Elke Helga Epp

After a hard-fought battle, surrounded by love, Elke (“Nana”) Epp passed away on September 12, 2025 at the age of 82 years.

Mom is lovingly remembered by her children Tracey (Christoff), Mike, and Mindy (Steve), grandchildren Nick (Rebecca), Raisa, and Alex (Alyssa), her beloved great-granddaughter, Lily, and friends and family who have been by her side over the past year including friends Heather and Pat, and nieces Deb and Dar. Mom leaves us to join her beloved Wally, her partner for 65 years and husband for 61, as well as her great aunt Clara (Tutti) and her most special Sheba.

Mom was born on May 12, 1943, in Berlin Germany. She was the third child of Georg and Edith Weitkowitz, and sister to Gritta, Carl and Peter. Before the end of WWII, the family relocated to Bremen where they stayed until 1954 when they moved to Canada.

Mom’s memories of life in Bremen were good ones. Her parents went to great lengths to shield her from the world’s events. Until the last few years, Mom maintained a relationship with her childhood friend, Ursel, via letter, phone and email. Mom was thrilled that Raisa was able to meet and visit Ursel in 2014. Google translate worked its magic for Raisa and Ursel!

In January 1954 Mom’s family arrived in Winnipeg – living in homes on Furby, Roberta, Devin and finally Edison Avenues. Mom hated that at age 11 she was placed in grade 1. She worked hard to catch up, and by the time she was 16 years old she was in grade 10 at Lord Kitchener School in North Kildonan. Mom’s biggest regret was she quit school after grade 10. However, she later obtained her GED, her designation as a bookkeeper from Success Business College, took classes at the University of Winnipeg, and obtained her diploma as a Library Technician from Red River Community College. While she regretted quitting school, she instilled in her family the importance and joy in books and an education. Mom worked in a variety of places during her lifetime, but none held the joy that she felt being part of the Princess Margaret Elementary School community. Not only did she work with books, but she worked in a German bilingual program, in a school that she attended as a student for several years when she was a child, but most importantly, she made many friends with whom she was close until the end of her life.

On August 29, 1959, the then sixteen-year-old Elke went for a walk with her brother’s best friend, Wally. They shared their first kiss, and Wally asked Elke to go to the movies with him. That was the start of a 65-year love story that never ended, even with Wally’s death exactly 54 weeks before hers. They married in October 1963. Tracey joined the duo in February 1965, and they all welcomed Michael in September 1967 and Mindy in December 1970. The family was complete. There were some cats and hamsters along the way – but no pet had a greater place in the family and in Mom’s heart than the sweet puppy Sheba. Sheba may have shared snacks with Wally, but she shared a heart with Mom, and they were together until Sheba left us in late 1989.

Over the years, the family grew – Steve in 1996 and Christoff in 2004. However, Mom became Nana – a title that she wore with pride - with the birth of her grandchildren – Nicholas in 1993, Raisa in 1995 and Alexander in 1998. The grandchildren also grew the family with the addition of Rebecca and Alyssa. However, nothing can compare to the pride and love Nana felt upon the birth of her beloved great granddaughter Lily in February 2024. Not very many people know this, but when faced with making certain health care decisions, Mom simply wanted more time with her grandchildren and with her Lily. Their time together was golden, and when Lily learned to say “Nana”, it grew her heart and made Nana cry.

Mom worked hard for her family – maintaining a warm and loving home, which always included many of her children’s friends and cousins who all considered her a second mom. She was also an amazing cook, creating meals that her kids and grandchildren continue to try and copy to this day. Her other hobbies/skills included sewing, knitting, crocheting and baking. She was great at all of them. Her Christmas gift baskets were epic (actually very large boxes) and were her pride and joy, especially when Raisa spent the day helping her make the goodies and put the boxes together. Mom did all of this while working full time. She was amazing.

If that was not enough, as her children began to grow up and did not need her as much, she realized that she wanted to join Wally in a hobby and decided to take up golf. She soon became an accomplished player, even attaining an often-elusive hole in one at Rossmere Golf and Country Club where her and Wally were members for several years. Her kids all eventually took up the sport as well, and nothing made her happier than the family getting together for a round …until Nick and Alex started joining in. Then it was even better.

While Wally’s pride and joy may have been the family cottage at West Hawk Lake, for Mom, the cottage was a place for the family to spend time together, along with friends and extended family. Making space for kids, grandkids, great grandkids, extended family and friends was what Nana did best. In addition, Mom loved to travel. When her kids were young there were many family trips including crazy long eight tracked musical car rides to Vancouver, California, and Florida. Mom and Dad visited Hawaii a few times with friends and took a sibling cruise to Alaska. As they got older there were many other golf trips around Canada with their beloved Boler trailer. Upon retirement, Mom and Dad wintered in South Carolina and then Texas, with trips to Florida and Arizona in between, and a wonderful trip to Ecuador to visit Mike. After they sold their winter home in Texas, a trip to Roatan was in order, where Mindy and Steve joined them. The fun never stopped. However, what meant most to Mom was being able to share in the adventures with her beloved Wally – and friends and family along the way. After she became ill, Mom generously wanted to take her children and their spouses on an adventure to Europe as a last hoorah. Sadly, the disease prevented that from coming to fruition. Her hope then was that her kids would all go together some day, in her honour. We will try our best to fulfill her wish.

For several years, Mom was the primary caregiver to Dad. After his death, it was supposed to be her turn to have a few adventures. Unfortunately, just over three weeks after his death, Mom was diagnosed with stage 4 Large B Cell Lymphoma. On November 11, 2024, she started her first round of chemo and landed in HSC for almost three weeks. However, she persevered and finished all six sessions. In April 2025 she was told that she was not in remission, and she chose to start another chemo regimen. Two sessions in, she developed an infection and landed in HSC once again – this time on GB-2, where Dad had passed. Once she was discharged, there was nothing more that could be done. Mom spent the rest of her time at home, visiting with friends and family. She was admitted to Riverview Health Centre on September 9th and passed away on the 12th – four days under the watchful eyes and surrounded by the love of her family.

Mom was more than a wife, a mother and a grandmother. She loved spending time with her girlfriends, and we would like to especially thank Heather and Pat for spending so much time with our mom. Mom also stayed close to extended family, but none as close as her nieces Deb and Dar. Thank you for being there for our mom.

Mom was sassy, stubborn and opinionated but also extremely caring, and we are going to miss her every day.

We would like to thank everyone on unit GB-2 at HSC for their kindness and patience. Dr. Christianson and staff took such good care of both Mom and Dad. We would also like to thank Dr. Skrabek, Shanli and Ana at CancerCare Manitoba as well as the chemo nurses, especially McKenzie. We would like to thank the angels at Drake Medox who spent 20 hours a day watching over Nana, but especially Regina. Towards the end, Nana cried when Regina left, because she did not always know if they would see each other again. Our sincere thanks to the WRHA Palliative Care Team, especially her angel of a nurse, Kaija, who Mom looked forward to seeing every visit. Finally, to everyone on 3E at Riverview Health Centre. You are all amazing people. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, the HSC Foundation or Riverview Health Centre Foundation.

A celebration of mom’s life will be held at 2:00pm on Tuesday, October 21, 2025 at Grace Lutheran Church, 211 Kimberly Avenue in Winnipeg.

FROM A FRIEND:

We are so sorry to hear of Elke’s passing. Our deepest sympathy to all of you. A sad closure to a dynamic lady’s life. She was caregiver to so many, an energetic and professional employee and a friend with impeccable integrity. I always respected her strength and honesty. She has left an amazing legacy in her family that she loved and was so proud of.