Diedricha Remmelts

Dee emigrated from Holland in 1957 and passed away peacefully at Resthaven Lodge. She is survived by her brother Dolf (Netty), former husband Hank, and daughter Joanna with her family. Please join us for her funeral, burial, and reception. Click on Service Schedule for more information. Dear Friends and Family, Thank you for your love of Mom, Dee, Oma. Your life made an impact on Mom, and I have heard stories about many of you. As Dees daughter, I wish to thank you all whose steadfastness in friendship enabled her to live such a full life. You mattered. Having a full life needs to include both joys and sorrows. Mom had many challenges to overcome, and some she did with great vivacity! Others have not been handled quite so well, and these struggles provided her many years of learning how to cope. The last year has been full of hospitalizations for various ails, yet the predominant difficulty was her COPDmeans chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. It can be a result of smokinghmmmm. In this last week, Mom had a small fall, which possibly set off a stroke and led to her loss of speech and movement in her legs. She was dealing with a pre-existing progressive dementia as well, and so this last week has been difficult for her. Yet her strong spirit prevailed to see some dear friends and her family in order to say goodbye this past Saturday. However, even a strong will cannot win against a body that was worn out. She missed a few dear close friends that came on Sunday, as she passed away very peacefully at Resthaven Lodge in Sidney at 9:30 a.m. I am confident that she would have stayed around if she was able to. Thank you deeply to the care staff at Resthaven for their expertise, and patience. My family and I were very well supported by them during this difficult time. I found this following biography that Mom wrote years agoI am not sure what the occasion wasperhaps one of you do? I am thankful for it, and smile that my Mom is helping in me out in the planning of this celebration of her life. Enjoy the read, and I look forward to having a time to have a good Dutch visit with you starting Thursday, the 20th at 10:00 at the Royal Oak Burial Park Chapel. Love, and heel viel leefs (hope I spelled it right!) Joanna xoxo
Diedricha was born in Holland on February 20, 1933. She survived WWII. However, the malnutrition she experienced during the war resulted in a disability. She and her husband Hank, immigrated to Canada in 1957 by steamship and became a Canadian citizen in 1962. She worked in various offices mostly related to general insurance. During that time various spinal surgeries were performed, which made her well enough to continue working after the healing process. She became a Mother to Joanna in 1972 and, rather than return to a job, she studied interior design, architectural drafting and perspective rendering. Working from home allowed her to be with her daughter rather than have her go to daycare. She officially started her business Deekor Design and became very successful. She mainly worked with developers of big townhouses and apartment projects. She was in charge of colour co-ordination and display suites. She became later more involved in architectural rendering and together with her former drafting teacher was ready to expand more into that area, creating many opportunities for a promising future in her field. It was in 1984 that she was hospitalized and underwent major spinal fusions with Harrington rods inserted. Two additional surgeries had to be performed related to the surgeons sloppiness. In the end she was no longer able to continue with her business. After a lengthy medical malpractice experience she and her daughter ended up in a small apartment and on Welfare. Diedricha started a correspondence course through Open Learning University focusing on Psychology. After encouragement from a friend, Dee obtained a wheelchair which enabled her to be more mobile despite her spinal pain. This freedom allowed her to pursue studies at the University of Victoria. Dee became passionately involved with issues related to students with a disability. Through her creativity and tenacity, she joined the team of existing students and helped to empower them in the endeavor of making significant positive changes to the accessibility of the campus. As president for several years of the Society for Students with a Disability (SSD) she was able to collaborate with other students and professors to instigate Disability Awareness Day (DAD) which created a portal into exposing the daily challenges that students with disabilities struggled with on the campus. She graduated from the University of Victoria at the age of 64 and became a counselor focusing on people with disability issues.