Obituary of Elizabeth Orbeck

Elizabeth (Bette) Marie Orbeck passed away on March 6, 2010 with her children at her side. Bette will be lovingly remembered by her children: Brad (Barb), Cathy (Tim) and Duane (Karri); grandchildren: Tyler, Robbie, Craig, Ryan, Kenny, Kodey, Karly and Devin; one great-granddaughter Payton; two brothers: Frank (Sheila) and their children: Marlo and Melanie; Ron (Linda) and their daughter Jamie-Dee. Mom was born in Lloydminster on June 27, 1942 to John and Anne Nykolaychuk. She was married to Stuart Poole and had two children: Brad and Cathy and later married Ed Orbeck and had one son Duane. Mom loved her gardens. Whether it was in Blackfoot, Coronation or when she moved to her place in Kitscoty she couldn’t wait for spring to start planting. She took a lot of pleasure in bringing over fresh vegetables and making beet rolls for everybody. Within a couple of months you were guaranteed to have an abundance of dill pickles and pickled carrots. She even had experimented in the last couple of years with making salsa. Kenny was pretty happy about that, as he usually consumed over half of it. Mom also loved to bake and cook for her kids and grandkids. Even though the many years of celebrating Ukrainian Christmas had passed, anytime the kids were together we were always treated to huge amounts of perogies, cabbage rolls, crepes and beet rolls. They were second to none and we will forever miss this. Some of her baking attempts were an adventure, but if she did bake something you really liked and you told her..., you better make room because you would see it every day or two for the next few weeks until you finally told her “enough”. Mom watched lots of TV but usually only two programs, either curling or the game show network. If she was over at your place and the Wheel of Fortune was on, she would ask you to turn it to that channel. Even in her last few days, she was talking about the Brier coming up and was looking forward to watching her favorite curler, Glenn Howard. It’s a good bet she’s cheering him on right now. Over the years through the places Mom has lived, she has been blessed with many good friends. I sometimes wondered how, because to be honest she could be so stubborn and blunt with people, but that’s just how she was. Honest and point-blank. You got to hear what she had to say whether you wanted to or not. Obviously, this was an accepted trait because she always had lots of company and the friends she made were friends for life. Mom also had another side that many didn’t see; one that wasn’t as upfront and obvious. She loved to help people and had a soft spot for the elderly. She always talked about the people she knew in the senior residences in Coronation and Kitscoty and how she would take them over baking or spend time with them and how upset she was when they passed away. Even just last year when she was up for a spell in the Royal Alec Hospital, the day we brought Mom back home, she had to say goodbye and give a hug to an older lady in the corner of her room who she had just met a couple of days prior. Then there are her grandkids. She was lucky enough to have lived for many years near Cathy and Tim to watch Tyler, Robbie, Craig and Ryan grow up. Mom always talked about how special the one on one times were that she would have with them even after they moved away to Grande Prairie and would come back to Coronation to visit her and their friends. Tyler will always have his memory of his trips to the drugstore in Coronation where Grandma would buy him a new “Ghostbuster character”. Robbie and Craig also got to go shopping with Grandma. They would go to the local Field store with her to increase their Lego supply. Ryan loved Grandma’s cinnamon buns and anytime he went over to visit her, there was a fresh batch waiting on the cupboard for him. Most of the time they were in Coronation the boys did family skiing as a sport and when they were older living in Grande Prairie it was football, so Grandma never got to see them play, but she loved to talk to them after and hear all about it. Although Kenny, Kodey, Karly and Devin didn’t get to see her as often when she lived in Coronation, when she retired at 65 and moved to Kitscoty, they made up for lost time. Grandma became a part of their everyday life. She loved to come down to the local rink and watch the boys play hockey (The local burgers and 50/50 draws didn’t hurt either; she won twice this year) Her door was always open to them too and it didn’t take long for Kodey to figure out he could go there for lunch everyday and Devin would go for what he said was a “little after school snack”, although he was never hungry for supper if he had just come from Grandmas. Karly and her friend Chelsey would make frequent visits just to see what Grandma was up to and if she needed help with her garden. Kenny would wander over on his own and we’d never even know he’d been there until Mom had mentioned it days later. Lots of times it was to fix something for her or hang Christmas lights that I had been putting off doing. Kodey loved Grandma’s crude send of humour and loved to hang out and watch the game shows and try and guess the right answer before her. For Devin, Grandmas was a safe place where anytime he was mad at his brothers he could head over and spend the whole day there playing games and eating snacks. And then just a few years ago, Mom was blessed with her first great-grandchild, Payton, and Grandma became Baba. I remember when she would return after visiting Grande Prairie for a couple of weeks. Payton was all she could talk about, how it took her a while to get used to Mom, but once she did Baba and Payton, with the apron Baba got her would do some serious baking and spend the day together. The family would like to thank all those in attendance and those that were a good friend to Mom over the years. You know who you are and we thank you for everything. Although we will miss her tremendously, Mom..., Grandma..., Baba...., has left us with plenty of great memories and it is through those special times that she will never truly be gone. Every time we have to eat store bought perogies or pickles; whenever one of us see Vanna flip a letter on the Wheel of Fortune; or when we hear someone on the TV yell “Sweep, hurry hard”,...we will think of her smile. CARD OF THANKS The family would like to give special thanks to: Reverend Bob Aldrich for the beautiful ceremony and words of comfort; to organist John Scott for his gift of music; to Dave and all the staff at McCaws for their professionalism and continued support and to the Kitscoty Church Ladies group for the great lunch. Thank you to all the staff at the Royal Alec Hospital for the care Mom received there. To all our family and friends for their attendance, kind words about Mom and the donations made in her memory. We thank you all from the bottom of our heart. Sincerely, Brad and Barb Cathy and Tim Duane and Karri Donations in memory of Bette may be made to the charity of the donors choice.