INGRID EVA LUX

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INGRID EVA LUX

Ingrid passed away at home on Sunday November 26, 2023 at the age of 89.

She was predeceased by her husband Siegfried; parents, Eva and Otto Philipp; sisters, Christel and Monika; brother Klaus and niece Astrid. She leaves to mourn her son Peter Franzen; nieces, Yvonne (Hartley) and Karen (Warren); nephew Olaf (Wendy); and friends, Patti, Erna and Ursel.

Ingrid was born at Wolfsdorf in the Free City of Danzig in 1934. She was raised on a homestead farm with a pig, a goat, chickens and a large garden. They didn't have much, but they always had the farm's food except in the last months of the war.

Ingrid's father was a dike master and worked many miles to the south so he only came home on weekends. Running the farm and taking care of the children was all up to Ingrid's mother, with Christel serving as second in command. In the last few years of the war, her father was conscripted and served as a guard in a POW camp in Belgium. Once a year, he received furlough and brought one English prisoner with him to the farm. Bob could speak German and he played with Ingrid and her siblings in-between working on the farm.

In early 1945, the Russian advance forced them to flee the farm on foot to Danzig. They used the very high dikes along the Nogat River to slip by the Russian soldiers. With their mother hospitalized from a nervous breakdown and their father a POW, Ingrid and her three surviving siblings were taken to an orphanage. There was no food available in Danzig and they were fed wheat of hearts cooked in water. Ingrid couldn't stomach this with only Maggi to flavour it. Eventually they were placed on the second last ship out of the Russian-encircled Danzig. The ship of fleeing refugees zig-zagged its way to Copenhagen avoiding submarine torpedoes.

After being moved south, Christel and Monica were fostered out to one woman who needed a babysitter while Ingrid and Klaus were sent to a teacher's family. They were full of lice from the orphanage and it took a good scrubbing to clean them up. But there was no shortage of food in Denmark. They could use as much sugar as they wanted to sweeten their food. Even chocolate was available. Eventually the teacher re-united all four siblings. This man and his wife treated Ingrid and her siblings really well. But as the war drew to a close, the children were forced into a refugee camp and the teacher was arrested for harbouring the enemy.

In the refugee camp after the war ended, Ingrid's survival skills kicked in. There were many German soldiers still kept in prison camps which were little more than fenced-in fields. She talked to them and they gave her money to buy cigarettes and the like for them. From this she saved up enough money to buy a frying pan and eggs to feed her siblings.

Ingrid's father surrendered to the English / Canadian military and was released after being treated very well. He travelled back to Germany at the end of the war and began searching for his family. Through the Red Cross, he found his wife and eventually found his children. In 1947 the family was re-united in Hamburg, in a one room apartment. Life was a struggle and Ingrid's father got her an apprenticeship with a hair-dressing shop when she was 14. The family needed the extra income.

The family knew living in Germany was not going to be easy for a long time. So at the age of 19, Ingrid was sent off to Canada to establish a life and eventually bring the family over. She travelled by boat, meeting many other Germans also immigrating, some of whom became life-long friends. They arrived in Halifax in February 1954 and then boarded a train for Montreal. Here she had her first taste of Corn Flakes, becoming a fan for life. She spent a couple of days in Montreal before boarding a train to Winnipeg. The two day trip was on a car with wooden benches. She was so tired that she eventually just sprawled out on the floor to sleep.

She arrived in Winnipeg at the CP Rail station on Higgins. From there, the immigration agent herded her into a taxi to take her to a household that requested a maid. Even though she was a fully-qualified hair-dresser, Canada needed maids so that was a requirement of entry. In that first year she paid off her travel loan from the Lutheran Church.

After a year of maid work, she had to find a place to live and furnish it. She applied for her hair-dressing licence. She was only required to demonstrate her capability through a few physical tests and received her licence. Her first employer was a stylist near the Jubilee underpass but eventually moved to the Bay.

As she worked, she saved money to bring her family over from Germany. At this time she met her first husband, Peter Franzen. All of the family came in 1956. The family was close-knit, doing many things together such as fishing on Lee River.

In 1959, Ingrid became a proud Canadian citizen. Her only child, Peter, was born in 1962. She had just quit working the month before and was soon doing hair again for friends and family. It was at this time she learned of her love for gardening, culminating in an award for the most beautiful yard.

In the early 70s, she studied and became a real estate agent to support herself. She was very good at this and earned a highest-earning agent award. Again, her survival and business sense kicked-in when she bought a 100 year-old farm house on an acreage on the outskirts of the city. She lived there for several years before subdividing the land for lots.

She met the love of her life in the 70s and eventually married Siggi in 1987. They built a house together on one of her subdivided lots where she lived until her death. Ingrid and Siggi loved travelling, fishing, gardening and shopping for bargains. They travelled much of the world including Europe, most of the Caribbean, the Canary Islands, Hawaii, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand, but her favourite was Mexico where they went many times. They loved fishing in the Bird River area where they had a cabin, even portaging to secluded lakes. She also enjoyed mushroom and berry picking and harvesting wood from a burned-out area for their home furnace.

In her later years, she took care of her husband but still managed to do hair for friends, Dottie, Aida, Josie and Erna. It was never work to her. It was a fun visit. At this time in her life she became an avid soccer fan.

A special thanks to Patti, Odie and Dr. Lee for their care.

I will miss you Mama, but I will always have some of my most cherished childhood memories of you playing with me, like teaching me to hit a ball with a tomatoe stake or playing with me in the sand box. You kept me going during my illness later in life, which also kept you going.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Ingrid's memory to the Historic Elmwood Cemetery, 88 Hespeler Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R2L 0L3, or an organization of your choice.

Cremation has taken place. Burial of the ashes with her husband Siggi will take place in the summer at Elmwood Cemetery and will be announced.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Dec 30, 2023, Dec 30, 2023