Sandy Martindale
1960-2015
It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Sandy Martindale after her long, difficult battle with cancer. Sandy was fortunate to remain in her home with exceptional care from her daughter Corrie, her mother, Shirley, and the rest of her family. On Friday March 6th, surrounded by her loved ones, Sandy, with a tear in her eye, gave up her fight and left this world.
Sandy was born March 30, 1960 in Williams Lake and moved with her family to the Comox Valley in 1967. She spent her school years in the Valley where she graduated from Vanier in 1978. Eventually, Sandy moved to the Yukon then to Ontario, and later to the Okanagan. The biggest joy of her life arrived in 1985 with the birth of her only child, Corrie, the daughter with whom she moved back to the Valley in 1998. Very meticulous in her ways, Sandy loved working with numbers, which led her to a bookkeeping career and many years at an accounting office in Cumberland.
In 2009, Sandy took her first real vacation to England to visit Corrie who was living there at the time. Together they went to Paris, which soon became Sandy’s favorite place on the planet. After her diagnosis in 2010. Sandy, with encouragement from Corrie, decided it was time to travel again. She was able to enjoy a few trips to Mexico before taking a Disney World Cruise with her sister’s (Pib’s) family, which then became her second favorite place. When her treatment was discontinued in March of 2014 she went on the trip of a lifetime to Europe with a family group of seven(Corrie, Troy, Deani, Rikhi, Pib, Madison). They spent two glorious weeks on what they named The Red Pants Tour, strolling the streets of none other than “Gay Paree”, Rome, and Trapani, Sicily - making sure to visit every tourist attraction along the way. Sandy never once complained. Roaming the streets for hours was enough to start the strongest of us grumbling, but we never heard a peep from Sandy. While our tired legs sought every opportunity to catch the good ole “hop on/hop off” bus, Sandy loved it just to see the sights again and listen to a guided tour accompanied by great classical music. We learned quickly from our trips with our beloved Sandy that she cherished guided tours for offering the opportunity to learn the history of each place we visited.
Predeceased by her father Gerald in 1993 and Papa Harry in 2013. She is survived by her mother Shirley, her daughter Corrie (Troy). Deani (Rikhi), Gail (Steven), Brian (Priscilla), Pib (Rob), Sam, Holden, Bo, Madison, Ivan, Kai and Serena as well as Mardell, Laura,Tracy, Ryan, Kyle, Jade, Sarah, Kayne and Neveah - and many other relatives, extended family members, and friends.
The family would like to give their heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Dr. Hopwood for her incredible support during this extremely difficult time. We would also like express our gratitude to the Home Support team of nurses and care staff, the Red Cross, and the Hospice Volunteers who enabled us to care for Sandy at home. As well, the family would like to acknowledge Linda whose healing hands provided Sandy with much needed comfort. Much love to all of these amazing people and organizations.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Cumberland Community Forest where Sandy loved to do the swamp loop with her twistedz, Raggles, and her dog-walking buddies.