Maria Johanna Lemmen

With sad hearts we share the passing of our sister Maria Johanna Lemmen who was born on November 2nd, 1956, in The Hague, Netherlands, and passed away on July 12th, 2023, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at 66 years of age.

She was the 3rd child of a family of 8 children which included 3 girls and 5 boys.

She immigrated to Canada with her family when she was very young, living first in Terrace BC to age 4, then Pembroke Ontario to age 15, before her family finally settled in Victoria BC.

She was a kind and giving person who loved to giggle and do gymnastics in bed with her sisters Ruby and Corry late at night in the bedroom they shared despite pleas from her parents Karl and Tetske in the front bedroom, and pleas from her 5 brothers Steve, Charles, Ted, Peter and Henry from the back bedroom, to be quiet and go to sleep.

Maria was a creative person who sewed, made her own clothes, and embraced the 60s and 70s hippy generation despite her strict traditional Dutch family upbringing.

Sadly the onset of schizophrenia in her mid twenties robbed her, her family, and cousins in Ottawa of each others company as she self isolated for the remainder of her life despite her father Karl's persistent lifelong efforts to re-establish contact.

In recent years we learned that her 3 children were adopted as newborns to the same loving family in Kamloops giving them a wonderful home life. We were grateful to welcome contact from her eldest son recently and establish new beginnings for our family, children and grandchildren.

With her passing we learned that she was living in the supportive housing of Taylor Manor in Vancouver administered by the Kettle Society and numerous charitable organizations. Please donate to them generously in Maria's memory for the benefit of those struggling with mental health challenges as she did. We trust that she found many friends in this home setting to share in her inclusive social nature.

As the free spirit that she was, her ashes have been spread with her brother Peter, sister Corry and father Karl, off the waters of the Oak Bay and Victoria beaches she explored in her teens and twenties with her siblings, while growing into adulthood at the family home on Richmond Road.

Arrangements entrusted to the care of Glenhaven Memorial Chapel, 1835 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. Phone 604-255-5444.

Memories of Maria may be shared eternally at dignitymemorial.com.