Jo Ann Riome

Jo Ann Riome – our mother, grandmother, great grandmother, aunt, and wonderful friend; bedrock of our family; first and best teacher, passed away on June 19, 2022 at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, BC, from interstitial lung disease caused by chemical exposure.  She was surrounded by loved ones and passed holding two of her childrens’ hands.

Throughout her life, Jo was generous to the last: As a young newlywed raising a toddler she provided refuge to young US citizens fleeing mandatory military service in the unjust Vietnam Conflict; while raising young children she took in a teenage foster child; while studying to earn her degree in social work she managed food banks at The Mustard Seed and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  Jo opened her home to lost souls with nowhere to go nearly all of her adult life, culminating with the guardianship of her great grandson with special needs, when no one else in the family could.

Jo was also a force to be reckoned with.  While not a lawyer, she won every legal case she was involved in, including winning custody of her great grandson in 2010.  In her profession as a social worker for the Ministry of Children and Families, she had to make many wrenching decisions; always with the interests of children in the forefront.  After she was exposed to a sulfur dioxide leak while touring a petroleum refining facility in 2016, she fought the steadily advancing deterioration of her lungs with determination and grace until she could no more.

Jo is predeceased by her parents, Donald Arthur Riome (d.1998), Dorothy Gemmill Riome (d.1951); stepmother Joan Winning Riome (d. 1996); and beloved big sister Beverley Milligan (d. 2022).  She is survived by her sister Lavon; children Gerald (Dorina), Alexandra, Stephanie (Michael); grandchildren Rose(Ryan), Autumn, Kai, Madeline, and Lillian; great-grandchildren  James and Hunter; ex-husbands John Albion and Boyd Frankland; and far too many friends to name.

In her final years, Jo adopted the ways of Buddhism, keeping a portrait of the Dalai Lama on her night table.  She made it clear at the end of her life that she did not want a funeral, especially not a religious one, that she preferred to be celebrated with a wake.  The wake will be held at the residence of Gerald and Dorina Albion on Saturday, August 6 ^th , 2022 from 2pm to 6pm.  There will be a private scattering of Jo’s ashes in an undisclosed location the day before the wake.