Anne Hansen

Anne Hansen, née Knudsen, passed away one day before her 92nd birthday, survived by her loving daughters Karen (Tom), Linda, and Lori (Harry) and grandchildren Ralph (Jesi), Emilie, and Katie. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Normanna Foundation or the Alzheimer Society of BC.

Anne was born on March 28, 1931, in Princeton, BC. The daughter of Norwegian immigrants Ivar Eilif Knudsen and Karen Ovedie (Engen) Knudsen, she led a most remarkable life. As a child, she had a great sense of adventure, becoming, among other things, a highly skilled skier. Anne not only flew on the downhills but took to the skies in ski jumping (which makes sense considering her father was an Olympic-level ski jumper). This spirit of audacity and joie de vivre would permeate the rest of her life.

At 15, Anne’s family moved to the big city; Vancouver, BC. Anne adapted well to this major change, thriving at John Oliver High School despite the school having a larger population than her entire hometown!

As she grew up, it became clear that, along with an appetite for adventure and fun, Anne was passionate about caring for those in need. After high school, she enrolled at the Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) and, in 1952, graduated with honours as a Registered Nurse.

Even as life became more serious, Anne remained adventurous as ever during her time at RCH. She and a classmate once biked hundreds of kilometers to Princeton over a weekend with only a roast chicken to carry them through; no matches, no water, no worries (sore bottoms, though)!

Anne practiced nursing at Vancouver General Hospital in the pediatrics ward. Her gentle, healing touch with children would not just be felt by her patients; Anne’s skill and care would also go on to impact her children and grandchildren (and many adults, too) throughout the coming decades.

While at the RCH, Anne reconnected with a childhood friend she met back in Princeton. Little did she know back then that the young Norwegian boy, John Hansen, would go on to be her husband of over forty years! The two married in 1955 in Vancouver and began their lives together.

Anne stepped back from nursing after her wedding and had three children in a short 18 months; eldest Karen Kristine followed by identical twins Linda and Lori. The young family lived in Deep Cove at the foot of Mount Seymour until 1965, when, having begun to work his way high up in the ranks of the Hudson Bay Company, John was relocated across Canada to help open new stores.

The following years saw Anne’s adventures continue in Edmonton, Montreal (where they enjoyed the festivities of Expo ‘67), Hamilton, and Ottawa. Anne was an attentive mother to her three girls and also was a masterful entertainer, throwing more than a few famous pool parties!

In 1978, she and John returned to Vancouver as the girls moved on to various universities and their own remarkable lives. They continued to reside in BC from here on, but Anne’s adventures were far from over.

While she and John enjoyed global travels from Norway to the Caribbean, daughters Karen and Linda had children of their own in the mid-1980s. As is tradition in Norway, the grandkids affectionately knew her as Mor Mor (mother’s mother). Mor Mor was an incredibly warm, loving, and genuinely delightful presence in the childhoods of young Katie, Emilie, and Ralph.

By the mid-1990s, she and her husband became closely involved with the Norway House at the Scandinavian Center. As a member of the Kitchen Committee, Anne spearheaded the transformation of the kitchen there with a new modern functional design. Anne’s raucous sense of humor, deft skill in dancing whilst clad in her beautiful traditional Norwegian bunads, and her sincere generosity endeared her to the entire membership of the center. Anne’s mother, Karen, was also very active with her at the center, and in 2006 Anne hosted an enormous celebration there of Karen’s 100th birthday! Anne and Karen were also members of the women’s auxiliary at Normanna Care Home and together served coffee to residents and did fundraising for the Therapeutic Garden there.

Of course, life had its struggles for Anne as well, but she could always be counted on to use her talents to ease the pain of those around her. Anne nursed her father at the end of his life in 1985, cared for John through a difficult battle with cancer, ultimately saying goodbye in 1998, and housed and cared for her mother until her death from a stroke in 2009 mid way through her 103rd year of life.

As Anne herself grew older in the late 2000s, she moved to a condo in Burnaby. While there, she still remained vibrant, notably staying up very late playing cards, drinking gin and tonics, and laughing with her grandson and his wife during their 2013 honeymoon.

As Anne neared her 90s, she was stricken with Alzheimer’s. In-home assistance helped to keep her in her condo until moving into Normanna Care Home in 2020. The isolation of the COVID lockdowns made this particularly challenging for Anne. By this time, all three daughters were residents of BC, and they spent countless hours caring for their mother.

During the week of her passing, Anne’s grandchildren all came to her side, along with her daughters. She spent her final days surrounded by loved ones until passing on March 27, fourteen years to the hour after her own mother. We are grateful for the excellent care and compassion that the Normanna staff and management provided to Anne during her three years living there, and especially during her last days.

The world was a far richer place because of Anne’s glorious life, and she lives on in the warm and bright impact she has had on those lucky enough to know her. As mentioned above, in lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Normanna Foundation or the Alzheimer Society of BC.