Alexandra Janet Youngberg

Alexandra Janet Youngberg died peacefully at Vancouver General Hospital on Monday the 19th of August 2024. Her body was finally too weak to go on after several struggles with cancer over the last 10 years. She was predeceased by her mother Edna, father Lorne, sister Gail (and John) and her infant son Morgan. She is survived by her brother Reid, nephews Cameron (Vesti) and Sean, and great nieces Eden and Aurora (Jacob) as well as many cousins and relations and innumerable friends and admirers.

Alex was borne in Atikokan Ontario on the 22 of April, 1953. She was the third of 3 children borne to Lorne and Edna Youngberg. The family lived in Atikokan throughout Alex’s childhood while her father worked at the Steeprock Iron mine. She and her brother Reid and the rest of the family built lifelong bonds with other families in Atikokan that still sustain them all to this day. Alex always looked back to Atikokan fondly and said often that in her memory it was the most beautiful place in the world. The family moved to Toronto briefly in the early 1960s so that her older sister Gail could go to university. Alex saw the Beatles perform at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1966 and found ways to remember that throughout her life.

With only Alex still at home the family moved to Fort MacMurray in the mid 1960s so that Lorne and Edna could finish putting together their retirement package. School services were not first rate in Fort Mac so Alex did a short stint at boarding school in Edmonton before moving to Saskatoon to live with her sister Gail, her husband John and their two sons Sean and Cameron and attended high school there. The late sixties and early seventies opened a lot of paths for young people and Alex was burdened for many years by pressures that flowed from the turbulent times and a complicated family. But aren’t all families complicated? She struggled to find herself and her way forward facing enormous challenges and eventually overwhelming tragedy in the loss of her infant son Morgan. In time, though, she found her calling and her limitless courage and began to blossom into a living angel and to build the beautiful life we all saw and remember now.

Alex found a fulfilling career as a librarian in the Vancouver Public Library and through that found her true calling; to bring light and hope into the lives of everyone she touched by sharing her courage and joy. She was a leader in her profession and her community through her role as a Union president. Through that role and so much more in her life she shared her courage and joy and nurtured courage and joy in all that know her and loved her. She will be sorely missed by many but those that are missed are always with us.

Alex’s strength and joy were enough to keep cancer at bay for years and she didn’t give up on that approach to life right through to the last.

To remember her cherish and nurture the ones that you love, give to the arts and adult education wherever you find a way, give to cancer research and treatment support and give of yourself to someone who needs you.