Obituary of Donna Helen Keyes

With great sadness we announce the passing of our Mom, Grandma, Nana, Sister & Aunty, Donna Helen Keyes (nee Ralph) on October 11, 2024 at 80 years of age. Donna was born on March 30, 1944, in Arborfield, Saskatchewan (a couple minutes behind her “older” twin-brother Don) to Bernice and Sam Ralph.

When Mom was very young, Sam and Bernice moved the family to Wycliffe BC where they operated a Dairy in Marysville BC and Sam was the local casket maker. Mom started school in the small Marysville school house and loved to play any sport. After Sam’s sudden death when Mom was 6 the family moved to Wynndel BC where she attended school in Wynndel and Creston. In Crawford Bay BC in the early 60’s Mom met and married Jimmy Keyes and they produced 3 very special gems; Gaylene in 1965, Lisa in 1966, and Renee in 1968. The family resided in Riondel BC until 1971, when the Bluebell mine closed and the family moved to Kimberley BC. While in Kimberley Mom joined the ladies bowling league and over the years won many personal and team trophy’s. Weekends were spent camping at Fairmont Hot Springs and a few weeks every summer were spent in Arborfield Saskatchewan. Mom loved to read and later on in life it was rare to see her without a book or her kindle in her hands.

Mom was an amazing cook and worked in many restaurants over the years. So not surprisingly mom opened and operated many restaurants during her life starting with Casper’s in the old Cranbrook Mall. They moved to the Okanagan in the later 80’s when Jimmy retired, but made their way back to the Creston Valley in 1994, where Donna’s Bistro was opened in September of 1995. Mom did not want people to be alone on special holidays like Christmas day, so she would give her staff the day off to spend with their family and have her family come in to help prepare and serve a traditional Christmas dinner. Lisa and Renee are both great cooks and wonderful servers which ensured a lot of laughter. Due to the lack of any culinary skill, mom lovingly delegated Gaylene and Jimmy the task of washing dishes and bussing tables contributing to the fun environment because one family joke is; Gaylene became a social worker because following in Mom, Lisa and Renee’s footsteps she would have starved. Another joke was “this is a family restaurant, but we are not a nice family” displaying the sarcastic sense of humour that mom shared with her girls. Mom remained involved in the restaurant business for many years, later assisting and supporting Lisa and Renee in their own restaurants. We believe that her support of Lisa and Renee’s restaurants was a little self serving because of her love of mashed potatoes and gravy and dessert. It was not unusual to walk in and find Mom with a scoop of mashed potatoes and the bowl so full of gravy someone had stuck a straw in it or she had some type of cream pie or other yummy dessert

After Mom got out of the restaurant business mom was involved with hospice and BC Community Living dedicating years of her time to care for Laurie, Cheryl, Gloria and Bonnie, who became a close part of our family, sharing in holidays and special occasions such as a new baby joining the family. Caring for others is tiring and when mom needed a break she would tell her grandchildren that she was going across the line to Bonners Ferry Idaho for milk and cheese, and then detour to the casino in Bonners Ferry and we are not sure how she did it but she usually won something. On a trip to the states one day, her young grandchild pointed to the casino and said “look that is the store Nana goes to” as they had been told this by their Nana when she had taken them to the states. It would be years later when they realized exactly what type of “store” their Grandmother was going to.

When our Dad Jimmy passed in 2009, Mom who was 65 retired from caring for others and was spending more time at her favourite “store” in Bonners Ferry. This is where she met her soulmate Jim Gillespie (Pops), and she moved to Cranbrook to be with him. The year 2021 was a hard year for Mom and after Pop’s passed in February of 2021, adopted granddaughter Sheena passed in May and mom encountered a series of health issues including a broken neck. Mom moved back to Creston in summer of 2021 to be closer to her family. She lived in Crawford Bay with granddaughter Candace until she found her own place in Creston.

Mom’s grandchildren and great grandchildren meant the world to her. She had them all convinced that she was 21 years old on her birthday’s and eventually changed her age to 29 as they got older and caught on. She loved spending time with them or seeing pictures and videos of what they were up to. She tried to be at all their school functions or would often take them if they could not go to school so their parents could work or they just wanted to be with her. Mom was always willing to share her knowledge and experience in child rearing whether you wanted to hear it or not, not that we were brave enough to ever tell her that. Mom was also okay with giving a grandchild a bowl of whipped cream because Mom loved her desserts. Or feeding a grandchild sugar cookies for breakfast arguing that because she had made them they were healthier than any store bought cereal that kids liked, which was probably true. Mom’s motto was they were her grandchildren and it was her right as a Grandmother/Nana to do whatever she liked which was demonstrated over the years. Mom loved to spoil her Grandchildren. 

Mom’s health continued to fail and in 2023 she had a fall that resulted in a hospital stay at which time cancer was discovered and she was told by the doctor that she would not make it to Christmas. Mom always did things on her terms and she was not going to be told what to do, she may have been a bit stubborn so we knew come Christmas she would still be with us. Leaving the hospital we knew Mom could not live alone, so she went to live with granddaughter Candace, then daughter Renee, who both provided excellent care for mom even though she could be pretty demanding. Lisa made sure she always had the homemade soups that she loved or other foods mom requested, which sometimes wasn’t actually a choice, refer back to previous sentence. Mom would never eat anything Gaylene cooked so Gaylene provided company and drove her to see her twin-brother and 2 sisters for one last time. During the last year, Mom was able to spend time with her daughter’s, son-in-laws, grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, twin brother Don, sisters Carol, Arta and special friends. 

On September 11^th Mom had another fall that put her in the hospital, and on October 11, 2024 with her family at her side her pain and suffering ended. Mom’s boisterous laugh and witty sarcasm will be missed by all.

Donna is lovingly survived by her 3 daughters; Gaylene (Jamie), Lisa (Buck), Renee (Carl), 6 grandkids; Candace (Nick), Shaunee (Will), Derek (Shelly), Brayden (Breanne), Tyler, Jayden (Brendon), 8 great grandkids; Alexa, Jimmy, River, Kiegan, Brianna, Ripley, Elizabeth, and Tommy; her siblings Don (Pat), Carol, Arlee (Wendy), and baby sister Arta (Don). She also leaves behind many nieces and nephews as well as cousins, and 3 special nephews; Rodney, Brent (Mary) and Brian (Sherry).

Mom was predeceased by our Dad Jimmy and Step-Dad Jim (Pops), her parents Bernice and Sam, granddaughter Sheena, siblings Phil, Buster, Billy, Sonny, Biddy (Kay), Elaine and brothers-in-laws Leo and Andrew.

A Celebration of Life will be held in Spring 2025.