Ginny STARK

1955 - 2019

GINNY STARK







For our Ginny, who ran up the path ahead of us...

Our Ginny: Virginia Anne Whittall Stark was born on September 5, 1955 and left this world on June 10, 2019.
She ran off in an instant, and too young.
She ran up the path ahead of us, out of sight. When we weren't looking.
For those left behind, for now, there is grief. And love of course.

Many of us (those for whom she could not linger, waiting on the path), those of us who knew and loved her
all her life, might first remember her as a child up the coast of B.C. We might remember her at Savary Island, her
childhood heart's home.
The Ginny who ran through salty waters and scrambled over sandy logs, who ran barefoot along the dirt roads,
jumped from wharves and fished for shiners.
Ginny, she of the ungovernable soul.
Laughing.

We will remember her as the child that she once was and then remember the child who remained within her all
her life, with whom she refused to part company.
Within her was a kind of wildness that life did not succeed in eradicating.

Do not try to tell her what to do.

A spirit such as hers can't be made still.
Ginny, who heard every snapping twig.
Ginny, who sought meaning.
A hummingbird. An eagle.
Alive.

At times she was a midway. And, at times a place to rest,
She would reach out for any hand that needed taking.
She had many rooms to let, in her large and dreaming heart

Yet she is still, even now, the child with skinny berry-brown legs; collecting splinters; climbing trees; falling.
Still laughing.
She was born in Vancouver, the daughter of Jocylyn O'Connor Whittall and H. Richard Whittall. She was the much
treasured sister of Gerald and Pamela and Richard Whittall and aunt to Madeleine and William and Chloe Beange. She
will be mourned also by family members John Stark, Misha Olynyk and Edwin Beange and Christina Chase Simonds.

Eclipsing all other ties, she was mother to Tristan and Vanessa Stark - a love so deep only silence is fit to describe it.
Drop a stone down that well; you will not hear it land.

And then there were her friends, a constellation.

There will be a celebration at The Granville Island Hotel on September 21st from 3 p.m. to 6.
Ginny loved flowers. Flowers would be welcome as the family will be creating an altar.
Ginny was an activist for the environment and a benefactor, a gifted photographer and artist. She used her time
here well. Please, do not dress for mourning.

In keeping with Ginny's giving nature, the Virginia Whittall Stark Fund at the Vancouver Foundation has been established by Tristan, Vanessa, and Misha. We invite all who loved her to donate, which can be done online by visiting www.vancouverfoundation.ca/Virginia to benefit others in her name.