Agnes Schapansky

Her first 14 years were spent on the open prairie. She loved to run, and she really loved school and reading.

In May 1940, the family with their twelve children moved by train to Burns Lake in north central BC. From the train station, they travelled by horse and wagon and on foot, building their own road when it ran out, and finally settled far in the back country at Ootsa Lake. Tragically, they lost their father in a barn raising accident that November.

In the late 1950’s, she moved with her sister Kathy to work as cooks in the Burns Lake Hospital.

They moved to Prince George in the early 1960’s where she attended BC Vocational School, graduating as a Practical nurse in 1965. They eventually bought a lovely house and ran it as a boarding house while Agnes worked at the Prince George hospital.

In 1970, weary of the deep snow to be shoveled early every morning before her shift, they moved to Burnaby and Agnes worked at Surrey Memorial Hospital as a pediatric nurse until her retirement in 1989. She then did volunteer work with a government program in schools checking children’s hearing.

In retirement, she and her sister enjoyed competition ballroom dancing, traveling and winning awards in Canada and the USA. Summers were spent happily travelling by car all over BC and Alberta.

In 2017 she moved to Nanaimo to be near family. She loved her ocean view apartment.