Our Nela passed away peacefully at the Christine Morrison Hospice, in Mission, BC, just a few weeks shy of her 75th birthday, after a 16-month journey through lung cancer.
Born in Birmingham, England, Nela lived in England & Namibia before her family moved to Canada. She last resided in Harrison Hot Springs, near her beloved river.
Nela graduated from UBC in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in English, majoring in Creative Writing. After what she called “twenty years of my working life holding down ‘worthwhile’, ‘meaningful’ and ‘fulfilling’ jobs,” she opted, at age 40, to obtain her Class One commercial driving license.
The love of Nela’s life was not another human being; it was being at the helm of an 18-wheeler, driving across Canada and the USA. In her wonderful short story, White Line Fever, she wrote, “…once the highway begins to unravel from the horizon in a grey blurred line rushing towards me, then -- THEN! -- I know that I am where I want to be.” In her retirement, anyone dropping by Nela’s unannounced would likely find her riveted to various live-streamed and true-life trucker shows on her computer or radio.
Nela had a life-long love of art and paintings. She designed and painted numerous pieces of art and murals, including at least one enormous mural on the entire side of a building in Kelowna. She illustrated the children’s book Sam the Black Cat, published in 2019.
A prolific writer, her articles were published in the Medieval Chronicle and West Life magazine; she wrote many short stories, one of which was broadcast on CBC Radio; she produced a weekly newsmagazine show for Co-op Radio in Vancouver, and also had a play produced at the Freddy Wood Theatre at UBC whilst a student there. But more than half her life was devoted to writing a (yet to be published) historical novel of Scotland in the 15th century.
Nela was a long-time volunteer and board member with Circle F Horse Rescue Society in Abbotsford, and was recognized for her many years of volunteering with the Mission Community Policing Access Centre. She was always an environmental activist, right back to the beginning days of Greenpeace, and an avid member of the Varsity Outdoor Club at UBC. She loved horses, borzois, birds, gardening, and cats -- especially black ones.
Over the past year, Nela often expressed appreciation for her compassionate professional caregivers, including her beloved nurse practitioner, Sean, as well as the crews from Home Health, and the Better at Home & Drive4U branches of Agassiz-Harrison Community Services. Her friends were/are incredible. She voiced to family, her love and gratitude for Jessica M, Karin, Lisa, Sharon, and Garry & Lorraine. These kind people, among others, kept her life humming along as normally as possible. The staff and volunteers at Christine Morrison Hospice were so caring, and the attentive and quiet presence of her doula, Angela from Dignity End of Life Care, provided Nela with the comfort and encouragement she wanted.
Bidding farewell to Nela are her siblings, Kati (Stan), Mark (Allison), Clare (Rob), Gaby (Doug), and Joe (Kim); nieces Anya, Jessica, Josiah, Meg, Naomi, and Rebecca; nephews Jonathan, Luke, Matthew, and Simon; and four grand-nieces, as well as her uncle, John Mountford and many cousins. Nela was predeceased by her parents, Janek and Mary (Mountford) Leja.
Celebration of Life to be held on Thursday, March 30, 2023, at 3:00 p.m., at First Memorial Funeral Services, 27555 31st Avenue, Aldergrove, BC, V4W 3L4 (604-857-0111 for those who are still driving around lost after the service has begun)
There will also be a future memorial walk in Nela’s honour on the Spirit Trail in Harrison Hot Springs, date TBA.
Nela was profoundly concerned with the state of our planet. Please consider either guerilla-planting a tree in a special location of your choice, or donating to an Abbotsford organization that plants trees locally: Donations can be made via www.canadahelps.org. Select Trinity Memorial United Church Abbotsford, then Tree Planting. You can also contact Trinity Memorial directly: 604-853-2591 or tmucabb@gmail.com.
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Trinity Memorial United Church Abbotsford Tree Planting
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