Jan Cornelis van Pel

It is with great sadness and some relief that his extended family shares the news that Dad's journey with Alzheimer's Related Dementia has finally come to an end.

The family would like to extend our profound gratitude to Dr. White, Dr. Juralowicz and the entire staff at Kiwanis Lodge who all showed so much love, respect and patience in Dad’s last 3 ½ years, we really can’t thank you enough!

Dad was predeceased by his second wife of 46 years in 2020, his Angel Willie. The two of them shared some really great times together and were very active members of the Woodgrove Estates Mobile Home Park community for 33 of those years, where they met a great number of wonderful people.

Dad was very handy, always had a project and many different jobs throughout his working life.

After a short stint as a Millwright at Tahsis Sawmill shortly after Immigrating to Canada in 1970, he became an Appliance repairman for Simpson Sears before trying it on his own for several years.

He eventually took an opportunity as an apprentice with Martell Refrigeration which many years later would land him as the first HVAC Technician at NRGH, a job he was able to love for 10 years before retirement.

He leaves behind his children Corey (Joanne), Wilma (Fraser) and the three wonderful children Willie brought into our family: Gerry (Kathy), Mike (Marta) and the late Jessie Pool. He also leaves behind 7 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren with 2 more on the way!

This caring, selfless, supportive and always dedicated man that literally put my life ahead of his own in 1970 moving to a new world in search of cleaner air, will always make him the hero I got to share with a lot of other people.

We're going to miss you Opa!