KENWOOD - KOSHNYSH, MARGUERITE EILEEN
(Nee: Ferguson)
Born : December 22, 1919 in Moose Jaw, SK
Died: July 1st, 2012 at the age of 92 in Thailand

Our dear mother, aunt, and friend, has gone home to be with her Lord to whom she was devoted all of her life. Eileen taught Sunday School in Moose Jaw at the Baptist Church on High Street. Worship was an important part of her being wherever she lived.

In her younger years, she worked as a telephone operator in Moose Jaw where she met, and married Nick Koshnysh. They had three sons: Jim and Dale, who now reside in Thailand; and Dan, who resides near San Francisco. Her sons, two grandsons, and one great-grandchild are left to cherish their memories of Eileen. Eileen has many nieces and nephews who are saddened at her passing. Her niece Marlene Banko of Calgary remained in constant telephone contact with Eileen over the years and visited her often in California. They shared a special bond.

Eileen and Nick moved to Santa Rosa, California in 1960 where they established a lucrative hearing aid business. Their actual name, Koshnysh, presented both spelling and pronunciation difficulties for their clients, so they changed their name to Kenwood.

Each summer, Eileen returned to Moose Jaw to spend six weeks with her mother Ethlinda Ferguson who resided in the Pioneers’ Housing Complex. What fun our summers were with our gregarious and vibrant aunt in town. Eileen visited all her relatives and spent time telling them all the jokes she had heard in the past year. Eileen’s mother lived to be ninety-nine years and six months old. Eileen added immense joy to her mother’s life and to all with whom she associated each summer visit.

Upon retiring from their business, she and Nick built an octagonally shaped home on a steep hillside overlooking Clear Lake, California. Nick, and son Dan designed, and built the home with the million dollar view of the surrounding lake and greenery. They shared many years there in a virtual paradise.

Eileen was a beautiful woman both physically and emotionally. Tall, and blonde, she was a very attractive woman who modeled furs for Stein & Wright Furriers and clothes from Joyner’s Department Store during their fall showing each year in the 1950’s. She was a devoted wife, who in perfect health herself, moved into a nursing home to be with her ailing husband, residing there beside him for four years until his death. After his death, she moved to Thailand where she was nurtured by sons Jim and Dale, along with her Thailand companion nurse and a housekeeper, both of whom became part of her extended family.

Eileen was honoured in Buddhist funeral ceremonies in Thailand where her coffin was surrounded by mounds of flowers and candles in a Temple beside the Chao Phyra River in Bangkok. Following cremation, Eileen’s ashes will be transported to three locations and countries. Dale will carry a portion to be interred in her mother’s grave in Moose Jaw and another to be scattered on the lake in a Nature Sanctuary in California where those of her husband were scattered in 2003. The third allotment of her ashes will be given to her longtime care-giver in Thailand as a gesture of thanks and love. She will in effect, be near all those who loved her.