Obituary of Irene LUOMA

I was born in Lodz, Poland in a very large city of one million people. My father was an architect and in charge of the engineering department for the city. We led a very comfortable life until the war started and German occupation began. Right after the war, my parents and I moved to England, where the Polish Pre-war government had resettled and the Polish army joined the English military during the war. We stayed there for five years. We then moved to Lancashire. I entered a nursing school in Rossendale Hospital where I completed a post-graduate course in psychiatric nursing. In 1952, my father’s cousin suggested we join him in Calgary. Upon arrival, I immediately started nursing at the T.B. Sanatorium in Bowness. During that time (1954) I met my husband Eric. After working there for two years, I then transferred to Foothills Hospital, where I stayed for the next 26 years. We had two children, Peter and Vivian, whom we love dearly. I was a very busy mom with two children, running the construction office, and working evenings at the hospital. Later, I was a proud grandmother of three granddaughters and two great-grandchildren.