Obituary for Regina van Asperen
Regina van Asperen passed away comfortably at her home on February 22, 2022. She will be dearly missed by her daughters, Victoria (Simon), Patricia (Michael), and sons, Gregory and William, her six grandchildren, Alexandra (Greg), Braeden, Nikayla, Maxwell, Zander, and Carter, and closest friends, Gloria and Hugh, Heather and Rebecca, and by her step-grandchildren Adam, Rebecca, Mattew, Sarah, Sereana, and Abbygail, and step-great grandchildren Gepetto, Ellie, and Jay. Predeceased by her loving husband, Hein, who she was married to for 74 years in 2019.
Regina was born in Holland in August 1920, where she still has many nephews and nieces who remember her there as a loving gentle aunt. She survived WWII, quietly supporting her older siblings who were involved in the underground, giving up her ID and passport to a Jewish scientist who needed to escape the German invasion, and by helping hide her husband to be, along with other gentlemen, from having to be conscripted into the invading army. She was able to cross through German checkpoints because she presented as a gentle young woman that spoke the German language very well, and in this way she was able to bike out of the city to help get food for her family and neighbors back and forth from the farm lands in the surrounding area when so many in her country died of starvation.
She immigrated to Brockville, Canada with her husband and oldest daughter in 1954. In 1970, after her oldest child moved away to university, she was instrumental in adopting 3 siblings in order to grow her family and provide a much needed stable loving home. She volunteered throughout her life in schools, playing piano for the choirs, and in the hospitals in Brockville. She passed on her love of music, art, and languages to her children and grandchildren in the hours after school and even moved to Kingston in 2008 to be closer to them. She traveled with her husband across Canada and Europe in their retirement years and was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for many years, active in the Kingston branch.
Regina’s family would like to acknowledge the wonderful care provided by the staff at Conservatory Pond, and, in the last three years, Briargate Retirement Residence, especially during the initial stages of the pandemic, the PSW’s of Paramed, especially Sarah, and Alexandria, who provided in home care once Regina returned to live at home with family, and the nurses and PSW‘s of St. Elizabeth in Kingston, Jason, Amanda and Leeann, and for the exemplary care of Dr. A. Birenbaum and her Assistant, Carrie.
Family and friends are invited to a memorial service at Irvine Funeral Home, 4 James Street East, Brockville on Saturday, March 5th, 2022 at 11 am.
A service recording will be added below soon.
As expressions of sympathy, donations to Doctors Without Borders or to Family and Children's Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Futures Fund - www.facsfla.ca futures fund (helping send youth in the foster care system to college and university)
Send a message of condolence or share a special thought of Regina on the Memory Wall above.
Regina was born in Holland in August 1920, where she still has many nephews and nieces who remember her there as a loving gentle aunt. She survived WWII, quietly supporting her older siblings who were involved in the underground, giving up her ID and passport to a Jewish scientist who needed to escape the German invasion, and by helping hide her husband to be, along with other gentlemen, from having to be conscripted into the invading army. She was able to cross through German checkpoints because she presented as a gentle young woman that spoke the German language very well, and in this way she was able to bike out of the city to help get food for her family and neighbors back and forth from the farm lands in the surrounding area when so many in her country died of starvation.
She immigrated to Brockville, Canada with her husband and oldest daughter in 1954. In 1970, after her oldest child moved away to university, she was instrumental in adopting 3 siblings in order to grow her family and provide a much needed stable loving home. She volunteered throughout her life in schools, playing piano for the choirs, and in the hospitals in Brockville. She passed on her love of music, art, and languages to her children and grandchildren in the hours after school and even moved to Kingston in 2008 to be closer to them. She traveled with her husband across Canada and Europe in their retirement years and was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for many years, active in the Kingston branch.
Regina’s family would like to acknowledge the wonderful care provided by the staff at Conservatory Pond, and, in the last three years, Briargate Retirement Residence, especially during the initial stages of the pandemic, the PSW’s of Paramed, especially Sarah, and Alexandria, who provided in home care once Regina returned to live at home with family, and the nurses and PSW‘s of St. Elizabeth in Kingston, Jason, Amanda and Leeann, and for the exemplary care of Dr. A. Birenbaum and her Assistant, Carrie.
Family and friends are invited to a memorial service at Irvine Funeral Home, 4 James Street East, Brockville on Saturday, March 5th, 2022 at 11 am.
A service recording will be added below soon.
As expressions of sympathy, donations to Doctors Without Borders or to Family and Children's Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Futures Fund - www.facsfla.ca futures fund (helping send youth in the foster care system to college and university)
Send a message of condolence or share a special thought of Regina on the Memory Wall above.