Gisela Erny Pauline Stickel went home to the Lord on Saturday, October 19, 2019. She was born in Konigsberg, East Prussia on April 10, 1927 to Eberhard and Elisabeth Ochs (nee Weller). She joined her sister, Ingebord and later came Peter, Marianne, Elisabeth and Gudrun.
They lived and worked at the Country Estate of Metgethen.
At age 10, Gisela saw a film about nursing and decided that was her dream, but life changed drastically for the Ochs family when Father was given the choice of keeping his job or divorcing his part Jewish wife. They left Metgethen with 5 children to live in the city of Konigsberg.
Gisela, at 13, went to work on a farm. She cared for chickens and learned to milk cows. She had many other jobs as a teenager: babysitting, tutoring, knitting, and working in an ammunition factory.
At the end of March 1946, Gisela started nursing school in Bielefeld. She worked 15-16 hours a day caring for patients, cleaning rooms, doing lab tests, IV’s and blood transfusions. For her, it was not a job, but a calling to serve. Her faith in God carried her through homelessness, hunger, war, loss and uncertainty.
On June 3, 1953, the Ochs family boarded the ‘Beaverbrae’ to start a new life in Canada. On that ship, Gisela unknowingly met her future husband. They arrived in Agassiz, BC to work at the Andres Farm, picking berries. Christian Stickel came out to see the family he met on the voyage overseas. He proposed to Gisela who eventually said yes and the couple were married in Ottawa on September 24, 1955.
The Stickels moved west after their first child, Klaus, was born. They bought a house on Neville Street in Burnaby in 1957. Their daughter, Katharina, was born in 1958, and in 1961, Richard completed the family.
Gisela continued to work in nursing until her retirement in 1991, when they moved to White Rock. In their life together, Christian and Gisela travelled, attended church, and enjoyed their children and grandchildren.
Gisela cared for her husband until he passed away in 2009. Throughout her life, she cared for those around her. Many received her kindness and she will be remembered fondly. Her faith in Jesus was the source of her strength, compassion and love.
She is survived by her sisters, Marianne (Reinhard) and Elisabeth, and her children, Klaus (Kamla), Katharine Thomson (Gerald), and Richard (Anne), 7 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.
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