Christine Hilde Maro Doehnel

Christine Doehnel was born on January 26,1934 and lived the first four years of her life in Madura India before her family moved back to Germany. She met our dad Eberhard when he was back visiting his family in Germany, and they got engaged. She then joined him as he had just immigrated to Canada.

They came to Vancouver Island, the warmest place in Canada, where they knew no one and didn’t speak English. She went to work right away as a physiotherapist in the hospital in Victoria (even with that language barrier) so she could support our dad through university. In the late 1950’s they bought a piece of property way out in the middle of “Nowhere North Saanich”, slowly built a home and started carving out their future into the side of the mountain. It became our family home filled with hundreds of memories of playing in the forest, growing food in the garden, swimming and playing with the neighbour kids.

She, along with my dad, embraced Canada and they made their life here along with many other immigrants in the 1950s.

Our mom was so kind, and she loved her family unconditionally. She joined in on everything it took to live and thrive where we did. She sewed, cooked, worked, moved boulders, mixed concrete, and carried water. She loved her kids, Michael(Marilyn), Tina(Tony), Andrea, and her granddaughters Emily and Haley and their partners. She also loved the dogs, Duke, Axl & Finn when they came to the house.

She needed little and was content with the simple things of life. She loved music, piano, weeding, her family. She fixed a million little things over the years and reminded us all to be good human beings, not by her words, but by her actions.

She was ready for her wings and her biggest unselfish concern in her last days was asking us if we would make sure to look after our dad so he would be ok. We promised “yes!” and after a final visit from Michael and with Tina and I in her room, she quietly took flight to be with her brother Carl-Hans, sister Lore, parents Else and Carl, and her son in law Michael.

She left her very gentle but distinctive footprint on this earth and for those same reasons, there will be no service and only a private family moment to scatter her ashes. In her remembrance, we ask that we all remember to be kind like she was.

We will all love her and will miss her.