Pamela Ann Beresford

On Wednesday, October 5th, 2022 at 3:15 pm Pamela Ann Beresford passed away with her husband by her side holding her hand. Pam was born in Brighton, England on November 19, 1944 into the Goodman family, father Cecil Goodman, mother Eileen Betty Goodman (nee Hatherley) and big sister Marlene. In 1947 Pam was adopted into a loving family by George and Dina Matthews.

Pam is deeply missed by her husband of 52 years Stewart, her daughters Jennifer Doerksen and Sarah Beresford, son-in-law Dale Doerksen, grandchildren Caroline, William, Madison and Jonathan Doerksen. Her sister Marlene Wakeford (Brian), nephew Adrian, nieces Emma (Stuart) Mehrten and Sarah (Glenn) Masters, brother-in-law Bruce Beresford (Mary) and nephew Alexander and long time friends Rodger and Dawn Hart in the UK. Pam also had a large Canadian family, namely Tony and Patricia Bradley, David and Maureen Bradley, Colin and Patricia Bradley, Maurice Bradley, Jack and Carol Freeman, Bruce and Gillian Fleming, Shawn and Peter Spronken and their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Pam arrived in Canada in January of 1970, her first job in Canada was as a receptionist for an orthodontist in New Westminster. When asked if she would like the job, she answered “yes, but what’s an orthodontist?”. At that time there were only a handful in the whole of the province of BC, now there is one on every corner. Pam left the orthodontist in 1972 to become a full-time Mum, at which she excelled. In 1980 she joined Woodward’s, which became The Bay, part-time in retail sales. She retired proudly from the Bay, in 2005 after 25 years of service. Both her daughters took up figure skating at a young age and Pam got involved in the executive of the Sungod Skating Club and at one time was it’s president. To this day she still has many friends from that association.

In 1999 Pam was diagnosed with a benign meningioma tumour in her skull, this was successfully removed, but unfortunately returned in 2002 and again in 2005. After the third operation, radiation was applied to the tumour area and that stopped the growth. In 2015 a cancerous tumour was found in her right breast, at the time it was too large to be surgically removed. After several years of medication the tumour shrank enough to be operated on and her breast and some lymph nodes were removed.

In August of 2021 Pam had a fall that caused a brain bleed and minor stroke. She was released from hospital in November of that year into a palliative care program and was cared for at her daughter Jennifer’s home. We hoped for a full recovery, but it wasn’t to be.

As you can see Pam was one tough lady and she fought hard to stay with her family and friends. There will be a celebration of Pam’s life on November 13th, 2022 at 1:30 pm.

Anyone wishing to attend this celebration is asked to private message Stewart, Jennifer or Sarah, you can also email Stewart at [email protected] if you wish.