With heavy hearts we write this obituary for BRENDA LYNN WILSON nee KOBELKA who passed away peacefully on May 10, 2020 at her home in Kamloops, BC
Brenda was born October 17, 1961 in Margaret Cochenour Hospital. After a very difficult delivery, our beautiful baby girl came into this world fighting and it was a struggle from then on.
In her preschool years we knew she would have academic difficulties in school. A condition of Dyslexia was not identified until she was an adult. This caused her to feel very stupid because she could not learn like other children, and one teacher even made an ‘example’ of her in class.
Brenda‘s gift was her physical ability. She was very good in sports and won the trophy for top Pee Wee Girl in a ‘Sports Day’ held at RLDHS out of all the public schools in the District; Red Lake, Madsen, Balmertown, Cochenour, McKenzie Island, and Ear Falls.
This gift was sadly taken from her because of an injury caused by running into a broken link on the chain link fence around Cochenour School. The link rammed under her knee cap and she developed ‘Osgood Schlatter‘s Disease’ and almost lost her leg. It healed but it limited her to only walking until it was completely healed.
She loved swimming and even though she almost drowned at Cochenour Dock, years later she earned her Bronze Medallion at Vermilion Bay Dock. She loved skating and all sports.
Her first job at age 10 was delivering the Tribune in Cochenour. She excelled at this. By the time we moved to Vermilion Bay two years later, everyone in Cochenour was on her route. They all loved her and she got tips and small gifts not just at Christmas. The Tribune sent her a beautiful letter saying goodbye and thanking her for a job well done.
But now she was having pains in her left arm which she described as “like a knife.” It took some time, but it was finally discovered that she had been born with two extra cervical ribs, one on each side under her collar bone. The surgeon who was supposed to remove the left rib only removed part of it. She had all the original pain plus the pain of bone surgery. So she took a pistol, changed her mind and was going to put it away, but with tears in her eyes she stumbled and shot herself in the arm. Several surgeries later the specialist was able to save her thumb and the next two fingers.
Then she had a little baby girl.
Finally, a good surgeon removed the right rib and the pain was gone like it was supposed to be. Shortly after, the same surgeon removed the left rib and that pain was also gone. But by now she was addicted to prescription pain killers.
Brenda tried twice for happiness, and had two little boys that she fought hard to keep, unsuccessfully. She loved her family dearly.
In the last few years, she and her partner of 22 years, George, lived in Kamloops, BC. She had a pacemaker, But God saw her suffering and said ‘that’s enough’ and took her home.
Through it all Brenda always had a smile for everyone – she was loving, giving, friendly. She never intentionally hurt anyone but she was easily hurt.
Brenda leaves behind George Kasch, her parents Helen and Emil Kobelka, Jacqueline Kelm (Shane), Ronald Merkley (Anna), Bobbie Wilson (Cameron), her grandchildren Kaden and Anne-Marie, Nico and Clarise – the smiles in her life. Her siblings are Wanda Collins (Randy), Clayton Kobelka (Natalie), Liana Rathwell (James) and nieces and nephews. Also her very close aunts and uncles; Romona and Ernest Wright, Ernest and Susan Kobelka, Russell and Cynthia Kobelka, Margaret and Gerald Dykin, and Robert and Ritah Rind, and numerous cousins.
Funeral Service to be determined at a later date.
