Obituary of Margarete Suske

Suske, Margarete – Passed away in Grimsby, Ontario, at the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital after a short battle with UTI and pneumonia complications.  Born Margarete Ersepke, February 6, 1922 in the German city of Sternberg, Sudetenland, she fled as a young woman to Bodenwerder, in the British occupied zone at the end of WW2.  In 1949 she married another ‘DP’ (displaced person), Eberhard Suske who had fled Russian occupied Koningsberg-Neumark, Germany (now Chojna, Poland).  With daughter Margret age 7, they emigrated to Canada on the Italian steamship Castel Felice, then by train to Edmonton, Alberta.  After city jobs, they decided to become pioneers and turned 160 acres of raw Alberta Crown land into a farm.  In retirement, they moved to Salmon Arm, B.C. and subsequently in 2008 joined their daughter and son-in-law Wolf-Dieter Birk, in Heritage Village, buying a condo in The Arbours, Vineland.  After her husband died, Margarete moved to the Orchards Retirement Residence, and two weeks before death, got a coveted room in the United Mennonite Home, Vineland, after 4 years on a waiting list.  She was a slot winner, on her last birthday, at the Niagara Casino, a fitting end for a well lived life.

The family will receive friends at the Vineland Chapel of Tallman Funeral Homes on Thursday, March 22 from 6 – 8 p.m.  Cremation has taken place.