Cremonese, Gertrude (Trudi) Elise. Born January 11, 1923. Deceased January 30, 2013. Until her passing on January 30, 2013 at Fraser Canyon Hospital in Hope, BC, Trudi had never faced a challenge to which she could not rise. Trudi was born in Donau-Eschingen. She started her long working life early spending her adolescence working in the family-operated restaurant in Karlsruhe, Germany.
In 1944 she found herself a young widow with a newborn son following the death of her husband, Alfons Peter Dachs. Following the war she married Emil Cremonese. The family immigrated to Toronto in 1948. Over the next decade Trudi did whatever it took to help put food on the table - farm worker in Brantford, Ontario, piece-work in a garment factory and restaurant manager in Huntsville. The family relocated to BC in 1959 after a fire destroyed Trudi's sewing business in Toronto. In 1965 Trudi was hired to manage the newly-built Lake of the Woods Resort in Hope, BC. Many long hours and determination resulted in a thriving business with a restaurant popular year-round, a family summer holiday destination and a regular stop for tour buses heading up the Fraser Canyon. She often served as a second mother to a slew of young women hired each summer to work in the restaurant. Following the death of Emil in 1969, Trudi, at almost 50, was once again a widow with a young child. So she went 'back to school' emerging as a newly-minted real estate agent in Vancouver. In 1976 she made another shift, this time buying a failing bridal salon and growing it into one of the leading stores of its kind in Vancouver. The 1970s also ushered in a 40 year relationship with her third husband, Rudolph Erdman Goy. Trudi and Rudi were to all an example of two people deeply in love and enormously committed one to the other. For over 20 years one of them drove each weekend between Vancouver and Hope so that they could be together. She retired happily to their retirement home in Hope overlooking the Fraser River which they designed, devoting herself to her passion - a sumptuous garden surrounding the house. The only thing that brought her more joy was being Oma to the over 30 children, grand- and great-grand-children she shared with Rudi. Survived by husband of over 40 years Rudi Goy, sons Al, Dino and Rene, grandchildren Marisol, Alexandra, Marina, Elena, Roman, Marc and Sylvia, great-grandchildren Rhianna, Troy and Molly. Survived as well by sisters Erika and Johanna in Germany. Predeceased by husbands Alfons Peter Dachs (1944) and Emil Cremonese (1969). No service will be held at this time. Donations to mark her life and memory can be made to the Salvation Army.