Johanna Marie Fiorino

Our beautiful wife, mother, and daughter, Johanna Fiorino, passed in the early morning of Sunday, January 21, 2024 at St. Boniface Hospital surrounded by those who loved her most, her husband and children.

Johanna is survived by her loving husband of 44 years, Agostino Fiorino; her adoring children, Joseph, Leathia (Alexander), Julia (Robert), and Gabriel; her caring mother, Helen Gavrailoff; her brother, Thomas, and sisters, Helen and Anne.

She is predeceased by her father George Gavrailoff; her brother George; her mother-in-law, Lidia, and father-in-law, Giuseppe Fiorino.

Her father affectionately called Johanna “Angel Baby”. It was a name she fulfilled by the love, grace, and beauty with which she lived.

Johanna embarked on a successful career as a legal secretary in Winnipeg, where she met Agostino. Following a one-year romantic courtship, the pair married on May 24, 1980, and went on to have four beautiful children.

She is the great love and best friend to all her children.

Johanna is the essence of Motherhood. Her love is endlessly deep and uniquely beautiful for each blessed child. She is gentleness and protection. She brings light where there is darkness; she brings safety where there is danger. She is the lighthouse in the storm. She will forever be the Northern Star guiding her children. She is the soul and the heartbeat of our family.

When times were difficult, Johanna moved mountains for her family. She tended to the sick. And she cared for her father and mother in their later years (with the help of a young Gabriel). She was generous and kind to all, and especially devoted to her friends.

Her trust in Jesus is central. Johanna believed and was grateful for miracles in her life. She maintained a special devotion to the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

Her favourite place in the world—since 1969—was the family cottage at Longbow Lake. She loved the early morning sun on the deck with her husband and daughters (coffee in hand), walking the land with her sons retelling old stories of their Grandpa and Baba, and laughing with her children as they swim and fish on the dock. She loved animals, and all family pets were inseparable from her.

No children could ever be prouder of their mother than we are of YOU.

A Funeral Mass will take place Saturday, January 27, 2024 at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, 510 River Avenue, Winnipeg, MB. Condolences start at 9:00 am followed by Mass at 10:00 am. Private entombment to follow. The livestream of the Mass may be found here: https://youtube.com/live/HIOGguz18YM?feature=share

A special thank-you to nursing and care staff at St. Boniface 5E. In lieu of flowers, please make a charitable donation in Johanna’s name to Cancer Care Manitoba or St. Boniface Hospital.