Obituary of Grace Koppenol

It is with saddness in our hearts that we announce the sudden passing of Grace Koppenol of Craigmyle, Alberta on January 1st, 2020 at the age of 74 years. She was born on Tuesday, July 31,1945 in Kindersley, Sask; the third child of Eric Lotthammer and Mary Isobel Mitchell (Molly). Grace grew up on a farm not far from Kindersley and attended Prince Edward School. In 1962 when Grace was 16, her family moved to Coronation. It was there that Grace met Mart Koppenol. They married on May 11th, 1963 and had three children, John, Rhonda and Jerry. They moved into Hanna in 1969 so that Mart could start construction work. Grace gained employment at the Hanna Nursing Home and made many great friends there. Mart and Grace divorced in 1980 and Grace went on to update her nursing skills and graduated with her RNA diploma in 1983. Grace spent the next 20 years living and working in the Edmonton area, mostly at the Misericordia Hospital and the General Hospital. Grace retired from nursing in 2003. She moved to Red Deer and worked there for a few years before finally moving to Craigmyle to live with John. She continued working, first at the Super 8 in Hanna and finally at the Walmart in Drumheller. She retired permanently in 2010 and spent her last years gardening, volunteering, reading, and camping with John and his friends. Grace definitely had a green thumb and John and Grace had some pretty big gardens in their backyard. Grace loved to shop and would take Len’s bus to Calgary to meet up with Rhonda for a day of shopping. Grace loved her dog, Keta, as well as John’s dog, Cookie and they were her constant companions until her sudden death. She was the caring mother of John Koppenol of Craigmyle, Rhonda (Robert) Stagg of Calgary and Jerry (Doris) Koppenol of Calgary. She had 5 grandchildren: Kevin (Nicole) Koppenol of Wainwright and Jeffrey Curtis of Wainwright; Calvin and Jeroen Stagg of Calgary and Alex Koppenol of Calgary. She also survived by her sister Ruth Chayer of Montreal, her brother Robert (Donna) Lotthammer of Kindersley, Sask, and her sister Eva (Dave) Lee of Fort Saskatchewan. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Senior’s Circle in Hanna, Alberta on February 1st at noon. Memorial donations can by made directly to STARS or the Alberta SPCA in lieu of flowers and cards.