Rosemarie Farquhar née Wildauer was born in Lithuania (then East Prussia) in April 1930. After completing nurses’ training in Berlin, she worked in Switzerland and England before wanderlust brought her, at age 20, to BC, Canada. From here she moved to Montreal, and after four years of RN training and four years of working as an RN there, she came back to BC, where she met Roy Farquhar while working at the hospital in Ashcroft. They married in 1970.
Roy was born in 1931 in Wawota, Saskatchewan to Gertrude and James Farquhar, the youngest in a family of five boys and two girls.
He joined his mother in Chilliwack, BC in 1959. His nephew, Don Farquhar remembers being allowed to drive Roy’s 1957 green and white 2-door Ford Fairlane 500 hard top, equipped with a continental kit and a 312 V8 under the hood, when he was maybe 15 years old. For about one mile.
Roy worked for the department of highways for 38 years, in Hope, Spences Bridge, Mica Creek, and Vernon, BC. He and Rosemarie made their homes in Revelstoke, Vernon, and Salmon Arm. Rosemarie worked in the hospitals in Revelstoke and Vernon, finishing her career at Shuswap Lake General Hospital. She was there for 15 years.
Roy was very close to his family, and he never missed a family reunion. His favourite pastime was fishing.
Rosemarie was active in her community. She walked miles every day, usually as part of the Lady Striders. She volunteered with the Red Cross and was an integral part of the 1973 Eden Fire Emergency Response. She also drove an ambulance and never took any guff from anybody. At one point her Driver’s Licence was suspended (probably because she drove as if she were driving the ambulance), but it was reinstated at age 85.
After both had retired, they travelled far and wide across North America for many years.
The fund is discretionary, allowing Shuswap Community Foundation to determine where best to distribute the fund’s earnings annually. It is open to contributions at any time.
