Gerthy Solveig Ingegerd Persson

Gerthy Solveig Ingegerd Persson (née Klingborg), 93 of Victoria, BC passed away peacefully on December 5th, 2025 at Saanich Peninsula Hospital, with her family by her side. Born on April 1st, 1932 in the small village of Västra Sallerup, Sweden, she was the first born child of Tage Vilhelm Klingborg and Greta Ingeborg Klingborg (née Svensson).

Gerthy was a gifted homemaker, who enjoyed entertaining, baking traditional Swedish delicacies, and learning to cook different cuisines. She enjoyed playing games and cards, travel, and was an avid gardener. Family was everything to her.

She is survived by her daughters, Ann-Marie Brizan (Darryl Brizan) and Ann-Christine Persson (William Kent) her sisters Mai-lis Åkesson and Eva Wickman, her five grandchildren, Sarah Meyer (Sjoerd), Emma Wey (Hunter), Richard Kent, Diana Shook (Chris) and Theresa Kent, as well as seven beloved great grandchildren (Kaehler, Ethan, Torsten, Annika, Clara, Owen, and Henrik).

She was predeceased by her husband of 46 years, Torsten Persson, and her brother Leif Klingborg.

A Celebration of Life will be held for her at 9:30 am Friday, December 26th, 2025 at St. Luke’s Auditorium, 3821 Cedar Hill Cross Road. Refreshments to follow.

Gerthy had a precarious start in life, almost starving to death in her first year of life. Her parents were so desperately poor that they didn’t have enough to eat and there were no social services in Sweden to help them. Her mother’s milk dried up very shortly after Gerthy’s birth, and Gerthy was so young that her digestive system could not tolerate any of the substitutes her parents could afford. Desperate to save Gerthy, her mother carried her baby 20 km to the nearest village and begged a local doctor to help her even though she couldn’t pay. We don’t know who that doctor was but he deserves a mention because without him, Gerthy surely would have died. Out of his own personal generosity, he arranged for a case of canned milk to be delivered to the estate where her father worked every week for the next year. The family remained poor but they survived and welcomed another baby, a son named Leif, soon afterwards. And, a few years later, another daughter, Maj-Lis.

During the 2nd World War, her father was drafted into the army and her mother moved into a modest cottage in the nearest village with her children. Unfortunately, her father suffered a severe back injury when he was kicked by a horse, and was discharged from the army with no compensation, no access to rehabilitation therapy, and no prospects for work because he could barely get out of bed. The doctors had told him he would probably never walk again. Her mother took on 3 different menial jobs and worked long hours seven days a week to feed the family and keep a roof over their heads. Gerthy, at the age of 9, became her father’s general and was responsible for all of the cooking, cleaning, and childcare while her mother worked. She was also responsible for bringing home what might be the family’s only food for the day by standing in the bean line. Food was scarce during the war, and to help, the Swedish government handed out dried beans every day in the town square. There was rarely enough for all the people waiting in line. All the women knew this so they would try to edge the young girl out of the way to ensure that their families would eat that day. Gerthy learned to be TOUGH and fought daily to keep her place in the line knowing that if she didn’t, her family would go to bed hungry that night. She usually won!

She also learned to fight with her fists. Her brother, a few years younger, didn’t think he should be bossed around and told what to do by a girl. Their arguments frequently ended in fisticuffs and I don’t believe she ever lost. Years later, he revealed how much he respected her for forcing him to behave, follow the rules, and always do the right thing. This ability to fight fiercely and well, also stood her in good stead with the neighborhood children. Gerthy and her siblings were often bullied because of their extreme poverty. They wore old 2nd hand clothes, never had anything new, and didn’t have a mother at home to look after them. Gerthy simply wouldn’t tolerate it, especially if they picked on her little sister. The other children soon learned to run for their lives when Gerthy came racing over, in a rage, with fists raised. Even the big boys didn’t dare tackle her because she was so fierce.

She must have inherited some of her toughness from her father. Determined to get back to work, he devised his own physiotherapy program. After several years, he had recovered enough to go back to work and support his family again. Once they were stable, they had a little more money to pay the bills, but her mother collapsed and suffered a deep depression for several years. Today, we would probably say she was suffering from PTSD, but it didn’t make any difference then. There was still no help or treatment so Gerthy remained in charge of the household and her siblings (much to her brother’s dismay).

Eventually, the war ended, and life began to look better. Her parents adopted her youngest sister, the daughter of her mother’s cousin who died, and the joy of having a young child around helped her mother recover from depression. Gerthy was growing up and very popular with her friends at school and adults alike. All of the hardships she had lived through as a younger child resulted in her being exceptionally skilled and hard working, which helped her to make her way in the world. When she was 13, her mother began to take her with her occasionally to work in the fields, picking strawberries, harvesting beets, etc. and she was allowed to keep the money she earned.

