Mrs Laila Synnove (Bergvik) Kapoor

Born on the 20th of January in 1944 at Evenes in Norway's Far North, at the tail end of German occupation and war, Laila Synnøve Bergvik (later Kapoor) passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 3, 2021 in Houston.

She was born into a hard-working, earnest and modest family, growing up in a village with a stunning backdrop of steep glacier-carved mountains of sheer rock face and sparkling fjords, the idyllic town chapel just next door. She was the third child of Hilmar Arktander Bergvik (1912-1978) & Ingebjørg Karine (1919-2007), younger sister to Fred (1939-1987) & Eirik, elder to Lill Britt, Torhild, Turid & Sylvi. She didn't stay too long though in the pristine environs of the Norwegian North, moving three-days drive south to the capital Oslo for study and work at the tender age of 15. Seven years later she was to make her first foreign move (of many), to London, where in 1966 just weeks after arrival she met the love of her life Surrinder Jerry Kapoor, a handsome young Indian geophysicist. They were married two years later in Libya, where he had been posted for work. There in September 1970 she gave birth to their first child, the light of her life, a beautiful baby girl they named Tonia.

Laila's adventures continued with her husband's job transfers on multiple occasions back to England and Norway, where a son Sunil was born in 1974. Eventually another move this time to the USA and Houston in 1982 led to a bit more stability and the potential to really settle down. Though no fan of the relentless Texas heat, she certainly enjoyed the swimming, much like she had the skiing of earlier Norwegian days. A part of her heart always longed for her homeland though, and she made often annual trips back to see her countless and beloved relatives and friends there, as well as in England, sometimes with the children in tow. Indeed she is loved the world over.

During the last ten years of her life she faced the immense struggle of dealing with the loss of her dear daughter Tonia, who tragically succumbed to cancer at the age of 40 in 2010. With tremendous courage, faith and resilience, she grieved with her family & friends, who offered their love and support through those difficult, dark days. One imagines a special place where Tonia, her brother Fred as well as her own mother & father, await to unite once again.

One of her lasting legacies was how she taught her children how to feel, how to live with compassion, sensitivity and genuine empathy & concern for those less fortunate, those without power in the world and those who have suffered, all God's creatures in fact she would say. That legacy lives on today, brightly, vibrantly, immortalised in generations to come and her three lovely granddaughters Anna, Isabel & Caren.

And then there was her sense of humour and boisterous laugh -- so infectious, so warm, so cathartic, so unforgettable.

With Love & Laughter, She Lives On.