Gertruida Kalfics

Gertruida Kalfics (nee Becholz) was born September 26, 1921 in Heerlen, Netherlands. Gertruida also known as Gerda was 1 of 16 siblings. She was taken out of school by her mother at the age of 13 and put to work cleaning houses and looking after children to help bring in an income to help her own family.

At the age of 15 she decided it was time to start a new path where she got herself a job in a hotel kitchen. There 2 nice ladies taught her how to cook and bake. This is how she got her passion. By the age of 18, during the war, she was taken to work wiring plane motors and threading factory machines. After a little while, she had requested for herself and sister to work in the kitchen to cook for all the factory workers.

She knew her husband Joseph Kalfics when they went to school together and were practically neighbours. There were married in 1943 and had 2 sons and 1 daughter. Her husband Joe had his own business delivering coal which they both did together. She also helped her in-laws in their store and delivered vegetables to local families.

Gerda and Joe decided to immigrate by a big boat to Canada in 1956 with their children Joe, Anna and Frank. They landed in Montreal and started traveling by train to Pickle Crow, Ontario. The winter’s there were always below 40 and the summers were very short. One story that Gerda always told was how she saved a frog which was being swallowed by a snake by taking a shovel and pushing the frog back up and out of the snakes mouth again and the frog hopped away.

Gerda started getting homesick, so Joseph decided it would be a good idea to get her pregnant. They had another daughter and named her Kathy. As time went by, Gerda’s husband decided it was time to move again since he had a job offer to work in a mine in British Columbia. They packed up everything and traveled by train to a little town called Hope in 1960, where they fulfilled their lives for 53 years.

Gerda passed away Sunday, June 2, 2013 at Fraser Canyon Hospital in Hope. She was 91 years of age.