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Marie 'aka Tai Chi Marie' Thiel

August 26, 2020

P2A6A5O4-20200909122537
April 5, 1924 - August 26, 2020
Born Marie Luise Katarina Stoelting, April 5, 1924, Kiel, Germany & Passed Away August 26, 2020 - Summerland BC
Immigrated to Canada 1929 - Predeceased by her Mother, Karla Stoelting, who lived in Calgary & Banff, Alberta and retired in Honolulu and pre-deceased by her father Gustav Stoelting & brother Eddy.
Marie had two loves in her life, Don Thiel (3 children) 31 years, & Jack Edwards also 31 years. Marie was widowed for her last 15 years.
She lived in Calgary, White Rock, Honolulu & Summerland. She gave birth to three children - Dannie Thiel, Bonita Thiel & Debra Rice.
She had five grandchildren. From Dan - Karla & Adam Thiel. Karla has 4 children, Naima, Sanaa, Tasneem & Yahya. Adam has 2 children - Dylan & Alyssa. Marie was sadly pre-deceased by Beloved grandson Kai Bird, Bonita's Sun.
Debra's - Jaime Nesbitt & Jesse Couture - Marie's step-grandchildren & Lona Joy great grandchild.
In White Rock, Marie took the grandkids crabbing off the Pier & picking blackberries. In Summerland they went to the lake daily and had the Best summers ever! Always excited, always loving, always feeding everyone and the first one in the water.
We are very grateful for the wonderful staff at Dr. Andrew Pavilion where Marie lived for the past 5 1/2 years. Marie easily won staff's affection, so was an easy patient to love. Bless all these angels that make this their life work. Grateful also for Bonita who made Marie laugh almost daily through her years of dementia. Even dementia could not steal her sweet soul and her sweet smile.
Marie joyfully became a Tai Chi Instructor and shared what she knew for many (20+) years at the Summerland Senior Drop-In Centre. She was strong in her body and a loving teacher. Many people meeting Marie over the years simply felt loved. She would adopt them into her family and do what she could do to be a friend.
Louis Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World" was one of her many favorites growing up and Benny Goodman and the like flowered up her war time years. She loved to invite friends & orphans, home for good food & sing-along parties.
Her favorite outing in her later years was to go to the Dream Café in Penticton which her daughter Debra and partner Pierre Couture opened in 2001 on Marie's birthday. She loved music and started playing when her parents bought her an upright piano as a child.
She was an excited person in the audience and befriended many of the musicians that graced the stage there. One night as she entered the back door with her hands high in the air to hug many of the staff, a customer asked who is that woman "Mohammad Ali' ??
Dancing in her chair or joining the conga line behind Kenny Wayne, she loved Rick Fines and her favorite was probably Michael Kaeshammer, a show she came to every year. Marie jumped onto stage when the Highwater Jug Band called out for a kazoo player. She attended 100's of shows.
"..... to sum up her magnificent little self is that she was the most attentive person I've ever met. When anyone talked to her, she'd turn her whole self to you, sometimes come close, meet your eyes and listen with her heart.
The way she looked at people made them feel so important. When she was with Naima when she was small, I remember wishing I could be so attentive.
Attention is hard to come by these days when a million things pull our minds and hearts away from what's important, which is the present moment. Attentive little Oma, who lived in each moment as if it was the best."
Karla, Marie's granddaughter Sweet Marie, she truly was .......... Bless her on her Journey Home
To send condolences please visit www.providencefuneralhomes.com
 Providence Funeral Homes & Crematorium

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