Marie Claire Muller

Marie Claire was actually born with the name Allegra Yfrah (nicknamed Aliza). She was the daughter of Aharon (Henri) Yfrah and Rachel DeLa Reina, both of whom were from Tiberias. This would today be located in the state of Israel, but at the time it was the British mandate of Palestine. Her parents had moved to Haifa, where she was born and spent her early years.

Around 1936, she met Bohuslav Muller, who was Czech (born in what was, at the time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire). and an employee of the Bata shoe company. They fell in love, but as things progressed, her family had persuaded a local official to change the record her birth year to 1919, so that she would still need parental approval to marry. Instead, she eloped with Bohuslav, marrying in Beirut on July 23, 1938. When she married, she converted to Catholicism, and underwent catechism at the Convent of the Redeemer. Allegra thus changed her given name to Marie Claire. This is how she came to be known after that, as Marie Claire Muller, with the (official but erroneous) birth date of 1919. Although Marie was the first name officially, she preferred to be called "Claire".

Claire and Bohuslav had their honeymoon in Yugoslavia and moved to Czechoslovakia. However, before too long, the country was annexed by Nazi Germany, and with Claire expecting their first child, and war coming soon, they moved to British-controlled Kenya. It was in Kenya that Bohuslav and Claire's three children were born: Thomas on Dec. 13, 1939; Vera on April 18, 1941; and Jan on Oct. 30, 1944.

After World War 2, the family moved to Tehran, Iran, in June 1946. Eventually, in the early 1970's, first Thomas and then Vera moved with their own families to North Vancouver, Canada. Bohuslav and Marie Claire followed, moving to North Vancouver as well, in July 1976.

During her life, Marie Claire traveled to a great many countries, and held a number of citizenships. Over the course of her life, she had also learned to speak Arabic, Hebrew, French, Czech, English, Farsi, German, as well as some Swahili and Russian. She had family and friends living all over the globe.

Bohuslav died on March 17, 1982, but Marie Claire continued to live in North Vancouver, until her death on February 25, 2017. She was survived by her three children, four grandchildren (Monica, Bijan, Charlotte, and Tommi), and two great-grandchildren (Jacob and Anna).

- Bijan Sepehri

Hello, everybody.

Lovely to see all of you again.

Thank you for coming to celebrate Claire Muller's life.

My wife, Miyuki, is an aged-care nurse and works at a nursing home in Australia. You can picture the scenery. Patients wandering aimlessly up and down corridors, lost in space and lost in thought; People in wheelchairs, approaching the dining table and falling asleep on the way; patients, whose brains are still sharp and clear but are permanently bed ridden, unable to feed themselves and wash.

She gathered her nursing colleagues around her to tell them that her mother-in-law had died and she would need to take leave and fly 12,000 kilometres to attend the funeral. Eyebrows furrowed, cheeks fell, jaws sank. Gravity was bending the space around their faces. She could sense the sadness in the air and came to the rescue:

"No, she had a beautiful life! She had loving children, and lovely grandchildren. She had no relationship problems; no financial troubles; no health issues. She was a few months short of her 99th birthday!"

Faces lifted, smiles came to her colleagues, gravity vanished.

"And she outlived her husband by 35 years!"

Gravity returned. It was written on their faces. The poor lady; thirty-five years without her husband! All alone. . .

"No, no! She was a merry widow. Traveled the world—sometimes with friends or family, sometimes alone. Visited 53 countries; lived her dreams and turned them into adventures."

Yes, that was Claire. A model of motherhood and modesty. A woman endowed with strength of character, patience, and lust for life. A human generous to a fault.

She was the perfect antidote to gravity.

- Thomas E. Muller

Marie Claire Muller - Claire, Mum, Omi - to friends and family, she was a wonderful inspiration to all the people whose lives she touched. She was small of stature, buy had a self-assured manner that's rarely seen in a woman whose career is to be a mother and head of the household. Therefore she seemed much taller than 5'3”.

As her daughter in law, I had to hear from my husband how great the food tasted when his mother cooked, and since any self-respecting person can hear such criticism only so much, I tried to learn to cook, and to be a better wife and mother. I have a lot to be thankful for to Claire, for she taught me many things, and I will miss her dearly.

Gisela Muller