CORNELIA ADRIANA TRUUS - LIA (NEE PRONK)

Lia passed away on Friday, February 4, 2022 in her home due to long-term health issues associated with diabetes.

Lia will be fondly remembered by her good friends Donna Bowen, Audrey Kaminski, Alex McNiven, Lynda Oliver, Alana (Miller) Smith and Alan Wade.

She was predeceased by her loving parents, Andrew Pronk (1992) and Elizabeth Pronk (1996).

Lia was born in the Netherlands on December 9, 1947 in Amsterdam. At an early age of one year, she travelled with her mother and brother to Jakarta, Indonesia to join her father who was serving with the Royal Dutch Army crossing the equator on a Royal Dutch Airline (KLM) flight at 11:45 AM December 14, 1948. To mark this event, she was given a certificate signed by the captain noting the exact time and date of her first crossing of the equator. Returning to the Netherlands several years later, her family then immigrated to Regina in 1957 when Lia was nine. Lia attended Martin and Thom Collegiates. Lia was a fast car enthusiast and amateur mechanic and loved dogs which she had throughout most of her life. In 1966, Lia moved to the United States with her former husband Alan Wade and lived in several states including Alabama, Washington, California and Hawaii while he was in the US Army. She also lived in Illinois and Oregon. Returning permanently to Canada in 1974, she lived on a rural property near Craven in the beautiful Qu'Appelle Valley, where her parents and her had become good friends and neighbours with Ed and Mabel Wolf and family.

A bright, articulate and caring person, Lia loved to read and was a dedicated environmentalist concerned for nature and its wildlife.  She was also an accomplished seamstress; she took her sewing machine wherever she lived. She created many of her own clothes and for friends.  She also made stylish leather fashions and accessories which she sold at local craft fairs or for special orders. In 1977, she moved with her parents to a rural property in Cardston County in the foothills of Southwestern Alberta near the American border. Her father had built two homes, one for her and one for her parents.

A private ceremony will be held later in the spring and her ashes will be spread over the pond on her property where the ashes of her parents are also spread.