October 17, 1932 - November 27, 2018
Agatha passed away peacefully at the Cowichan Regional Hospital, in Duncan, British Columbia. She was predeceased a year by her husband of 64 years, George, and is survived by her three children Richard (Janice), Nancy, and Timothy, as well as her only grandchild, Theodore.
Born in, Myrtle, Manitoba, Agatha grew up in a variety of communities in Ontario and British Columbia before ending up back in Manitoba where she met and married George. After living in Winnipeg for a decade (where she underwent closed heart surgery following the birth of her youngest child, Tim), she moved with her family to Nanaimo in 1967.
Agatha had a beautiful soprano voice and sang in numerous community and church choirs over the years. She was a visual artist, with sketches of hers already published in the 1960s while raising her young family. Having never been able to complete high school in her youth, she enrolled at Malaspina College in Nanaimo when the family was mostly grown up, and completed an Associateship in Arts and Science in 1981.
From pen and ink and charcoal sketches, her work evolved through oil and acrylic portraiture to abstract ink painting. She gave her first solo show in 1989 at the Nanaimo Art Gallery and Exhibition Centre, won recognition at juried art shows, and exhibited her work in galleries up and down the south half of Vancouver Island. Her overriding desire was to move viewers to a personal, spiritual, and emotional response to art.
Suffering a debilitating stroke in 1999, she was unable to continue her work as before and retired to Duncan in the early 2000s. Despite numerous medical crises throughout her life, Agatha was a survivor. She was a woman of faith and was a member of the First Baptist Church for nearly 25 years. Agatha did not wish to have a funeral or memorial service; instead, there will be a private gathering of the immediate family in March to spread her ashes.
Anyone desiring further information about the life and work of Agatha should contact Richard at 1-204-825-2749 or rjolfert@mymts.net.