Emilia Voros-Foss

Emmy Voros-Foss passed away peacefully at home on August 21, 2012 in Calgary after a courageous 2 year battle with cancer. She was born on November 3, 1952 in Calgary and attended St. Ann’s Elementary School and St. Francis High School.

Emmy was a loving person with a willingness and desire to help anyone. Most didn’t even need to ask and she would be there to lend a hand always thinking of everyone else. One of the very special things she liked to do was to write poems for friends and family as gifts.

Emmy loved to travel and Las Vegas was one of her favorite destinations. Whether it was a shopping trip with a friend or another adventure with family she was always up for a trip. Emmy liked to play the penny slots especially in the big Las Vegas casinos. One of her favorite casino game was monopoly and she could sit and play for hours. She claimed that when her palm got itchy it was time to play or bet because she was feeling lucky. Emmy also enjoyed doing sports pools and betting on things like golf with her grandson. Shopping was another one of Emmy’s passions. She loved her clothes, jewelry and even more loved shoes. Always hunting for a deal she very rarely, if ever, paid full price for something unless it was for someone else.

Emmy worked a number of different jobs that included things like cleaning houses, sales positions, owning a day home for kids and being a dedicated homemaker when her 2 boys were young. She held the cleaning contract for a number of years at the Foothills Steel Foundry where her father Imre (Jim) Voros proudly worked for 31 years. Later in life she went on to M.A. Foss Distributors Ltd. Emmy was the Regional Sales Manager, became a shareholder of the company and enjoyed a long and fulfilling career. Emmy loved managing her territory and calling on both independent pharmacies and large chains right across the country. She loved to merchandise, work tradeshows and did her job with passion and pride. Her contribution to the company helping lead in the significant growth during her time there was again no surprise to those who knew her.

Emmy’s next challenge was to complete a lifelong wish to open a consignment store. She created the Consignment Chics and operated out of the Heritage Market before ultimately moving to Crossroads Market a few years later. Her store quickly became known for having great variety, friendly service and offered clients an outlet to sell clothing they no longer wanted. The added bonus was that she developed a system where Emmy would pay people for their clothes after they were sold and then keep a small profit for her business. Emmy also was involved with the Red Hat Society and would source and sell hats to the ladies in that organization. After her business closed, Emmy picked up another part time position for a short time but really began focusing on her retirement and working to spend more time with family and friends. When she became sick and started treatment, Emmy realized that she still had over 100 new hats and accessories in her basement. The decision for her took about 2 seconds after she realized the need and decided to donate everything she had in inventory to the Canadian Cancer Society on Manning Road for women to have free of charge.

Almost 2 years ago Emmy made another one of her long time dreams happen by purchasing a condo with her husband Art at the Odyssey Towers in Coach Gill. With her floor to ceiling windows looking west she had a spectacular and breathtaking view of the mountains. This past Stampede she was even treated to a front row seat for the nightly fireworks display all week from the comfort of her own home.

Additional favorites of hers were the annual Calgary Stampede taking all of her grandchildren at one point or another and introducing them to that experience multiple times. Emmys favorite TV program was Coronation Street and she watched it for well over 30 years. Her favorite movies are Mamma Mia, Grumpy Old Men and Out of Africa. She loved Neil Diamond and Opera. Halloween was one of her favorite days which included dressing up to go to parties or a dance with friends. Favorite indulgences were a great glass of Zinfandel wine, a hard candy apple, sponge toffee, chocolate covered marshmallow treat, tea/coffee and a great turkey dinner. She loved going all out and cooking that special meal for family on birthdays, Christmas, etc.

She would also bring her entire life to a halt when the grandkids came over, planning activities, playing with them, cooking together, etc. Emmy would start by making sure she was fully stocked with all their favorite treats and meals. This visit included movies, setting up tents in the living room, shopping, spa days, massages and pretty much anything the kids decided they wanted to do. Emmy invested countless hours getting to know them and developed unique and individual relationships with each and every one of them that they will all cherish forever.

Emmy was a very deep and spiritual person with firm beliefs in many areas but very open to others. Although later in life she chose to not have any specific religious affiliation, she recently decided to attend St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church in downtown Calgary again. She recalled attending the church as a young girl with her family and remembered looking up at her father as he stood tall with pride, clean shaven and singing out loud out of tune in Hungarian. She took great comfort and joy spending the odd Sunday back at the church and thinking about the old days. She was grateful to have gone back to renew many friendships, participate in the service, stay after for tea and a visit with friends and family in attendance.

During her life Emmy was thrown many challenges and obstacles but those who knew and loved the almost 5 foot tall giant will tell you that no challenge would have been large enough for her to take head on. Even at an early age she was known as very independent and a great fighter never giving up and has left all of us with that legacy.

Her Father was Imre (Jim) Voros born in Csabrendek, Hungary and her mother was Rozalia (Rose) Szobcsak born in Budapest, Hungary.

Emmy is survived by her husband, M.A. (Art) Foss, her two sons Jim (Helena) Hogan and Brian (Jodi) Hogan and five grandchildren Aaryn, Annie, Adara, Avaline and Brett.

She also leaves to mourn her three sisters Ildiko (Martin) Falvi, Frances (Byron) Rees and Adrienne (Georg) Widmer.

*************** Written as a tribute to Mom by her son Brian Hogan

Please join us at a Celebration of Emmy’s Life to be held at South Calgary Funeral Centre, 12700 Macleod Trail South, (at Lake Fraser Gate) Calgary on Monday, August 27, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. with reception following.

Also, in memory of Emmy, memorial donations may be made directly to the Canadian Cancer Society at #200, 325 Manning Road NE, Calgary, AB T2E 2P5 or to a charity of your choice.