Judith Winifred Johannes

Judith was born in Shanghai, China on Nov 3rd, 1936 to Mark and Winifred Boniface, the youngest of three daughters including Rosemary and Jane. Her father was involved in the furniture trade, but business and life was disrupted by war in the Pacific in 1941. While attempting to evacuate by ship, the family was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines. The Boniface family was interned at a prison camp in Manila at the Santo Tomas University along with other British and American citizens. Judy endured over three years of captivity, hunger, and the death of her father in the camp. By the time they were liberated in Feb, 1945 she was eight years old. That experience had a real affect on young Judy and it stayed with her all of her life.

In 1945 the family settled in Vancouver, first in Shaughnessy on Angus Dr. where she met her best friend Sue M. The Bonifaces then moved to 43rd Ave. in the Kerrisdale area where she met Jocelyn B. who lived across the street. Judy was now in elementary school starting in grade three at Crofton house, then attended local public schools, and returned to Crofton House from grade nine to twelve. With the family living on her father’s company pension she was one of the few students along with friend Joan H who packed a box lunch from home avoiding the more expensive dining room. She always had fond memories of Crofton House and summer camp at Four Winds on Orcas Island in the early 1950’s where she likely discovered her passion for swimming and camping.

After graduating from Crofton she went on to study nursing at UBC where she formed strong bonds with old and new classmates in the nursing faculty. (Gail, Joanie, Sydney, Jo-Mary, Laurie, Pat, Barb… just to name a few)

She spent time training at Vancouver General and St. Paul’s Hospital and graduated in 1960 as a registered nurse. After a vacation in California, Judy B. soon moved to Palo Alto along with a group of friends (The Greenwood Girls). She worked at the Stanford ‘Hilton’ Hospital then the Stanford Medical Center. Judy also spent time visiting Santa Barbara and enjoyed the California beaches.

In 1962 Judy went back to Vancouver with the plan to travel overseas. She and friends embarked on a trip to Europe when she met her future husband Paul on the same ship headed for England. Paul, a mining engineer wrote her regularly and the two met and travelled through Holland together. It was a whirlwind romance, the couple were married at St. Anne's church in London, followed by a honeymoon in Scandinavia.

Once Paul had his immigration papers, they landed in Canada then on to Noranda, Quebec, where twins Andrea and Erik were born in 1964. The following year they moved to Timmins Ontario where Nicholas was born. A year later they moved again to Saskatoon where they would settle for twenty years. Christopher was born in 1968. Judy Johannes first worked at the University Hospital, and then for the Saskatoon Public Health Dept. She was involved in school immunization programs and working with expectant and new mothers. She disliked the cold weather but met many new friends and families on Harrington Street, in College Park, and around the University.

As a working mom on the prairies Judy tried to keep her kids busy exposing them to ‘cutural’ events, camping, swimming lessons, cross country skiing, and trips through the rockies to British Columbia. She enjoyed cooking, as long as Paul did the dishes. Indonesian food being one of the family’s favorites. She would stay up late into the night cutting and stitching in the basement sewing room. Judy was an obsessive planner and organizer of home economics, dinner parties and family trips while also known for unexplainable acts of spontaneity. Judy and Paul spent two months traveling throughout Europe packed in a VW Westphalia van with their four young children. During a camping trip to Waskesiu Lake mom saved our drowning beagle Susie by having two nearby unknown men lower her by the ankles off the cement breakwater to reach the dog. She was our hero. 1986 was a difficult year for Judy. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had already lost her older sister Jane. Being a nurse, she traveled to Vancouver to help her elderly mother who was also fighting cancer. After the potash mine where Paul worked shut-down due to flooding, Judy made the decision it was time to move west, back to Vancouver where she always felt was her true home.

Judy and Paul bought a house in Horseshoe Bay and she continued to work as a public health nurse in North Vancouver. When Paul worked out of town, she lived with their faithful dog Jessica until they were both officially retired. Judy was soon organizing her retirement which included joining clubs, sewing, gardening, and planning trips with Paul and older sister Rosemary. Over the following years she continued to travel across the globe to: Mexico, Egypt, Russia, China, Australia, Europe, and the US for reunions of the surviving internees of the Santo Tomas POW camp. Later she and sister Ro wrote an account of their family’s ordeal during the war called An Interrupted Interlude. She always enjoyed being a host and spending time with her old and new friends, going to plays, or watching the Met Opera. After twenty-two years they moved to a smaller townhouse near White Rock, where Judy joined the Westbrook and Probus Club communities, and tried pottery, silversmithing, and painting.

In 2013 she and Paul celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Judy loved spending time with all her nieces and nephews, and all of her two sisters’ grandchildren, and especially her own grandchildren Mark and Charlotte. She enjoyed and recognized the privileged life she lived, but was always looking forward to the next project, plan, or party. Quoting one of her closest friends “Judy was a woman of action!”

Recently Mom suspected she was ill and used her nursing knowledge to help her make the difficult decision not to seek treatment, but to still have some degree of control over her fate. She passed away at home with her family around her on Nov 30, 2025 shortly after her 89th birthday. She donated to various Bladder, Kidney, and Pancreatic cancer charities and encouraged others to do the same.