Lois loved Jesus Christ and hated blank walls. Jesus was her redeemer and friend; walls were for hosting art or knocking down to improve the view. Lois chose to be baptized in the North Saskatchewan River in 1951. Ten years later, she chose to marry Travis who, with her assistance, went on to seminary and pastoral work. Her subsequent involvement in the church was impassioned and deep. It was Lois’s belief that family – with its existential lifeblood of conflict, imperfect reconciliation, and yearning for better – was the truest model we have of humanity’s relationship with our Creator. She embodied and lived this reality with her earthly family and the larger family of God. Lois’s eye for beauty – in her environment and within other people – brought out unexpected gifts to everyone’s benefit. In her final years, Lois endured rapidly advancing osteoporosis and unimaginable pain. Through it all, she managed the pain and the condition in a way that allowed her near continual access to loved ones, while demonstrating humility and gratitude beyond measure.
