LINK, Melita

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Our mother Melita (Molzahn) Link passed away April 29, 2021, at Spring Valley Care Centre in Kelowna, just 13 days away from her 89th birthday.

She was a mother of unceasing unconditional love, a person of profound faith, and without overt ideology or politics, a working woman of the 20th century.

She was born in 1932 in Ellscott, Alberta as the youngest of four siblings to German immigrants from Poland who came to Canada, as so many did, in search of a better life. But as with so many immigrants, the start of a new life in Canada was hard, with the Depression, the Second World War, the constant toil of farm and orchard work, and the realities of being an ethnic and religious minority at school and work.

The young family soon moved to Rutland, B.C. in the Okanagan Valley, where Mom was to spend the rest of her life putting down deep roots in family, friends, church and the community.

We remember our mom as an untiring woman who worked her entire life while raising a family. She moved out on her own as a young adult, attended secretarial school and never stopped learning or developing new skills. She worked at the health unit in Kelowna, was the secretary to the mayor in Summerland, B.C., and for many years worked in admitting at Kelowna General Hospital, where she helped usher in the computer era in recordkeeping.

Family was central to her. She once said she decided early on she would never let anything come between her and her children, and she kept that promise with love and support her entire life. She was a mother of clean households in homes she helped design, homecooked meals, and fresh produce and extensive canning drawn from a large garden. She encouraged us in school, gave us opportunities for hobbies and learning, kept meticulous family records, and with our dad continually hosted visiting family and friends around the dinner table. Much of the fellowship was through church, and strangers of every background and situation were warmly welcomed to meals. Christmas, her favourite time of year, was a blizzard of baked goods and treats with recipes drawn from the old country.

Finally, she was a woman of strong belief, first in the historic Pentecostal church of her parents and then in the Baptist tradition when in 1951 she married our late father, Herbert, who was the love of her life. Even as her memory declined in recent years while she was in care, she neither forgot the names or voices of her children nor failed to mention that she felt blessed in her life by God. She also never gave up her sense of humour. When told that one of her grandchildren recently received a new bike, her response was, “Get me one, too.”

She is survived by three sons Rod Link (Dina von Hahn), Mark Link, and Barry Link (Karen Long). She is also survived by her three grandchildren, Madeleine, Hannah, and Kyle, in addition to nephews and nieces.

She joins Herbert, her brothers Richard and William, her sister Elsa, and her parents Leopold and Emma.

Our family would like to thank her physician Dr. Gayle Klammer and the staff at Spring Valley Care Centre, Vintage Wing, for caring for our mother the past few years.

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