Copyright abbynews
28 July 1927 – 9 September 2025 Isak S. Vaage died quietly at The Mayfair in Abbotsford, B.C. in the early morning of 9 September 2025, the same day that his mother Petra Dikka Isaksdotter from Våge was born in 1902. Together with Severin Olavson Våge, she later gave birth to three children: Ragnar, Johanna, and Isak. The last of these was determined not to be the least of them. Isak was born on 28 July 1927 somewhere in Sande, Sandsøy, Sunnmøre, Norway. After a staggered schooling, first, on the island of Sandsøy, then, in the not-too-distant town of Volda, and finally, in far-off Oslo, he decided, in 1952, to try his luck farther afield in Canada, where he began working for the Bank of Montreal in 1953 in Prince Rupert, moving up the managerial ladder through appointments in Osoyoos, Chilliwack, Port Alberni, Enderby, Trail, Kamloops, Nanaimo, Williams Lake, Vancouver and Abbotsford, where Isak finally retired at 55 for medical reasons into what he came to call “the best years of my life”. In retirement, he was, among other things, a decidedly unprofessional though not incapable year-round early-morning golfer, a school-crossing guard with side-gigs as ad hoc English language instructor for visiting Chinese grandparents as well as ambient crow-trainer, a Sunday-morning taxi-driver to church for all who had no other option, etc. While in Osoyoos, Isak met his eventual wife Mary G. Smith. They married in December, 1955. In 1956, the first of their three children, Leif Eric, was born, to be followed about as swiftly as humanly possible by the births of Alan Stanley (1957) and Diana Lynn (1958). Together with these in bereavement remain, respectively, spouses Susan Slater, Hélène Vaage, and John Hambley; grandchildren Liv, Maria, Matthew; Chantal, Aaron, Sarah, and great-granddaughter Gisela; as well as nieces and nephews Sylvia (Einar), Vigdis, Oddbjørn, Erna (Ragnar), and Stole in Norway. Isak was predeceased by his wife Mary (2014), his brother Ragnar, and his sister Johanna. A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday 14 November 2025 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 3845 Gladwin Road, Abbotsford, B.C. V2S 7A1 (604-853-3227).