Like so many people in Europe, Gerthy suffered from malnutrition during the war. As her cousin’s family worked on a farm nearby, Gerthy was sent to help her cousin in the kitchen for the summer in hopes that access to better food would improve her health. It was there that she met her future husband, Torsten. Torsten was a terrible tease and enjoyed making the young girl blush by telling her that she would have to learn to cook eggs the way he liked them before they could get married, never imagining that would ever happen.

The wealthier farmers and estate owners eventually took notice of this exceptional child and hired her as a caregiver for their children during the summers when they were free from school. She loved it! Always full of stories afterwards for her siblings about the grand houses (at least to them) and the wonderful food.

After she finished public school, she initially worked in a weaving factory, losing a large chunk of hair to one of the machines, but her true calling was in the domestic arts. Eventually, she hired on with an extremely wealthy family and lived with them for several years. They took her traveling with them and introduced her to the expected social table manners and other customs so that she and her charges would at all times appear “refined”.

During this time, she met Torsten again, at her cousin’s wedding to Torsten’s older brother. This time, there was an instant attraction between the two, and the couple began to date.

At that time, Torsten was in agricultural school, as he loved farming, and wanted to take over the family farm, something in which his brothers were not interested. In his final year, he went to Holland as an exchange student and while he was away, his brother decided that he did want to farm after all. Torsten was terribly disappointed and decided that he was going to be a farmer no matter what. He had heard that land could be had for free in Canada under the homesteading act. So he came back from Holland, proposed to Gerthy, and left for Canada. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to live in Canada away from her family so she asked him to go ahead and make sure it was what he really wanted before she joined him.

He tried Alberta first, but farming in Alberta was very different from the type of farming in which he was interested, so he travelled to BC. In BC he fell in love with the mountains and trees and eventually ended up in Prince George working for the BC Forest service. He sent Gerthy the money for travel to Canada and promised that if she didn’t like it or had changed her mind about him, he would do whatever it took to earn enough money to send her back.

Before Gerthy could leave Sweden, she had to apply for her emigrant’s papers at the local church. Imagine her indignation, when the priest refused to sign her papers, because he didn’t think she was making the right decision. Eventually, she prevailed, the papers were

signed, and at the age of 22, she boarded a big ship and sailed to Canada, landing in Halifax. From there she boarded a train and travelled across Canada to Edmonton where Torsten met her. They were married the next day on May 8th, 1954, and on the following day, boarded the train back to Prince George because Torsten had to return to work. They arrived late at night and stayed in a flea bag hotel (literally) on First Avenue near the train station. He hadn’t arranged for a place for her to stay yet (he had been staying in the camps to save money) so he was up early the next morning, found her a place to stay, which was literally the walled in back porch of someone’s house, introduced her to a friend’s wife who spoke Norwegian, (somewhat similar to Swedish), gave her some money, and left for a week of work in the camps.

Prince George at that time was terribly backwards and nowhere near as modern as the Europe that she had left. The locals were not welcoming to “foreigners” and refused to even try to understand her Swedish accent. And her clothes, which were as close to the height of European fashion as she could manage, made her stand out everywhere she went. There were only 3 paved blocks of street downtown and the other streets were gravel and muddy with the spring rains and snow melt. She had to walk 3 blocks with a bucket to get drinking water from the public tap, and she was very, very lonely. But she was tough! When Torsten came back, they started looking immediately for a better place to stay that was closer to her only friend, Gudrun (the Norwegian friend she met through Torsten.) They ended up living in a shack in Gudrun’s back yard, with no indoor plumbing or electricity, an outhouse, and she still had to walk to the well with a bucket for drinking water, but at least there was a huge rain barrel for washing water, a good friend to laugh with, and life was much improved, even if the wind did blow through the cracks in the walls. They blocked up the cracks with newspapers. threw more wood in the wood stove and saved every penny they could to build their own home. Afterwards, she reminisced about the wood stove very fondly, saying that it made the best bread.

They bought a small lot first and when it was paid off, they started building their house. It was impossible to get a mortgage at the time until the house could be occupied, so they set aside $10 from every weekly paycheck that Torsten earned and used it to buy either tools or materials. It took them 2 years to build a house they could live in, but they were able to move in shortly before their first daughter, Ann-Marie, was born. The house had plywood floors, no cupboards, no doors to any of the rooms and tar paper on the outside but since they were living in it, they were finally able to apply for a mortgage and finish their house, which they did over the next few years. Four years later, they welcomed their 2nd daughter, Ann-Christine and their family was complete.

During this time, they settled into life in Prince George and made many lifelong friends. Gerthy had always enjoyed gardening, and her small flower garden was a joy for her. Gerthy was an amazing cook and baker. Torsten was very proud of her and her abilities, and she learned to always be prepared. She kept the cookie tins filled and prepared extra food for when he returned from camp. During the week he would brag to his co-workers about how wonderful his wife was and what an amazing cook she was, and inevitably, he would bring new workers and bachelor’s home with him to experience how amazing she was firsthand. They were very social and did a lot of entertaining.

