Georgina Pinette

It is with great sadness and grieving hearts that the family of Georgina Pinette announces the passing of their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother after a 4 week battle with Acute Leukemia. Mom passed away peacefully at the age of 91 at Riverview Health Centre in the early morning of August 27.

She is survived by son Garry (Elaine), daughters Sharon Minuk(Joe), Michele and daughter-in-law Carmen, and grandchildren Greg (Audrey), Manny Minuk(Lexi), Jeff, Maile Polansky(Cam), Brianna Capner(Chad) and Amanda as well as 14 great-grandchildren. She leaves behind sister Marie Brandt, brother Ken Schmidtke and sister Eloise Auch as well as many nieces and nephews who also loved her dearly. She was predeceased by her husband Marcel, son Dale and sister Virginia Bjornson.

Mom was born in Winnipeg on November 21st 1929 at her parents home on Ottawa Avenue 4 weeks after the start of the Great Depression. Times were hard back then and her parents moved from Winnipeg to Steinbach where her father was raised. This is where she spent her formative years and received her education.

She often talked about the 3 1/2 mile hike to school everyday even as small child. In winter months school was often missed for several weeks because of the weather. She loved learning and despite these obstacles maintained very high grades in her classes. This thirst for knowledge carried into her senior years. She loved to read, mostly history and biographies. Even at her passing she had many library books on hand.

Her father was a musician and music teacher and mom learned to read music and play the piano, organ and accordion. She loved music and played into her 80’s.

She spent her working years in the laundry department at HSC where she made many lifelong friends.

In retirement she travelled extensively. She particularly enjoyed her trips with Fehr Way tours of which she had many fond memories. One of her most special memories though was her trip to Las Vegas with Sharon, Elaine and Granddaughters Maile and Amanda. What happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas. The 5 of them have many happy memories of that trip.

In her retirement mom took an interest in genealogy and decided to dig into our fathers’ and her own family trees. She, along with cousin Hilton Friesen and brother-in-law Edward Brandt, researched and wrote 4 extensive genealogy books. These books took many years to compile and in the end were treasured by the hundreds of family and extended family members that received copies. Because of these efforts we have our history on one branch on our father’s side to 1000AD.

The last 4 years were spent living at River Ridge II Retirement residences. She loved it there and it may have been the happiest time of her life. She always made a special effort to get to know the other residents and staff and because of this and her outgoing nature and ready smile she will be sadly missed.

The family would like to thank the staff at River Ridge II and healthcare aides who made her life so enjoyable in her final years.

In lieu of flowers donations in her memory can be made to the Canadian Cancer Society.

We loved her dearly and she will be sadly missed. Rest in peace mom.

Private family service will be held on Friday September 3. To join us virtually, please go to the 'Join Livestream' link in the Services tab below.