Alice Alicia Alexandra Schmidt, born April 19, 1923, passed away on April 2, 2012, with her husband and daughter, Margaret, by her side. She was in the thoughts and prayers of many both close by and far away. Alice was survived by her husband Heinz (deceased 2024), children Alexandra, Margaret (Franz), and Susan, and grandchildren, Petra and Mattias as well as many relatives in Hungary. She was predeceased by her twin sister Alexa, sisters Margit and Marica, and her brother Thomas, all who lived in Hungary.
Alice lived in Szada and Budapest, Hungary as a child. She enjoyed attending theater and opera. After school graduation, she studied horticulture, but that was cut short by World War II. Life was challenging in Hungary after the war, and she had an opportunity to move to England, initially to help take care of a cousin’s children. There Alice studied nursing which took incredible determination as she had limited English and was new to England. She then worked as a midwife, biking the streets of London, delivering babies. She immigrated to Canada in 1956 where she was head nurse on a floor at the Port Arthur General Hospital in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She met Heinz, at a dance at the local community center. They later married and moved to Geraldton and then Nipigon, raising three children.
Alice was a registered nurse and travelled to visit patients in their homes for the Victorian Order of Nurses, often during extremely wintry conditions in northern Ontario. In 1995, Alice and Heinz travelled to North Vancouver, British Columbia together with their daughter Susan. Then for many years, they spent winters in North Vancouver, living with Margaret and her family, and summers in Nipigon. Alice made frequent trips to Hungary to visit family.
Alice is remembered as an intrepid traveler, a dedicated nurse and a generous, loving and supportive wife, mother, aunt and grandmother. We will always be inspired by the moments we laughed together at the absurdities of life. A funeral was held on April 11, 2012 at St. Stephens Church in North Vancouver. Alice’s ashes were interred at the Columbarium at St Pius X church in North Vancouver.
