Life and Times of Olivia Sylvia Radies
Olivia was born on January 22, 1932, the second to last of thirteen children born to Andrew and Magdalena Sackmann on a farm southwest of Leader, Saskatchewan. Years later, when her children would want to see the old homestead where this all happened, they would ask her to “take me to your Leader.” She was named by her sister Bertha whose favourite teacher was named Olivia. Bertha then promptly gave Olivia her first bath.
By the time Olivia was in grade two, she got the wanderlust and decided to follow her parents, who were moving into Leader. But the bright lights of Leader could only hold her attention so long, and by 1944 she once again decided to follow her parents and some of her sisters as they moved to Kelowna, B.C.
Once in Kelowna, she completed her grade eight education, when it was decided she should go to work to help with household expenses. And work she did, processing fruit and vegetables for canning at the likes of Canadian Canners, Alymers and Sun Rype. She worked her cans off! Little did she know that all this would change in more than a decade when one of her brothers introduced her to a young man from Saskatchewan.
After a few years of whirlwind courtship, Hugo and Olivia married on December 30, 1959, right in Kelowna. Hugo would often tell people he went to B.C. to pick apples, but he got an Olive instead. After a nice long honeymoon in San Francisco, Hugo and Olive moved to a farm northeast of Eatonia, a mere 30 miles or so from where she was born. The bone-crushing days of working with fruit and vegetables were traded for the cushy lifestyle of raising grain and livestock.
Nine months to the day after Olive’s 28th birthday, she gave birth to her one and only son, Dale, in 1960. He was followed by a daughter, Twila, in 1962 and yet another daughter, Patty, in 1963. So now it is raising grain, livestock and children.
By 1987, Olive’s feet got restless once again, and she decided to follow her husband and move into a new house in Kindersley, Sask. This lasted even after Hugo’s passing in 1998 and even survived Twila’s moving in with her in 2004. But once again, she got the itch to move on and decided to follow the doctor’s advice and moved into Heritage Manor in 2017. She lived there until her passing on July 7, 2020.
Olive is extremely missed by her children, Dale (Francisca), Twila and Patty (Gordon), and her grandchildren, Vanessa, Matthew, Naomi, Meaghan and Trevor. She is survived by one sibling, her sister Matilda. Of all the things that will be remembered about Olive, her sense of humour and love of laughing top the list, with a close second being her love of music and singing. She also loved being a grandma. She worked hard on the farm, often doing jobs many wouldn’t consider “women’s work” like picking rocks, hauling grain, feeding pigs, but she did it to help out just like her parents had taught her. She often did all that work with her kids beside her, who learned to laugh when things go wrong and to laugh harder when things went right. Her voice just carried when she sang in church, and she had an excellent sense of harmony. Not many people know she had cut a record with her sister back in Kelowna times. Her cooking was famous, and many times workers who came out for part-time jobs couldn’t believe the meals they were fed. She loved playing board games with her grandchildren, staying active in the grandkid’s lives, going to recitals and graduations and any significant event in their lives. She loved doing puzzles and really dove into that in her retirement years, as well as word searches. And then there was the crocheting! She was also very spiritual, and her faith was very important to her. In all, she was a bonanza of inspiration and compassion. Her family benefited from all the resources she had to offer. We will always love you, Mom, and Grandma!