LEA ALICE MARY GASPER (D'HOORE)

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LEA ALICE MARY GASPER (nee D'HOORE) Léa Alice Mary Gasper passed on to new adventures in the early morning of October 5, 2009 at Neepawa Hospital, where she had been in Palliative Care for three weeks. She had been dealing with the challenges of metastatic colorectal cancer since January 2007, when she first had surgery. Radiotherapy was tried in July 2008. She endured a variety of chemotherapy from August 2007 to June 2009. Léa was born near Somerset on January 19, 1941, the daughter of Camiel D'Hoore and Isabelle (Labossiére). Her elder sister, Ilene Thevenot, lives with her husband Maurice, near her parents' farm. Her younger brother Rodger D'Hoore, lives mainly in Winnipeg. She has a son, Kevin Gasper, by her first husband, Fred Gasper. Kevin and his wife, Cathy, along with their twin daughters, Chelsea and Korissa, live near Ashern. Léa had lived with her current husband, Ron Herneshen, since July 1976, first in Vancouver and then Burns Lake, BC. They returned to Manitoba in July 1983, where they have lived ever since in the village of Plumas. Over the years, they greatly enjoyed travelling together. Since moving to their larger property in 1985, flower gardening has always been one of Léa's major interests. Her garden plaque reads One is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth. Once her mother passed on in 1986, she took on the huge responsibility of maintaining the family achieves which her mother had started. She was especially happy to see many of her relatives recently at her sister's 50th wedding anniversary at Spruce Woods Provincial Park. Léa spent most of her working life as a school teacher, specializing in French. She taught mainly from 1959 to 1976 and 1983 to 1995. When she retired, another of her major interests was canning the fruits and vegetables that the Thevenots grew at Somerset. For over 10 years, she preserved perhaps a couple hundred quarts of tomatoes and cucumbers each year, although her record is probably more than that. During the last three years of her life, Léa has been well looked after by CancerCare in Neepawa and Winnipeg. They certainly deserve everyone's support, financial and otherwise. She has also been well cared for by the nurses in Neepawa Hospital, under rather trying circumstance. She was visited by many friends while at Neepawa, but I must make special mention of two who stayed with her every night for hours and hours so that she would not be alone. They are the true followers of Jesus. Léa's body has been cremated and her remains will be dispersed next summer in BC. Private informal memorials for her family and closest friends will be held near her next birthday. Although Léa would appreciate you remembering various good times with her, please be at peace and do not mourn at her leaving us. No doubt, the universe is unfolding as it should.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Oct 10, 2009