Attention Summer Students! Now hiring students for summer 2024. Find your summer job here.Retha Brinkman, age 90, of Wiigwas Elder and Senior Care Home, Kenora, Ontario, passed away peacefully at the residence on Friday, April 19, 2024.
Retha was born in Kenora, on March 4, 1934, the second eldest child of Paul and Erna Brinkman. She attended Central Public School (now replaced by Parkview Senior Apartments) and the Kenora/Keewatin District High School (now Lakewood High School). She completed her Registered Nurse Training Program at the Winnipeg General Hospital in Winnipeg and her Bachelor of Science, Nursing Degree Program at McGill University in Montreal. She worked as a nurse in various places in Canada including Brandon, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. She also taught nursing in a hospital in Brockville.
Retha was a life-long member of First Baptist Church in Kenora, active in the young peoples’ group as a teen, and later singing in the choir and acting as a piano accompanist. She was a long-time member of the Kenora G Clef Choir and in her spare time enjoyed painting and sewing. In her earlier years, she was an avid downhill skier. She enjoyed many summer vacations with her nieces and nephews swimming in Rabbit Lake, exploring the area around the family cottage on Kendall Inlet, and enjoying ice cream at Vacationland Dairy or Dairy Queen. Without a doubt, to them, she was a favourite aunt.
She was predeceased by her parents, a sister Edith and her brother Randolph and sister-in-law, Lynne. She is survived by her sister Alice Flemming (Bernard) of Burlington, Ontario, and brother-in-aw, Lawrence Ogden of Vancouver; seven nieces/ nephews, and ten great nieces/nephews.
Cremation has occurred. A ‘Celebration of Life’ service will be held at a later date.