Doreen Seidlitz

Doreen passed away peacefully at the Benito Health Care Centre early Saturday April 15, 2023. She had been a resident there for about 14 months and very much enjoyed the staff, the hugs that were given and the caring atmosphere of her surroundings.

Edna Doreen Seidlitz (nee Bowles) was born in Swan River, MB on October 26, 1925, to parents Gordon and Margaret Bowles. She was the fourth of five children and would grow up in Big Woody on the farm working, gardening, picking berries, and preserving fruit (a practice which continued throughout her life).

She also worked in a sawmill with sister Hazel cooking for a large crew. After her grade eleven she travelled by train to a sawmill town called National Mills and filled in as a teacher for four months. Doreen would always travel to help family when needed.

She would meet John Wilson while he was trucking for her dad. They would marry, move to Cranberry Portage and give birth in The Pas to her first and only child Yvonne, the apple of her eye!

Doreen’s life would take many turns. She lived in Killarney and then Doreen and Yvonne would move to Minitonas with sister Hazel’s family for five years. This little family of two would move to Cranberry Portage and she would work at the RCAF radar base and help her dad in the store. She would marry Gordon Garuk and move to Esterhazy, SK when the radar base closed and begin working at the potash mines.

Doreen’s moves and travels would be many after she welcomed son-in-law Bob Rink into the family and be blessed with four grandchildren, who she would watch grow up, either by living with her family or visiting them very often.

She would move back to Swan Valley and buy a house, living with her sister Hazel and Irvin Greig. She then decided to move in with her family at Whitehorse, Yukon for three years and then back to Swan River, working in the Credit Union until retirement.

Doreen was a very dependable, loyal, and hard-working woman. She was a UCWL member and active in the United Church. This remarkable woman was very talented and creative in any crafts or jobs she undertook, whatever it would be, from wood working, knitting, cross stitching, sewing, crocheting, or planting and growing beautiful flowers, and harvesting a large garden.

Doreen is survived by her daughter Yvonne Rink, son-in-law Bob, grandchildren; Melissa (Jay) Goupil daughters Brielle and Ayla Hinton, AB, Jaret (Amy) Rink and son Declan and daughter Evelyn Sherwood Park, AB, Katrina (Ryan) Hamilton and daughters Luxin and Palmer Swift Current, SK, Calem (Bobbi) Rink and daughter Rori Tofiel,AB.

Doreen was a remarkable woman, dutiful daughter, wonderful mother, exceptional grandmother and great grandmother, loyal friend, and a genuine diamond in the rough.

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