Jean Barbara Andersen

September 8, 1931 - June 23, 2017

Jean passed peacefully on June 23, 2017 after a long battle with Fibromyalgia for which cause she served as Burnaby Group Leader for several years.

Born in Jamaica, Jean travelled to Europe and Toronto before settling in Vancouver with her husband Lars (former North Shore realtor) and their two sons John and Paul.

From a secretarial career, her gift for gardening led her into a successful Landscape Design and contract service. She made the pages of Chatelaine National Magazine as their "Woman on the Go" for May 1977. She was also appointed Honorary Life Member of the BC Landscape and Nursery Association.

Jean is survived by her sons John (Barb) and Paul, two sisters, Joyce and Fay; brother Donny; grandsons Jared and Kyle and many other family members and friends.

Service will be on July 2nd at 3:30 pm at Fairhaven Nursing Home at 7557 Sussex Street, Burnaby. Enter at 4383 Rumble Street. (Door right

of B.C. Conference Office) In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Fibromyalgia Society of B.C. “

We shall celebrate Jean's life.

Arrangements under the direction of First Memorial Funeral Services, North Vancouver, BC.

EULOGY – Jean Barbara Andersen

Jean…. “our big sister”

She was the eldest of four of us…..two girls followed her and then there was me – “little brother”. We all loved her very much…. Jean was unselfishly always there for us - as an example, she was the one who made it possible for me to go to High School. In later years even after moving abroad she would be the first on a plane back to Jamaica when a family problem arose (health or otherwise) to help us work things out.

In earlier times, we all with our families, and her Mom and Dad too, visited her regularly in Toronto and here in Vancouver, and in later years, as her health deteriorated, we the siblings visited on planned reunion trips or individually from time to time, in fact Joyce and one of her daughters were here a few short weeks ago.

It was on one of these visits here that Jean related a story to me that really touched me. You see our mother went sick and had to be hospitalized for a long term period and Jean( then only 8) told me how she was put on a country bus and sent far away to an Uncle and Aunt who raised her for the rest of her young life.

In spite of this break with her immediate family, Jean never severed the connections back to her parents and siblings, and although separated from us, kept in touch and soon began to take on leading roles in all aspects of our lives. She was later reunited with the family after graduating from High School and soon entered the work force where, being a very bright and industrious young lady, she always got herself good jobs and so started building for herself a very successful career.

Next big family task she took on was to play the lead role in relocating our whole family to Kingston where we could all capitalize on better opportunities.

I guess she got bored after this so off to London, England, she went and lived there for a few years before heading across to Toronto to join her two sisters, Fay and Joyce, who had by then migrated there. It was there in Toronto that she met and married her husband, Lars Andersen, whose job after a few years transferred him out to Vancouver and so with their two sons, John and Paul, the whole family relocated to B.C.

Here with the background of “love of gardening and creating beautiful sites” (which she must have inherited from our mother) she started and developed a most successful Landscape and Design business out here. She was very proud (and rightly so) of the article of her and her successful business that made it to the cover of the well-known “Chatelaine National Magazine” under the title of “Woman on the Go” for May 1977. That week our family bought up all available copies of Chatelaine.

On top of all this Jean took on several roles in many related organizations out here as her strong leadership qualities always lifted her to the top in whatever she took on. Jean was an Honorary Life Member of the BC Landscape and Nursery Association.

Throughout her career she gained the high regards, respect, and friendship of many, and as her health deteriorated and she eventually moved to her new “home” here at Fair Haven, she true to form took on roles of support and encouragement and again garnered the respect and friendship of many as can be seen here today.

On behalf of the family we want to express our heart-felt thanks for all that you did for her here. We very much appreciate it and from the way she spoke so highly of you all, we know for sure that she too appreciated it immensely.

I must also take this opportunity to acknowledge the family of Susan and Norman who were Jean’s neighbours for many years before she moved here into Fair Haven. They have been the angels sent by God to surround Jean for all these years and we can’t begin to thank you for the support and the multitude of things that you did for her.

The love of her life was her two boys, John and Paul, to whom she was totally devoted. Distance and circumstances kept John away from frequent visits but Paul was close at hand throughout it all and to the very end. We her three siblings will be forever indebted to him for arranging, while standing over her in the final moments, that although far away, we could together say a prayer and goodbye to her in her last moments.

We know that she is now resting in Peace.