People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.
-Albert Einstein This memorial website was created to remember
John Ouwehand beloved father, grandfather, great grandfather who was born in
Scheveningen, Netherlands on
November 5, 1926 and passed away on
August 2, 2013. You will live forever in our memories and hearts Dad/Grandpa.
John Ouwehand (1926-2013) was a Canadian citizen who loved his country.
He was born in The Netherlands into a family of 6 sisters.
At the age of 17 he was taken to a slave labor camp. After being kept prisoner for 2 years he escaped from the camp.
Soon after he joined the navy, and not only did he fight for his Country but he also fought for Canada as well.
Years later he immigrated to Canada where he met Ruth Buchanan, the two got too know each other very well and a couple years later got married, they both parented 5 children. They had lots of fun times as a family and as one of his grandchildren
I've heard stories. He and Ruth had 3 girls and 2 boys named Laurie, Karen, Lesa, Lorne and Lance. Years later He and Ruth split up and the children were a mess. After that the family became distant and only talked to each other during special events. However their daughter Laurie always was around to help out both her parents who lived in different cities (John: Pitt Meadows, Ruth: Kelowna). As the years went by John also became a grandfather to 11 grandchildren; Nick, Matthew (Laurie), Adam (Lesa), Nicole (Lorne), Rebecca, Mitchell (Karen), Ryan, Kyle, Caitlin, Nicholas and Amy (Lance) and 1 great grandchild Damien (Nicole) whom he loved very much. John also had some health problems, 3 tumors; 2 in the brain 1 in the hand, a colostomy, and suffered from renal (kidney) failure. He courageously fought all of these problems and some success did happen, two of his tumors were removed (1 brain, 1 hand). However as the years passed his kidneys were bugging him and he had trouble eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom etc. As they kept failing him he was in and out of the hospital for years, after a while he started feeling better but not for too long. It was getting to the point where he could not live by himself anymore so he came and lived with his daughter Laurie and her two boys for a month. While living with them he grew much closer to his grandkids as he attempted to rap with Matthew and laughed at Bill Cosby with Nick. After the month he thought it was time for him to go home, so we honored his wishes and brought him home and he was doing great, that was until the late afternoon of June 2nd, 2013 while at home he fell and hit his head and ended up in the hospital for one last time.
He was transferred to 4 different hospitals (Ridge Meadows, Queen's Park, Royal Columbian and Maple Ridge Hospice). And On August 2, 2013 he passed away with all he children at his side. After we laid him to rest all of his children and his ex-wife started talking to each other again which is something he wanted for years. We miss him dearly.
