Lydia Isaak died June 26, 2009. She was born May 18, 1925 in Karlovka, Ukraine to Abram and Maria Sawatzky. When she was 4, her family fled Russia via Germany and arrived in Paraguay in 1930. In 1932, her father died of typhoid fever. When Lydia was 11, she accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. At 15, she was baptized and became a member of the MB church. Lydia’s mother died in 1950. That year, Lydia entered nurse’s training at the Filadelphia hospital. She moved to Canada in 1961, settling in Vancouver, where she did housework and took English classes until 1962, when she found work as a nurse at Menno Hospital in Abbotsford, B.C. She worked there 15 years and became a member at Clearbrook MB Church. In 1977, she married widower Kornelius Isaak and moved back to Vancouver. He had 9 children, 18 grandchildren, and 1 great-grandchild. Lydia and Kornelius shared joy and sorrow until his death in 1980. After working part-time at the German Canadian Home for 8 years, she took early retirement at 63 and returned to Abbotsford and rejoined Clearbrook MB. Declining health in 2007 led her to enter Tabor Home where she received good care and could watch church services on TV. She is mourned by sister Kathie (Gerhard) Enns; many nieces and nephews in Ontario, Manitoba, B.C., and Paraguay, and Kornelius’s family.
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