Joan Helga Erickson

Beloved Mother, Grandmother, and Friend, Joan Helga Erickson (nee Johnsen), 90 years old, passed away quietly in her sleep on June 20, 2025, at Cumberland Lodge. Joan, a lifelong mountaineer and skiing enthusiast, has been a resident of the Comox Valley since 1968. She managed and worked at Island Medical Labs in Courtenay for decades.

Joan is preceded in death by her first beloved husband, Corporal Harry Erickson, and her second beloved husband, Major Fred Miller. She is survived by her children, Susan (Rae) Luscombe, Doug, and Mark Erickson. She is survived by her precious grandchildren, Calvin and Sean Luscombe, and Drew and Robyn Erickson.

The one quality she most valued and wished to be remembered for was being a fun person. Mission accomplished!!!

She was also very creative and made her family's and grandchildren's clothes, including intricate sweaters on a knitting machine, sewing, quilting, and crocheting. For many years, family members could look forward to a crafty Christmas present. It would always smell like something delicious was cooking while having a cozy fire in the living room (if it’s cold outside).

To her grandchildren, Joan is fondly remembered for:

- Walking with Grandma and her walking group friends in the park near her hours. They thought the world of her, and we were welcoming and interesting.

- Her shrimp sandwiches and poached eggs. Yummy!

- Every Christmas/Thanksgiving, Grandma would use the leftovers to make either turkey soup or a casserole, the casserole being one of my favourite dishes. It would always smell like something delicious was cooking while having a cozy fire in the living room (if it’s cold outside). I will not forget how she and Dad(Mark) and Doug would be working on her Norwegian gravy recipe on our stove.

- Many activities and family get-togethers with Grandma; Cooking (especially foods from her garden); snowshoeing; hiking; sewing (she tried to teach me how to sew a dress - key word “tried”); gardening (especially pulling weeds); arts and crafts projects.

- Grandma’s cats: Ringo, Muffin (lochness muffin) & Mitzie.

- skiing on Mt. Washington or going to April Point or camping.

- when she lived in our basement floor and the house hunting we helped her with. The one she finally settled on was the one we all grew accustomed with for many years, that it became like a second home and holds almost as much weight in my memories as she does.

Born in Prince Rupert on December 17, 1934, she was raised in the Okanagan Valley in the small town of Oliver.

Her family moved to Vancouver for her final year of high school, where she was awarded the honour of top math student in the entire province of British Columbia.

She met her first husband, Harry Erickson, at Vancouver General Hospital; they were both lab technologists. The story goes that they met over steaming bottles of pee. How romantic! He entered the RCAF and they were stationed in Gimli, Manitoba; Camp Borden, Ontario; 3 Wing Base in Zweibrücken, Germany; Cold Lake (Medley), Alberta, and CFB Comox, British Columbia. Every home was graced with the gardens she planted that supplied her family with the fragrance and beauty of flowers and berries, and vegetables for the meal table.

Being stationed in Germany created the opportunity for sightseeing and souvenir collecting in the countries of Western Europe and Britain. They splurged and bought a movie camera to document their travels. The beautifully edited films, digitally remastered by Mark, are still a joy for the family to watch again and again. One memory that Joan loved to share with her family was the time they were in Luxembourg, thinking that she could just jump out of the car, quickly purchase a souvenir spoon, and jump back in the car. Harry was supposed to drive around the block and pick her up, but due to detours and one-way streets, he got completely lost and was driving around a completely unknown city with two crying kids. He didn't return for hours, so Joan stood there waiting with the tiny treasure in her possession until he finally found her. That got her heart going.

Every weekend was a camping trip to a new country. One time, while camping in Portugal, we were caught in a hurricane. That was a bit too thrilling. The films allowed their young children to retain memories of gondola riding in Venice, climbing the big cisterns of the Roman Colosseum, running through fields of tulips in Holland, and many other adventures.

Joan had been a stay-at-home mother until they moved to Comox, when she rejoined her career as a lab technologist at Cumberland Hospital.

Joan opened the Island Medical Laboratory in Courtenay on 10th Street and Fitzgerald Ave., where she worked as both manager and lab technologist until she retired.

Harry and Joan bought an unfinished house on Webb Road and built it from the foundation to the roof. Joan was up on that tall roof every day after work, putting up cedar shakes. She enjoyed that activity and said that it was like eating peanuts—hard to stop. She loved horses, dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, and pheasants, which they raised on their mini-farm.

She met her second husband, Fred Miller, in elementary school in Oliver. They were friends who reconnected and found a second chance later in life. When they met again, Fred was a snowbird with his RV, He convinced Joan to spend one winter in Arizona, but Joan loved the winter sports so much that he chose to spend the summers at Pacific Playgrounds in Miracle Beach, where he and Joan planted an epic garden of Dahlias. In the Fall/Winter/Spring seasons he moved his RV back to her place, and they enjoyed their three cats, gardening, computer simulations of piloting aircraft and cooking together.

Joan liked to get people together for dinners and card games at her house. She was attentive to people's food allergies and sensitivities.

Joan was also known for caring for relatives who had no place else to go, including her sister-in-law, Jean, and her mother, Olive, so she didn't need to live in a care facility.

Joan's parents were first-generation Norwegian mountaineers. She was also a lifelong mountaineer; she found her greatest love and joy in the backwoods and mountains surrounding the valley: snowshoeing, downhill and cross-country skiing, and hiking in the summer. She knew the mountains like the back of her hand.

Joan's Celebration of Life Ceremony will be held on

July 25th at 1 pm at

Living Word Reformed Episcopal Church.

4778 North Island Highway, Courtenay