We Remember

PARK, Sandra Ann
April 9, 1952 — May 7, 2024
Sandra Ann Park chuckled when people assumed they understood the meaning of our world. On May 7, 2024, she left what we think we know for the mystery beyond it.
Born to Donovan and Kathleen Dowler on April 9, 1952, in Edson, Alberta, and sibling to Susan, Patrick, Paul, and Anthony, young Sandra loved to build forts in the forests surrounding their childhood home. Susan found Sandra’s structures sufficient and waited eagerly to set up home for their dolls within, but Sandra was never satisfied that construction was done. Inevitably, Sandra would begin renovating the shelters or tearing them down to begin again. “It can be better” she fervently believed.
Sandra was a builder; that was how she showed love. She viewed the world as a tug-of-war between the “haves” and the “have-nots”, and dedicated much of her energy to pulling for those she saw as underprivileged. Sandra had five children of her own: Laura, Simon, Caleb, Brianna, and Kelsey, and welcomed over seventy more into her ranch as foster children. She identified in those she chose to help, wanting to make a safety for them that she never felt was provided for her, creating beautiful houses and landscapes through her artistic eye, sheer will, and tenacious work ethic. She ever held that something better could be built, and motivated by that conviction, she rebelled against the structures that society sought to scaffold around her.
A voracious reader, Sandra took companionship and solidarity in the characters that travelled the pages of her books. Though she built beautiful spaces, she herself felt most serene when in nature. She contended with a loneliness which she accepted as a challenge implicit to the human experience, but never wanted others to feel alone.
She had two marriages, to Gerald Allard and Bruce Park, but lived the last season of her life single. Her grandchildren are numerous: Brook Allard, Jacob Allard, Kylie Puffault, Sierra Puffault, Michael Allard, Hadley Hart, Alice Hart, Dominic St-Pierre, Wilder St-Pierre, Oak Allacas, Yarrow, Allacas, and Hawthorn Allacas.
Sandra revealed herself most vulnerably when creating stained-glass — amalgamations of disparate shapes and colour that she wove into something whole. Sandra felt a belonging when creating art, and she left a legacy of windows that she gifted to many lives, windows whose messages are only understood when light cascades through them. The pictures she built eternally change in illumination, so that to peer into them is to see their truth as an evolving harmony between the unexpected and the intentional.
In the last chapter of her life, Sandra found fellowship with the Jehovah’s Witness congregation. In her suffering, she had prayed for help, and this community came generously to her door. Ever identifying as a rebel, Sandra chose to now surrender to what she felt God had offered her, and therein found a peace within the hope of her faith.
Sandra loved to laugh, all the more so if the thing being laughed about ruffled the feathers of appropriateness and comfort. She would enjoy to be remembered laughing.
In lieu of flowers, feel welcome to make a donation to Hospice House Kelowna in Sandra’s name (hospicehousekelowna.com).
Sandra’s Celebration of Life will be held SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2024, at 3:00 PM (PDT), at KINGDOM HALL: 365 Franklyn Road, Kelowna, BC.
“I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains… a la la la la la la…” -Paul Simon-
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Service
Saturday, June 29, 2024, at 3:00 PM (PDT)
Location
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses
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Service Details
The service for PARK, Sandra Ann is scheduled for Saturday, June 29, 2024, at 3:00 PM (PDT). Below you will find the map for the service location and the contact information should you have any questions.
Dearest Susan and Paul,
There is a quiet that grips the heart when losing someone so very precious like Sandy. The sum of her life is measured by what was dear to her heart and how quickly others were drawn to her. Jehovah holds all the sweetness of her heart in his hands and in his memory.
To all of us who have lost loved ones to the greatest enemy death, may your heart be comforted in His awaited promise of a resurrection to life to his restored earthly paradise.
Embracing you with my prayers
Helen Harnish
(Acts 24:15. Psalms 37: 11,29)