Obituary of Orla Marguerite Fox

Orla Marguerite Fox (nee Raham) was born on June 30, 1936, to Charles Melvern and Marguerite Raham in the near-by hospital of Bank End, near their home in Wishart, Saskatchewan.

She is survived by her two daughters Karen Illman (Graeme) of Coquitlam BC, and Cathy Kennedy (Bob) of Cranbrook, BC, and her three grandchildren Joel, Charis, and Hannah Illman. She was predeceased by her husband, Jack N. Fox, her brother Austin Raham, her sister Elva Foster, and her parents.

Orla was the middle child of three and spent her early years in rural Saskatchewan close to the family farm in North Battleford. They moved to the Okanagan when she was nine years old. Her father found work on the experimental farm in Summerland where they lived, and her mother worked as a teacher in a one- room schoolhouse.

Mom exhibited natural gifts for academics and athletics. She pursued post- secondary education in Recreation and traveled to Victoria to partake in course work where she lived with her cousin who lived there for the duration of that time.

Mom met the love of her life at her home church in Trout Creek, BC when our father, Jack Fox, came as a visiting student pastor to do intern ministry through Briercrest Bible College. They married in 1965 and returned to Jack’s home in Toronto, Ontario where she raised her family, fully embracing and enjoying city living for the next 50+ years.

Mom’s career life spanned many titles including medical secretary, home daycare ‘mother’, and 25 years in Christian Bookstore work and management.

She loved children and had a tremendous impact on those she cared for through her home daycare. We remain in contact with some of those now- grown children and continue to see the blessing and fruit of what was sown into their lives through her passion and commitment to love and help raise them during those years. It also allowed her to be a stay-at-home mother for us which has been one of our richest blessings.

She said her greatest accomplishment and the most profoundly blessed time of her life was her almost 50 years being married to our father and raising her two daughters. Those were the best days of her life, she said.

After our father passed in 2015, mom lived with each of us for a period. Her final year was spent in a specialized care home in the East Kootenays. She was provided care that went beyond our expectations of how God could display His abundant love and provision to one of His children. The way our mother was well- loved by her many caregivers was a tangible answer to our father’s prayer that she be provided for, loved, and well- taken care of in his absence. It has been a remarkable walk to journey with mom these past few years and we were both able to share all we wanted and needed to before she was peacefully ushered from this life to the next where she now experiences the reality of her faith on new levels.

Mom, you are now truly whole, healed, and free and you have not one thing left to worry about ever again! Praise God for that truth. We love you and we know and thank you for loving us. You were a prayer warrior in this final year, and you impacted all those whom the Lord had you cross paths with, one way or another. God knows our first day from our last because He is our creator. May 4^th marked your work here as finished. To God be all the Glory for His mercy and abundant love on display through you, our dear, loving, compassionate, determined mother, Orla.

Lovingly,

Your Family

 

Celebration of Life services will be held in Coquitlam, BC and Toronto, ON with interment at St. John’s Norway Cemetery, Toronto.

If desired, memorial donations may be made to any of the options below, each of which mom was involved with or passionate about.

• The Pines Memorial and Development Society

c/o Kimberley Special Care Home

386 2^nd Ave

Kimberley, BC

V1A 2Z8

 

• Tribal Trails –  www.tribaltrails.org
• Ratanak International – www.ratanak.org
• SPCA – www.spca.bc.ca,  www.ontariospca.ca