Obituary of Gertrud Hanna Liehr

With heavy hearts we announce that Gertrud Hanna Liehr, of Vaughan, passed away peacefully on June 2, 2023, at Mackenzie Health Hospital in Richmond Hill, from congestive heart failure and kidney failure. She was 91 years of age.

Gertrud was born on March 28, 1932, in Bad Freienwalde, Germany to Karl & Frieda (Prippnow) Strehlow. She married Wilfried Liehr in January 1953, escaped from East Germany, and later that same year, they immigrated to Canada as refugees. They landed in Montreal, and lived there for 16 years.

While in Montreal, Gertrud worked as a maid, a waitress, but ultimately found work in the Data Centre at CIBC. In 1970, as part of a large exodus out of Quebec, the familymoved to Toronto, where she continued working in the Data Centre. After a few years, they decided to leave the city, and bought Camp Doe-mis-co, a Cottage business on Little Doe Lake in Katrine. Gertrud and her husband ran the business by themselves for almost 10 years. After they sold the business, they built a house on a large property closer to Burk’s Falls where they lived for over 30 years. During those years, she took on work as
a cleaning lady at the Burk’s Falls Hospital and later at the Huntsville Hospital. In 2018, they moved to Hesperus Village in Vaughan.

Gertrud was an avid gardener and birder, and had a special love for nature and all its inhabitants. She always had a large garden where she grew many vegetables, herbs, and flowers. She was a gifted knitter - always knitting socks and sweaters for her grandchildren - and she was a great vegetarian cook and amazing baker. She loved music, and dancing, was always willing to lend a helping hand, and her smile could light up a room. She was full of life and laughs, she was loyal, wise, strong and charismatic, loved family gatherings especially at Christmas, loved to be social - she made friends everywhere she went - and was loved by everyone who knew her. A beautiful, gentle, kind, generous, soul she was, and always will be.

Gertrud is survived by her husband of 70 years Wilfried, her daughter Dorothy Liehr (Ralf Wieser) and family: Raymond Wieser, & Eleanor Wieser (Matthew Allen); her son Frank Liehr (Pamela Liehr) and family: Christina Liehr, Bradley Liehr, Lorraine Peters (Kevin Myers), Jayden Peters, Logan Allison, & Haylee Allison; and her sister-in-law Roselotte Neumann. Gertrud will be lovingly remembered by the Peters Family, and the Neumann Family. She will also be dearly missed by all her friends in Burk’s Falls, Katrine, Huntsville, at Hesperus Village, and by her extended family in Germany.
She was preceded in death by her parents, brother Karl, and sister Margarete, who all stayed in Germany.

A special, heartfelt thank you to those who helped care for Gertrud in her final years including PSWs Jennie, Maureen, & Sandra, the Doctors at Pegasus Medical Clinic, & Dr. Hamed Tashakkori-Nia, the staff at Richview Manor, and the Mackenzie Health team.

As per Gertrud’s wishes, there will be no funeral or memorial service. Cremation has taken place. A private interment will take place at a later date. As an expression of sympathy, in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Friends of Algonquin Park, the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, or to the Hesperus Village Garden Program (Land & Business Fund - please specify that donations are towards the Garden Program).

Messages of condolence and memories can be left here on her memorial page.

Donations in her memory may be made to the following charities by using the Donations area on her home page:

Friends of Algonquin Park 
Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary 
Hesperus Village