Susana Novicov, just shy of her 93rd birthday, died naturally at Kopernik Lodge Care Home Saturday on July 4th, surrounded by the love of family members. She was born in Bela Crkva, Serbia, and grew up with her parents and brother in war-torn Yugoslavia, attending boarding school and eventually university.
A close friend introduced Susana by mail to a housemate living in Edmonton, and a long distance romance blossomed with countless love letters, spanning five years. At the age of 27, without speaking a word of English, Susana courageously left Yugoslavia and traveled to Canada to meet her pen pal and future husband, Victor. Embarking on her very first international trip, she traveled by train across Europe to London, by boat across the Atlantic, and again by train across Canada. On April 17, 1955 Victor and Susana were officially married, and on Jan. 26, 1962 she was naturalized as a Canadian citizen.
In Calgary, Susana gave birth to her two children, Aleksey and Lidia. While Victor was away on a two year work assignment in Nigeria, she wrote him and told him he would be coming home to Vancouver, instead of Calgary. She had had enough of winters in Calgary, and with children in hand, had single-mindedly moved to Vancouver!
In 1972, Victor died from a sudden heart attack, leaving Susana to raise her two children as a single mother. With courage, determination, and love, Susana became the household provider, as well as a devoted mother, working as a home care worker for the elderly.
She was an avid gardener, known for her roses, tomatoes, and beans. She loved to sew and knit, cook, bake bread, make caviar, pickle cucumbers, and smoke salmon. She loved even more to share her cooking with friends with her sumptuous dinners.
Susana will be greatly missed by her family and friends, and will be remembered for her courage, her sense of humor, her ease of laughing and telling stories, and sharing the simple joys of life. She had a special spark that invited teasing, and an ability to gently tease others that always led to laughter.
Susana leaves her two children, Aleksey and Lidia, and her two granddaughters, Courtney and Tori. Her love lives on with the memory of a life well lived, and what it means to love unconditionally.