Stella was predeceased by her parents, Reverend AD Mathews & Fercunda Mathews, and six of her nine siblings—three brothers and three sisters. Stella is survived by David Manuel, her husband of fifty-nine years, daughter Rebecca (and husband Neil Klassen), and sons Philip (and wife Indira), David (and wife Kathleen), and Vijay (and wife Sarah), thirteen grandchildren (three of whom are married), two great-grandchildren and a third on the way. Stella is also survived by sisters Nora and Isabella, and brother Laurence.
Stella Joy was born in Ferozpur, Punjab, India in 1940, the youngest daughter of ten children. She attended high school in Saharanpur, and completed her teacher training in Moga.
Stella married David Manuel in 1960, and began her teaching career in Saharanpur, and then continued to teach in Dehra Dun, where David was a pastor in the Church of North India.
In 1977 Stella and David were led by the Lord to move with their four children to Three Hills, Alberta, so that David could continue is biblical studies at Prairie Bible Institute. During that time Stella looked after the family and worked as an educational assistant at the Prairie Elementary School.
In 1980 the Lord opened another door for the Manuel family to move to Abbotsford, BC, where David joined the pastoral staff of South Abbotsford MB Church, and began a ministry among the Indo-Canadian people. Stella supported David in this ministry by working among the Indo-Canadian women, cooking delicious meals for many ICCF Conferences, doing pastoral visitations, and much more. Stella also worked as a teacher-on-call in the Abbotsford and Chilliwack school districts, and also in the independent schools. She also worked for several years with MCC/Supportive Care Services.
In 2001 Stella retired and spent more of her time enjoying her grandchildren. She enjoyed taking her children and grandchildren to Canucks games, and cheering loudly for her favourite players. She was a great MEI basketball enthusiast, and knit an outfit in MEI colours, complete with an MEI logo, for her first grandson—which he wore to many MEI basketball games that he attended with his grandmother. Stella was, in fact a very creative person, who knit and sewed all kinds of things for family and friends. As well, during the past five years Stella took a writing course, and wrote many short stories.
Stella also was awarded a ‘Character Abbotsford Unsung Hero’ award, which was presented to her by Abbotsford’s then-Mayor Bruce Banman.
Stella loved her family, and enjoyed celebrating with them. To that end, she created and invited her family to attend a ‘Back to School Banquet’ every August, for which Stella cooked and served one of her legendary, delicious Indian meal. After dinner each grandchild read and then presented Stella with a written story of something special that had happened during the summer. Stella gave each grandchild a gift, and encouraged them all to love the Lord, work hard and do well in the coming school year. Stella collected and kept all of those stories as a personal treasure.
After her retirement, Stella and David travelled to many different places: England, Italy, Mexico, Greece, and of course India. Stella also had fun house-boating up at Shuswap Lake with her family, and was able to enjoy one more house-boating trip last summer. David also enjoyed this—especially when he was able to catch several beautiful trout.
This spring Stella felt ill for some time. In July, after numerous tests, Stella was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which took her from us on 23 August, 2019.
Stella has left an amazing legacy of loving and serving God, her family, and the people that God brought into her life.
We are all going to miss Stella very much, and while we are feeling with sadness the enormous gap that now exists in our family, we continue to trust in the promises of God.
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