Born June 9, 1932 in Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, Minnie was the 8th of 11 children. She moved to Kelowna in her teens with her parents and the younger of the siblings, where she met and married Don Farr and together they had 4 children. Connie (Don Urquhart), Jayne (Don Stolz), Colin, Bill (Linda) Farr, many grandchildren, several great-grandchildren.
She was a wife, mother, home maker and friend to many. She was a telephone operator for many, many years, starting with Okanagan Telephone Company, which became BC Telephone Company in 1965. When she retired at age 65, she was “Operator 1” - the longest standing operator here, starting from a time when you called “113” to get an operator to look up a number for you, which they did, on giant poster boards, nothing electronic, and back when you could call the operator just to ask what time it was. She was very proud to work there and made many lifelong friends, who she later travelled with after retirement.
Mom loved her family and friends, and loved to entertain. Ours was home filled with laughter, love, trials, tribulations, and always music. Mom played the accordion, Dad played trumpet, others played piano, spoons, whatever. Us kids could forget getting any sleep when the “band” started up. She welcomed everyone into our home, nobody had to spend a holiday alone. Our friends were always welcome, by the hour, by the day, by the week. Mom loved to cook, to bake, to can foods, (oh, the endless cucumbers we had to wash for pickles), to decorate for holidays. We often came home from school to a counter full of homemade bread and a kitchen that smelled heavenly.
Mom is survived by her sister Jovita Scheibelbien of Kindersley, SK, and brothers Don (Gwen) Gramlich of Consort, AB, and Joe (Gertie) Gramlich of Saskatoon, SK.
Mom, Grandma, Great-Grandma, you are loved. We will miss you always. For your kindness, gentleness, firm but fairness, ability to always know what we needed to hear, and your endless willingness to help, to hold, to make things better. When your health started to fail and the roles started to reverse, we were blessed to be able to help you, to hold you up, to hug you and to always, always be sure you knew you were loved. What a gift to be able to give that back to you.
We count ourselves so lucky to have had you as our mom, and our kids and grandkids to have you for all the years we did. Rest easy, Mom. We’re all going to be okay.
Endless gratitude to Dr. Swart and all the staff and caregivers at Springvalley Care Home for Mom’s exemplary care.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Kelowna’s SPCA, since we were never without pets in our homes and Mom loved them all.
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard” - A.A. Milne
A Memorial Service will be held on Friday, October 23, 2020 at 11:00 am (BC time) for immediate family only due to COVID. The service will be livestreamed, you may view the service by going to www.firstmemorialfuneralkelowna.com and searching her obituary notice to see the link at the bottom to join the livestream. Arrangements thru to First Memorial Funeral Services, 250-762-2299.
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