Our family is saddened to share the news of the passing of our beloved Mother, Grandmother, and Great-Grandmother, Shirley Faye Unrau, on July 14th, 2023 at the age of 90.
Shirley (known as Faye) was born in Calgary, then spent her early years in Enchant, Alberta, and moved to Vancouver with her mother as a child, where she spent the rest of her life. Shirley had 7 children; Charmaine, Charlene, Kim, Susan (Rick), Maureen (Pat), Lisa (Ken), and Jeff (Doreen). She loved spending time with her family, and was a proud grandmother to Michelle, Jason, Erin, Sarah, Jordan, Katie, Brenna, and Hannah, and her great-grandchildren Ashleigh, Gavin, Sophie, Layla, Everleigh, Olivia, Bianca, Zelda, and Bradford.
She was predeceased by husbands Ray, Jack, and Roy, her grandsons Chris and Blaine, and son-in-law Jim.
Shirley always kept busy. While raising 7 children, she also worked as a Phone Operator at Yellow Cabs for 33 years, until her retirement. Even after she retired, she kept a packed schedule, joining the Red Hats and helping others through volunteerism. Over the years, she volunteered with many incredible organizations, including The Canadian Cancer Society, AIDS Vancouver, Covenant House, Canadian Liver Foundation, and St Paul’s Hospital. But it was her work at the South Granville Seniors Centre that was extra special to her. For 15 years, she helped out in various roles, but what she loved most was sharing her love of cooking, preparing meals for fellow seniors each week.
When she finally hung up her apron and moved into her second retirement, she kept busy by staying active on social media and keeping up with technology to help her stay in touch with all her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. To everyone who knew her, she was a force of nature–never afraid to speak her mind, and always finding a reason to laugh in any situation. We will miss hearing her (sometimes off-colour) jokes and her legendary laugh.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada or the BC Cancer Foundation, organizations that meant a lot to Shirley.
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