Alice Velma Hill

HILL: ALICE VELMA (COCHLAN) —wife and mother, grandma and great-grandma, loyal friend and neighbour, champion apple pie maker, curler, proud Irish descendent and prairie girl—died on Tuesday, February 5, age 97, in Kelowna. Born in a house built by her maternal grandfather near Carievale, Sask., Alice grew up on her parents’ farm near Palmer, Sask as the second eldest of five children and the eldest girl. The homemaking arts she learned from her mother in a home that welcomed everyone would serve her well the rest of her life. Alice married the schoolteacher, Don Hill, in 1938, at the height of the Dirty Thirties, with grasshoppers as uninvited guests at their wedding. Their first child, June, was born before Don went overseas as an artillery officer in World War II. Alice and June passed the war years in Palmer, with Alice’s parents, Alice working as a telephone operator. Within a few years of Don’s return, the family moved to Wynyard, where Don was Principal, and Herbert, where he was Superintendent. By now they had four children, two more having died as infants, Jennifer Donna and Douglas Harold. In 1961 Alice and Don moved into the only new house they ever owned, a split-level in the new suburb of Hillsdale, in Regina, where they lived happily until 1975. Retirement to Kelowna followed, with many more years of exploring the Okanagan in a Datsun pick-up and matching Boler trailer. Alice and Don took great pleasure in hosting old friends from as far back as the Palmer years, and numerous visits from their children and grandchildren to their home in the Mission district of Kelowna. After Don’s death in 1992, Alice lived alone for another dozen years or so before living her last years in the excellent care of staff at Mountainview Village. She is survived by three daughters—June Danngren, Fay Karp (Joe), and Susan Van Gasbeck (Allan), all of Kelowna—and son Gerry Hill of Regina, and by her eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. A Memorial Service will be held at First Memorial Funeral Service, 1211 Sutherland Ave in Kelowna Friday, February 15 at 11:00 AM . Memorial donations may be made to the Canadian Diabetes Association, 1400-522 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M5G 2R5. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.mem.com, clicking on stories and typing in Alice Hill. Arrangements entrusted with First Memorial Funeral Services, Kelowna.250-762-2299