Gertrude Theresa SPIKA

1926 - 2020

GERTRUDE THERESA SPIKA (Trudi) (née Mertl) Gertrude Spika died October 26, 2020, at Royal Arch Masonic Home in Vancouver, B.C., age 94. Trudi Mertl was born March 23, 1926, in Bad Vöslau, a spa town near Vienna, to Josef and Mathilde Mertl. Early years were spent in Vöslau, where her parents managed the restaurant at the town's famed health resort. Her teenage years were spent in Vienna, where the Mertls owned a small gasthaus. A comfortable, sport-filled childhood with brother, Rudi, was replaced by the uncertainties of the Second World War. Near the end, the family's Vienna apartment was destroyed in the last Allied bombing raid of the war. With the end of the war in May 1945, the family remained in Vienna, living in the then Soviet occupation zone, a dangerous place, especially for women. They boarded their restaurant and eventually fled to Innsbruck, in the French occupation zone. Trudi left Austria for England in 1947, working as an au pair. She left that position and worked as a hostess at a London nightclub, where she rubbed shoulders with celebrities such as Peter Sellers and Formula 1 champion Mike Hawthorne. She once described a hair-raising ride home from work in Stirling Moss's souped-up Morris. Trudi began a relationship with Michael Young but they did not marry. In 1959, she and her young son left for Canada to join her parents in Calgary, who had followed Rudi there a few years earlier and owned a boarding house for Austrian working men. Trudi worked at Calgary's Petroleum Club and later at the Macleod Room restaurant in the new Woodward's department store at Chinook Shopping Centre. She rose to become assistant manager. She managed the restaurant but was not accorded that title. She left to become an instructor at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology's hospitality management faculty. An avid traveler, Trudi's adventures included driving to California with her son in her VW Beetle and taking her camper van to Alaska, among other places. Trudi remained single into middle age, when she married Dr. Otto Spika. Although they enjoyed many trips together, the marriage did not last. Soon after retiring she moved to Victoria, B.C., living happily in her small duplex in suburban Esquimalt, where she indulged her talent for gardening and doted on her dogs, Starboy and Maggie. Trudi was predeceased by her brother, Rudi. She is survived by her son, Steve; nieces, Christine and Victoria; and nephews, Ted, John, and Richard. No immediate memorial is planned.