During the winter of 1961, Torsten received a promotion and a transfer to Nelson BC, so they sold their home and moved south. They kept in touch with all of the wonderful friends they had made in Prince George but true to form, they soon had a new circle of good friends that got together weekly when the men were home for parties and dinners and the wives all supported each other during the week and arranged play dates for their children.

When they sold their home in Prince George, they had to finance the new buyers for the first few years because the purchasers didn’t have enough equity to apply for a mortgage. When the balance of the funds finally came through, they decided to take (what they thought) would be a once in a lifetime trip back to Sweden so that they could see their families again and introduce their children. It was rare for regular people to travel back and forth to Europe at that time. Gerthy and the girls went for 6 months, and Torsten came for 3 weeks because that was all the holiday time he had. It remained a cherished memory for the whole family.

Once back in Canada, it was time to start building again. They bought a half acre view lot just outside Nelson and started planning. This was to be their dream home and they decided to spare no expense. Torsten insisted on all the new and innovative building techniques he could find and they wanted plaster walls, hardwood floors, the new “shag carpeting” in the living room that was all the rage at the time, and coloured bathroom fixtures (also in style in the 60’s). They built it themselves of course and Gerthy worked very hard. She did a lot of the work and all the painting. They moved in a year and a half later and were thrilled with the results.

Then began the landscaping. The property was on a slope and needed to be terraced. They had some rough work done, and while Torsten helped with the larger retaining walls, Gerthy built most of the rock walls herself, even moving the boulders (with her father’s help) that formed the rock garden that was her delight. Torsten wanted a large vegetable garden and lots of fruit trees and berry bushes and Gerthy wanted as many flowers as possible. Even the vegetable garden was beautiful with her skilled intermixing of plants and flowers. The gardens became a show place, and weekends would find many people driving by and slowing down just to look and many even came into the driveway and asked if they could take a tour. Gerthy, being the extremely hard worker that she was maintained it all.

Their time together in Nelson was wonderful. Gerthy had everything she had ever wanted. A secure roof over her head. Plenty to eat. A wonderful family. She really enjoyed being a wife and mother. And lots of good friends to enjoy life with. Again, life was very busy, and they did a lot of entertaining, both planned and drop ins. All their friends knew that they were welcome at the Persson home and loved to come visit them. A lot! And they loved it too.

The girls grew up, went to university, moved to different cities, and got married. They celebrated each achievement with joy. Especially when grandchildren started arriving on the scene. Torsten was still working but Gerthy, being the strong, independent woman that she was, would just take off in her car for a week at a time almost every month to visit her precious grand children. She adored them and loved to play with them. After retirement, they would both head out. Visiting the daughters and grandchildren was a joy for them both.

Sadly, in 2000, Torsten passed away from Cancer. Gerthy was only 68 years old but looked and had the abilities of someone in their early 50’s. It was hard for her and she grieved greatly for him. She made a real effort to keep busy and stay involved in life. Every night she made a nice dinner for herself and lit a candle and talked to him about her day just like she did when he was alive. She took a bus trip in Eastern Canada with a friend. She maintained her friendships and activities and all the wonderful friends they had made together kept her in their lives so her social schedule was still full. She continued her tradition of visiting one of her daughters monthly (except in the summertime when the garden needed more of her attention) and put a lot of miles on her old Volvo. She even drove during the winter months. Neither snow, nor sleet, nor rain could keep her away from her daughters and grandchildren.

She stayed in the wonderful house they had built together for another 21 years. She maintained the home and the large gardens almost single handedly. She continued to visit friends and family and they all visited her. She particularly enjoyed visiting Sweden and having her family from Sweden visit her. She took each and every one of her grandchildren on a trip to Sweden and proudly showed them her roots. And, to celebrate her 80th birthday, she took a bucket list trip to Hawaii with her 2 daughters and even swam in the ocean there.

Eventually, the work of maintaining such a large home and property got to be too much for her. Always a perfectionist, she just couldn’t let anything go and the work became exhausting. So, at the age of 89, she sold her home of 55 years and moved to Victoria where her daughter Ann-Marie was living, and her younger daughter Ann-Christine planned to retire. Two of her granddaughters were already living there as well as 3 of her great grandchildren (she had 5 at this point) and soon to be joined by 2 more great grandchildren.

She bought a lovely town house in an independent senior living community and continued to thrive with her increased proximity to family. She even had a few friends from the old days in Victoria and was starting to make a new circle of friends in her new community.

Sadly, her health took a turn for the worse early this year and after an extended hospital stay and a short time in care, she passed away in hospice early on the morning of Friday December 5th with her 2 daughters at her side. The past few days had been spent with visits from family and friends, and we know she appreciated them all. She had previously said she didn’t want to just be alive; she wanted to LIVE! And boy did she ever. She will be loved and missed by all who knew her.