Obituary of Victoria Christine Mawson

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Viki at the Cranbrook Regional Hospital.   She was born to parents Frank and Frederika Pho in New Denver, BC and spent her childhood years there.   Her father was a miner and operated a mining operation for many years on the Hewitt claim and her mother was a nurse in the New Denver hospital.   Her parents built, operated and expanded the Lucerne motel and Viki grew up working for her parents in the business.  

Viki’s early education was in New Denver but her later years were spent out of the province, first in Saskatchewan, then Vienna, Austria and finishing her education in Switzerland before returning to Canada to work many jobs in Vancouver, Calgary, Nelson, and finally Castlegar where she eventually got a job operating the Castlegar ferry for 7 years until it was retired.   At that point Viki changed careers and went into sales with East Kootenay Supplies, first in Nelson before moving to Cranbrook in 1989 where she spent 10 years with the company.  Then Viki decided to try sales for Coca Cola before taking early retirement in 2008.   She was very successful during her sales years and was particularly good at making cold calls and was one of the few women on the road in sales.   

Upon retirement Viki and her partner Ron were able to enjoy travelling to many parts of the world and spend winters in Arizona.

As a girl and young woman Viki enjoyed skiing as well as the outdoor pursuits of hunting and snowmobiling and later camping with many summers spent at Lake Kookanusa.   She was also involved in many organizations including The Association of Canadian Travellers, Ladies Rotary, a board member of East Kootenay Community Credit Union and on the board of the East Kootenay division of the Canadian Mental Health Association.  

After a battle with breast cancer Viki found her true passion in the sport of Dragon boating with the Abreast in the Rockies Dragonboat team, and later with the Phoenix Desert Dragons breast cancer survivor team in Arizona and recently was also a member of the new Cranbrook Mixed dragon boat team.   Up until recently she was scheduled to paddle in the world Breast Cancer Survivor dragon boat festival in New Zealand with the Phoenix Desert Dragons – who took home the gold in the 250M event.   She also enjoyed walking in her neighbourhood or the Cranbrook Community forest as well as in Arizona in the winter.

She will be sadly missed by her brother Mark Pho of Lumby, BC and her loving partner of 25 years Ron Boese and his family, Stephen Boese of Calgary, Alberta and Melissa (Tyler) Dillon and grand-daughters Brielle and Everly Dillon of Surrey, BC as well as surrogate grandchildren Isabella and Brandon Martinez of Maple Ridge, BC.   Everyone who met Viki was taken by her warm welcoming personality and infectious laugh which has been silenced.

We would like to thank the medical staff and 3^rd floor nurses who cared for Viki in her final days as well as Dr. Whitten, Dr. Lowden and the Cranbrook Oncology staff, Dr. Shilhan and Dr. Callan and the Kelowna Radiology/Oncology staff in Kelowna for her treatment and care.

At her request there will be no service but a donation in the fight against cancer, the Cranbrook Hospital Foundation or the charity of your choice would honour her memory.

I’m sure she is paddling with the angels and give her one last salute, PADDLES UP!