Mrs. Edna Irene Gault

November 28, 1917 – July 5, 2013

Irene was born in Saskatoon Saskatchewan and raised in Asquith,

the eldest daughter of Hans & Carrie Hanson.

Suffering through too many prairie winters and tired of scraping the ice from the inside of her parent’s humble home she moved to Vancouver in the late 1930s.

Irene found work at Canada Packers on Terminal Avenue. There she met and married the love of her life, Ernie Gault in 1943. In 1950, now with two young children, Donna and Bob, they moved into their brand new home in the first large scale, planned subdivision in Canada, Westridge in North Burnaby.

1959 saw the birth of her third child Dan.

In 1960 cancer stole Ernie from Irene and forced her to reenter the work force after 15 years of being an at-home Mom. She first needed to learn to drive.

Canada Packers found a placement for her on the afternoon shift so she could continue to be at home during the day with her new son.

Donna took on much of the burden minding Dan in the evenings. With Donna’s commitment, and a few babysitters, family life continued as normal as possible under the circumstances.

In 1965 Irene changed jobs and began working at Simon Fraser University in food services. There she would carve out a career that would last until just before her 83rd birthday. She was instrumental in the formation of the first union at SFU and served local 40 as a loyal shop steward and contract negotiator for many years.

As Dan had started school by then, working a 9-3:30 shift allowed her to continue as an almost stay at home Mom.

Starting at SFU at age 48 she worked there for 35 years, retiring as one of the last two charter employees of the University. She had truly become an integral and much loved member of the institution.

Irene shared her two son’s love of baseball and spent many hours at the ballpark watching Bob and then Dan play their games. She became an exemplary scorekeeper in addition to just being a fan of the game.

Her grandchildren, Maren, Jay, William and Erik were a huge presence in her life. They were truly the love and light in the second half of her life. She even stuck around long enough to see her first great grandchild, Gray (Maren and Drew).

Dan moved to Quebec in 1992 and with the birth of his children William and Erik, Irene became bicoastal, she would spend 3 months in Quebec living with Dan & Maryse and the boys. She would return to her home in Burnaby for 3 months then return to Quebec for the next three. She continued this rotation for the better part of a decade.

She returned from her last trip in October 2011 and announced that it would be her last. The cross country jaunts had become just too hard. In January 2012 her health began to deteriorate and it was an incremental, downward slide from that point.

She was able to live in her beloved home until the very end, the home chosen with the one true love of her life, her husband Ernie.

Irene passed peacefully and pain free into the presence of our Lord.

Rock of Ages, Truth divine.

The family is grateful for the wonderful care and compassion given to Irene by the staff at St Elizabeth, Fraser Health, Anita’s Pharmacy, Burnaby General Hospital, and St Michael’s Hospice.