Antonia LYSHAUG

1940 - 2023

LYSHAUG, Antonia (nee Leenders)
1940-2023

Antonia (Toni) was born in the Netherlands amid the hardships of war. Even so, according to her mother she was a happy child, often laughing and singing. As a teenager, she had a passion for ballroom dancing.

At the age of 20, she immigrated to Canada. She settled in Terrace, BC, where she met her husband Paul. They were together for 41 years, through thick and thin. They raised two daughters and also worked together in the family business.

As a young girl, Toni absolutely loved school. As a parent, she made sacrifices to ensure that her children could pursue their own educational goals.

Toni loved to tell a good story. One of her daughters' favourites was about her journey to Terrace in 1961. At her job in Amsterdam, she had saved money for a travel suit and an elegant pair of ivory leather shoes. She arrived in Terrace during the spring thaw. When she got off the train, she was taken aback: beyond the train platform was an ocean of mud. To get across the parking lot to her sister's car, she had to ruin her beautiful shoes. But with good humour, she stepped forward into her new life.

Over the years, she contributed to her community in a variety of ways. She volunteered with the Pacific Northwest Music Festival and the Terrace-Kitimat Construction Association.

Toni had a great talent for making a beautiful and comfortable home space. She loved knitting and doing fine needlework and donated her handiwork to local church bazaars. Gardening was also a creative outlet; she spent countless contented hours in her yard.

In 1990, she and Paul moved to Tsawwassen, where they enjoyed eleven years of retirement. They moved back to Terrace in 2001 and loved reconnecting with old friends. Then, in 2011, nine years after Paul's death, Toni returned to Tsawwassen to be near family. She avidly followed politics, and she loved reading, walking on the dike, and scouting the local farmer's markets for perfect produce. Most early mornings you could find her working out at the gym with friends.

Toni had great resilience and a practical outlook on life. After overcoming breast cancer in the early 1990s, she enjoyed more than thirty wonderful years, until she confronted cancer again in 2021. Throughout her life, she always moved forward in the wake of challenges or setbacks and lived each moment fully.

She is survived by her daughters, MaryAnn and Brenda; her brother Ben (Marian); her brother-in-law Norbert; her nephew Cory (Yvonne) and her niece Claire; her stepdaughter Wivi (Bjorn) and their children Kevin, Melissa, and Robin; and extended family in the Netherlands and Norway.

Her daughters give their heartfelt thanks to Dr. Ruth Turnbull and to the caring doctors and nurses at Delta Hospital in Ladner.

The funeral service will be held in the chapel of the monastery at Sacred Heart Parish (3900 Arthur Dr), in Ladner on Friday, March 31 at 1:00pm.