A Force of Nature and a Loving Mom
Vera Elizabeth Clements passed away peacefully and unexpectedly in her own home and bed at 3pm on June 25th, 2023, in Vancouver at the age of 94. She was predeceased in July 2010 by Ian, her husband for 50 years. She will be lovingly remembered and sadly missed by her two sons, Michael and Stephen (Mariya) and various nephews, nieces, friends, and other relatives around the world. Stephen and Mariya were especially pleased that Vera had many opportunities to interact with her only grandson, Alex, via video link in the years before she passed.
Vera devoted herself to the welfare of her two boys while they grew up and was very proud of all their accomplishments, which were many. She herself was a top student (skipping 3 grades in Elementary School), athlete (center forward in Field Hockey), University administrator (Belfast), banker and bookkeeper (Vancouver), and those stellar attributes that she possessed were passed on to her sons, whom she remained very close to right up to the end.
As a 30-year member of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, Vera was also an avid boater for many years with her family on their 30 foot sailboat, Karma, and enjoyed the yacht club and dining there in her later years. She was also a keen investor in many of the largest publicly-traded companies in the world, and spoke daily with her son, Michael, after Ian passed away, about how those various companies were performing, and always enjoyed hearing about the latest dividend increases. Not many 90-year-olds in Canada had 100% of their liquid assets invested in the global stock market, enjoying a dividend growth strategy with a CAGR of 9.5% for 13 years re the total Portfolio value.
As an example of her investing acumen (at age 88, no less), one day in August 2017 she and Michael were watching CNN as it was reporting on how Hurricane Harvey was about to make a devastating landfall in Houston, Texas, in about 48 hours, and she turned to her son and said “we should buy Home Depot”, to which her son replied “that’s just brilliant, Mom.” The trade was done the next morning at 6:30am and the shares have never looked back since.
It was a blessing that she remained sharp right up to the end, and was able to live in her own home that she enjoyed so much, particularly the garden around its perimeter and the hummingbirds that frequented the feeder on the back porch. Skinny bird and fat bird will miss her too.
A Celebration of Life will be held on July 25th at 5pm for invited guests at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club on the main floor, and anyone wishing to send flowers to the event may do so earlier that day for inclusion in the Ceremony. Condolences for the family may be left at www.kearneyfs.com.