Elsie passed away peacefully in April 9 at Blenheim Lodge in Vancouver. Elsie’s husband was one of Castlegar’s early and best known doctor’s practicing here from 1934 until he died in 1965.
Elsie was born in Mundare, Alberta. One of six children brought up in the Depression by a single mother, she learned to be self reliant. She took Teachers’ Training but couldn’t get a job, so she went back to school to get her Senior Matric. She broke her finger while playing basketball and was treated by young Doctor Goresky. He was smitten and pursued her. Two months later, Victor and Elsie were married. Their first two children, Carl and Ora, were born in Alberta, but hard times and and hard winters prompted them to move to British Columbia.
Victor took over a rural practice in Castlegar. They added three more children to their family over the years-- Eileen, Gerald and Linda. Elsie was very active in the community, as a member of the IODE, the Pythian Sisters, the United Church Auxiliary, and the local Bridge Club.
After Victor died, Elsie worked in a bank and then as a medical receptionist. Then she took a year of Nurses’ training but was told that she was really too old to complete the course--which Elsie didn’t understand, because she was only in her fifties! She moved to Vancouver, where she worked in a nursing home, and later sold real estate.
Eventually, Elsie moved the Vernon where she retired, playing golf, brewing wine, pressing apple cider, and playing endless games of canasta with her friends. She had always wanted to travel and so she did--to Japan, China, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and the Caribbean. She was on a cruise in the Mediterranean when her ship was commandeered for troop transport in the Falklands War.
She lost her driver’s licence when she was in her nineties. Undeterred she walked everywhere she needed to go.
Elsie moved to Blenheim Lodge in July 2010 when she could no longer manage on her own. She is survived by four of her five children, and many, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at Mountain View
Cemetery in Vancouver on April 28 at 2:00 PM.