Sonja Betty Kaminsky

We are sad to announce the passing of our Mother, Sonja, at the age of 82. She was born in Nova Scotia in 1943, where she grew up in the beautiful town of Mahone Bay. Mum was the eldest of four children; Mary (Wagner), Carl (Hatt), and Nancy (Gallant).

As a young girl, she loved to bring home stray animals, and often “collected” bunnies. Sometimes the bunnies would escape their enclosure, and she would run around frantically trying to round them up before they raided the neighbour’s garden. Mum was also a talented artist. She won first place in a Halloween window painting contest at a local store, and painted a beautiful tree lined path that she hung in her home all these years. Mum loved fashion, and was always well put together and beautiful, even on a budget. In the yearbook, she was voted best dressed girl in school, which is how we remember her. Mum was popular and hung out with her friends at the family home, and went to dances and parties.

Mum went to Mahone Bay Consolidated High School, graduated from Commercial School in Bridgewater, and went on to work at Maritime Tel & Tel, where she met our auntie Gloria. On a vacation to Edmonton, Gloria introduced Mum to her brother Roger (aka Dad). Long story short, Mum had her first child Joanne in Lunenburg, and a month later, Mum and Dad drove all the way from Nova Scotia to Alberta, with Joanne in a basket in the back seat of a Sunbeam Tiger sports car. Fifteen months later, Michael was born in Edmonton, where they all settled as a family.

When we were small, Dad worked out of town, and Mum took care of us by herself when we lived at “101”. One (very early) morning, we decided to go outside to play, but Mum was asleep. We didn’t want to wake her, so Joanne stood on Mike’s back to undo the chain lock on the door and to reach the elevator buttons. Mum woke up in a panic, thinking we were kidnapped, but she always found us playing in the front yard on the grass. We could escape the building, but we couldn’t always get back inside unless a neighbour happened to be up early. And thus began a lifetime of mischievous fun with our Mummy!

One day, while getting dressed for work, a bat flew into the house and latched on to the back of Mum’s blouse. She frantically and screechingly undid her buttons to take her blouse off. Dad rescued her by taking the bat outside, where it could get some peace and quiet from all the racket! The bat was surely more afraid than Mum was! Mum would get ready for work by waking us up early to get ready for school. She would simultaneously put on her make up at the kitchen table while feeding us eggs and drinking her coffee with cream with sweetener, with 630 CHED playing on the radio. She would pour us tiny A&W mugs of coffee with cream, and we felt so grown up drinking coffee just like Mum! I remember her coffee kisses in the morning. Breakfast was sometimes fun…”It’s just bran”…”DON’T EAT THAT!!!”…right Mike?

Mum was a lively, vibrant, and sassy woman with a love for animals. In addition to dogs and cats, she and Dad also welcomed Tara the Tarantula, Jake the Snake, Sammy the Salamander, and rescued various wildlife such as baby pigeons and a falcon, and a bunny named Blueberry. Her favourite pet bird was a cockatiel named Baby. Mum would sing rock-a-bye baby, and Baby would whistle the song, and could say “Hi Baby”. The neighbourhood crow would come and say hello to her when she went outside, and a bulldog named Winston would gallop towards her whenever her neighbours took him for a walk. She had a way with animals, because she was so kind to them.

Mum was partially deaf most of her life, which led to many interesting and hilarious conversations. She tended to use her outside voice a lot as a result, and was quite unfiltered; you always knew what she was thinking at any given moment. Especially when we went clothes shopping together… “I wouldn’t wear that to a dog fight!” shouted from the dressing room! It was sometimes hard for her to follow a conversation in a crowd, so we did our best to keep her updated on what was being said. I think it also came in handy with her sometimes “selective hearing”! Mum unapologetically lived life on her terms.

In the mid-80’s, Mum moved to Vancouver, BC and lived near English Bay for approximately 20 years. She loved the sun and the beach, and would walk the seawall every day. Mum worked for many years as a hair stylist, specializing in men’s cuts. One day a famous NCIS star (Tony) came in to have his haircut, and he asked to leave through the back door to avoid the paparazzi, because he had sweated through his shirt under the hairdressing cape. Mum was very street smart. One day, she was approached on the street by a shady man, asking her for the time. Thinking he was about to rob her, she started yelling and screaming at him, which caught him off guard and he ran off. I never worried too much about her, because she sure could handle her own.

Mum was tough as nails. In 2022, Mum won her battle with uterine cancer, and she also had a pace maker. Even taking her to the doctor was a fun time. She always had the doctors, nurses and people in the waiting room in stitches (“You mean I have to take my pants off AGAIN!?!”). I always thought she would outlive us all. Sadly, we have to say goodbye.

Mum is survived by her children Joanne Kaminsky and Michael (Rhonda) Kaminsky; siblings Mary (John) Wagner, Carl (Lise) Hatt and Nancy (Robbie) Gallant; her nieces and nephews; her grandchildren and great-grandchild; Roger (Julia) Kaminsky; former in-laws in the Kaminsky family; and her half-sister Janne, and nieces and nephews from Norway.

Mum is predeceased by her grandmother Glennie Levy; parents Lester and Jean Hatt; nephews Drew Wagner and Joel Hatt; son-in-law John Glena; in-laws Michael and Olga Kaminsky; John and Gloria Poitras; her friend Mel; and her biological family; father Borge Herberg, a sailor from Norway.

Special thank you to our dear family friend Mary-Anne Lahey, who often took Mum to her appointments and to lunch; Tasha MacPherson and Michelle Hawgood, for being by Mum’s side in the hospital in her final days; the staff at Rosslyn Place, who took care of Mum while she struggled with dementia; and to Hainstock’s Funeral Home & Crematorium for their kindness and compassion.

A celebration of life will be planned at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to your local SPCA or animal charity of your choosing.