family, friends and neighbours. One of the family’s great memories is waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread with homemade butter. Despite the sometimes-hard years, she always kept plenty of healthy food on the table. She also helped build the hand-made kitchen cupboards in the house they built in Gleneden.

When Awlly retired from the Federated Co-op Plywood Plant in Canoe, BC in 1988, they moved from Salmon Arm to Sicamous, BC and lived there for 13 years. Finally, they moved into a suite in the home of their daughter Janet and son-in-law Ron in (Winfield) Lake Country, BC in 2001. When she had her first heart attack, she crocheted over 50 angels for the first responders. She always wanted everyone to have an angel in their lives. She was the angel in her family’s lives. She will be fondly remembered and dearly missed.

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