Russell, Anna Jensen, (Christensen)
14 May 1930 - 1 May 2022
It is with both great sadness and relief that Mom passed quietly. She left us to join her parents, two husbands, three younger brothers and her youngest son.
She leaves her twin siblings, George and Elisbeth, her children, (Mark (Gisele), James, Jane and Bruce), six grandchildren (Megann (Ian), David, Eric (Ashley), Kymberly, Daniel (Olivia), Jarvis (Paige)), and four great-grandchildren, and many friends, neighbours and colleagues.
She was a loving and caring mother, devout Christian with very strong faith in God. She grew up on a dairy farm west of Calgary in the dirty thirties. Eldest of six children, she pulled her weight from an early age. She was very proud to have attended the Camrose Lutheran College. After marrying Otto Christensen, they moved north to a small farm in the Athabasca area. They raised five children scrimping to make ends meet on a farm too small to sustain itself. She bore the brunt of child-rearing when dad had to work in labour construction camps and construction jobs to make ends meet. She worked in the local nursing home, wrapped meat in an Abattoir, office clerk and column writer for a The Athabasca Advocate newspaper, and then as a secretary at the Athabasca University. She continued her writing in church bulletins for years after retirement. She was a talented pianist and played for church, dances or for fun. She was an accomplished seamstress and would often make, alter, re-purpose or repair our clothes until the pieces were too small to do anything with. She loved to crochet and knit, especially for Church mission drives. She knitted and crocheted or quilted hundreds of mittens, toques, other clothing items and blankets. She beat Cancer in her early 60s, and a large ovarian tumor in her 80s. This while watching her second husband and true love, Ian Russell, fall away to cancer. She loved her grandchildren very much and was so happy when she became a great-grandmother – 4 times over. We’ll miss you mom, but we know you are at peace now and we will one day meet again.
Celebration of life service will be at Hope Lutheran Church at 5104, 196 Ave, Edmonton, Ab. On 14 May 2022 at 11:00a.m. Her request is for no flowers but please donate to Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute in Camrose, or a charity of your choice
