Mrs. Pearl Sylvia Christensen

(nee Tuffs)

June 9, 1933 - January 1, 2017

It is with deepest sorrow that we announce the death of

our mother, Pearl Sylvia Christensen, at the age of 83, on

Sunday, January 1, 2017 at Christine Morrison Hospice in

Mission, B.C. Only recently diagnosed with pancreatic

cancer, Mum bore herself with great dignity and strength

in her final days. Thankfully, she suffered but little and

passed away quietly in the company of her loving children.

Pearl was born in Vancouver to James and Hilma (nee

Johanessen) Tuffs on June 9, 1933. She grew up in

Kitsilano and Grandview and attended Grandview High

School of Commerce and Vancouver Tech. As a young

woman, she lived and worked in the United States - in San

Francisco, Long Beach, and Seattle - before returning to

her native Vancouver for good in the late 1950s. Pearl met

and married James J. Christensen in 1962, and together

they settled down to raise a happy family on E. 6th

Avenue. Yearning for greener vistas, they relocated to

Port Coquitlam in 1969, where Pearl resided, on Western

Drive atop leafy Mary Hill, for the rest of her life. Pearl lost

her loving husband of 24 years to an ALS-like disease in

1986, after caring for Jim devotedly throughout his illness.

Pearl spent most of her working life as an employee of the

City of Vancouver. She worked in Personnel, both at City

Hall and at the Training Centre in Stanley Park, where she

was a familiar face from the late 1970s through the early

90s. Pearl loved working in the park and was even known

to go ice skating on Lost Lagoon during winter lunch

breaks!

In her retirement years Pearl fully embraced her passion

for gardening and continued to read voraciously. But she

was also to embark on a dizzying program of world travel,

setting forth either with daughter Patricia or with one of her

dear friends Betty George and Rose Boyd. There was just

no telling where she might turn up next: Ireland, Spain,

Kenya, Australia, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Guatemala,

Jamaica, and her ancestral nations of England and

Norway were among her many destinations. She set a

frenetic pace and returned each time replete with

experience and anecdote. Closer to home, Pearl’s social

calendar included lighthearted fun with the Red Hat

Society and meetings of the Vancouver Pioneers’

Association, of which she was the final president.

Pearl is survived by her three children: daughter Patricia

(Peter) Siemens of Abbotsford; sons James (Shannon)

and David of Port Angeles, WA; grandsons Chad (Trisha)

Siemens of Vancouver, Randall (Crystal) Siemens of

Aldergrove, and Matthew (Vanessa) Siemens of Port

Moody; great granddaughters Sophie, Ella, and Macy; and

brother Arnet Tuffs of Sechelt. She was predeceased by

husband James ‘Jim’ Christensen (March 2, 1986), and

parents James (April 21, 1989) and Hilma (October 14,

1990).

Pearl was the sort of person who always thought of others

first, her own concerns afterward. She was a devoted and

loving mother, adored, respected and now terribly missed

by we kids. Mum was intelligent, insightful, kind, gracious,

and well-mannered. Although her friendliness and good

cheer were well known she was at the same time reserved

and proper - traits that created the impression of a sort of

latter day Edwardian lady. She’d like that characterization.

We’ll brew a nice pot of tea as we remember her.

A viewing is planned for Friday, January 13th from 7 p.m.

to 9 p.m. at the chapel of Forest Lawn Memorial Park,

3789 Royal Oak Ave., Burnaby, B.C. Funeral service and

interment will take place on Saturday, January 14th:

Chapel service, 11:00 a.m.; Graveside service, 12:30

p.m.; Reception from 1:00 p.m. to 3 p.m., all at Forest

Lawn. In lieu of flowers please make donations in Pearl’s

honour to the Canadian Cancer Society or to her favourite

charity, the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation.