Donna May Gurney
GURNEY – Donna May (nee: Fisher)
July 14, 1943 – July 30, 2010
Donna was born in Vancouver, B.C. and passed away at Vancouver Hospital. Predeceased by her daughter Debbi. Survived by her life partner Bob, daughters Lori (Tony) and Traci (Randy) and their father Gordon, son-in-law John, grandchildren Tawny, Tayla, Taryn, Julian, Jesse, Tessa and Jena and brother Milton and family. Celebration of Donna’s life will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 10th at the Bell & Burnaby Funeral Chapel, 4276 Hastings Street, Burnaby, B.C. Special Thank You to Dr. Moloski, Dr. Holly, Dr. Bell and the wonderful staff at Vancouver Hospital Pallitive Care. In lieu of flowers donations to the BC Cancer Society would be appreciated. Condolences may be offered to the family at www.bellburnaby.com
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I consider myself very fortunate to have met Donna several times in my life. Aside from her amazing physical beauty, she carried with her a grace, warmth and vitality that was unforgettable. One thing we can be sure of – her courage in her personal life has left an impact that will be felt by all and will remain for years to come.
My condolences to her family in their loss.
Clara Leddy
So sad to hear of Donna’s passing. She was terrific to work with and definitely has left a legacy at BCA. I always enjoyed working with Donna on hotels but could never quite keep up to her pace! Our staff in the Capital office will miss her.
We offer our deepest condolences to Bob and the extended Gurney family during this very difficult time. We were deeply, deeply saddened to hear of Donna’s passing… our only comfort is to know she is re-united with Debbi.
We will always remember the good times and memories with Donna and consider ourselves fortunate to be her friend.
Love Inky and John
We are so sad to hear of the passing of Donna Gurney. She was the picture of a caring and energetic Mother and Grandmother when we would see her at Porter School picking up her grandkids. Our heartfelt condolences to her family for their loss.
Although it has been many years, I will always remember the wonderful warmth Donna shared in welcoming me to her home while growing up. My deepest condolences to her family.
Our deepest sympathy to all the family. We first met Donna in the spring of 1972 – she was the realtor that sold us the house at 1251 LeRoi St where we lived for 14 years until moving out late in 1986 Donna and the Gurney family were wonderful neighbors and friends and we enjoyed each others company and camaraderie immensely.
Donna had a great sense of humor and we shared many jokes and laughs over the fence and in each others homes for those memorable seasonal parties. Since moving away we lost touch but have never forget those wonderful neighbors – the Gurneys.May Donna rest in peace and please accept our thoughts and condolences at this time.
Our thoughts are with Bob and Family at this time of sorrow. It is with a great deal of shock to learn of Donna’s illness and passing. She is remembered with joy for the good times we all had together, both socially and at work.
Our condolences to Everyone, including ourselves.
Love from Terry and Tom Yano
I am so shocked and sad to hear of the passing of Donna. I loved working with Donna and she taught me so much. Donna was always happy and passionate about her work and it was infectious. My thoughts and prayers are with her family.
Hi Lori Tony and family
I am so sorry to hear about your mom Lori.
I was reading Tuesdays paper at work today.I saw all these T names and said wait a minute….right next to Cheri and Dales 25 th anniversary.So sorry your family has been so blessed and gone through so much!Hope happy memories ease your pain a bit.
p.s I talked to Karen today she didnt know.
hugs to all LOVE YOU LONG TIME Michele
My sincere condolences to Donna’s Family and many friends who will also miss a wonderfull vibrant and always smiling lady.
For Traci, Lori and family,
We are so sorry to hear of your loss. Your Mom had a wonderful smile and was a great friend to many. I am at a loss to know the right words to say, but please know we are here for you. May your Mom reast in peace.
I bet she is one of the brightest stars in the sky, watching over all of you.
Again, I’m so sorry, our thoughts are with you all.
Lots of Love Mariann & Kevin
Donna was a personal friend, a trusted and valued professional colleague…whether it be hosting a dinner or conducting the research and analysis in her professional real estate appraisal activites, Donna’s diligence to detail was second to none…a wonderful personalty and a force to be reckoned with…a big personal loss to her family and the appraisal fraternity!
Prompted by the obituary appearing in the Province, I believe I may have known Donna if she is one and the same as a student with whom I shared a class at Templeton Secondary School 1957/58.
I extend condolences to the family though I am not certain she is the person I recall from that grade 9 year.
I have had no contact since that year; but I believe I would find a confirmatory picture in a school annual. Judging by some of the messages already submitted, indeed she may be a match for that co-ed whom I remember.
They say that friendship is a journey of the heart and I cannot express enough how much Donna meant to me.l My love goes out to Bob, Lori, Traci and all the family. You have to know that a part of me went with Donna. The memories of all we shared will keep me smiling for a long time.l Love to you all and know that my thoughts are with you..
Donna has been part of a group of 5 women who have socialized together for about 34 years. We met through working as appraisers in 1970’s, the early days when women were first entering the male dominated appraisal profession. Our group of friends includes Barb Smith, Grace Taylor and Carmen McKay of course Donna and m. We started socializing as a way to network and spend time with other women in similar situations. Our connection turned into lifelong friendships for all of us.
I first met Donna in an elevator at Langara College, she was with Grace Taylor, and I had no inkling that day that I would form a lasting friendship with these two ladies. By the time I got out of the elevator Donna knew why I was there, where I worked and how much I made. I wandered off wondering what had just happened.
Over the years our group has met for dinner every couple of months, we’ve travelled together, and we shared our successes, our failures, watched each others’ families grow and supported each other through the tough times. We know as much about Donna’s children and grandchildren and much anticipated great-grandchild as she knew about ours and that is a lot after 34 years. Most of our group also worked with her at one time or another so we touched Donna’s life and she touched ours in just about all the ways that are possible; we consider her to be a very dear friend to all of us.
In celebration of Donna’s life we choose to remember the happy times and things that made her special to us.
She was a character, always up for anything going, larger than life; there was a lot of energy packed into her petite frame.
We danced because Donna wanted to dance; she couldn’t just go out for dinner, so we went to clubs like Richards on Richards, Annabels and even tried to get into the Bombay Bicycle club in our early days so Donna could dance. Thankfully she gave up on getting us to dance so for the most part we gave up clubbing many years ago.
Our dinners were a time for catching up which meant that we either voluntarily brought the group up to date with our news or Donna would pleasantly and efficiently interview us one by one and do it so easily that the interviewee wouldn’t feel a thing. It was a talent she had and we have always laughed about how we were putty in her hands.
She was our unofficial cashier for our dinners. After dinner the cheque would come and after 30+ years we knew that Donna would look it over to make sure it was right firstly, secondly to determine how much we each owed for wine and the tip, finally she would count the money and determine if the tip was too much or too little and adjustments were made, pronto. Just like an old married couple it worked for all of us and was part of the fabric our friendship.
Some of us travelled with Donna to places like Portugal, England and Thailand. She had ideas about where to go and what to do before we ever left Canada and she took us to a club in Portugal to do what else, go dancing where we didn’t have a clue what anybody was saying but there was dancing so we had to let her have some fun and it was as fun!
Portugal didn’t know what hit it. We arrived in Lisbon in March, 1991 which is sort of their winter and everyone was wearing dark, dower clothes. We showed up in iridescent green and purple track suites highlighted by Donna’s red hair so we seemed to attract a lot of attention where ever we went.
We all golfed and Donna tried it for a while too until she decided she would never really be good at it so she just quit. She was the only one that had the brains to know when to quit, the rest us are still hacking away.
Donna grew up around horses and after talking to Stephanie Glaspie who had just been to the Sundance Guest Ranch in Cariboo, Donna decided she was going to Sundance Ranch to try it again and we just had to come. In typical Donna fashion, not only did she try riding again she tried a few runs on her special black and white horse named Poncho and they both survived to ride again. She was much braver than I have been on the galloping front. Donna was the push we needed to try riding which was previously something we only maybe might do someday.
Many of us debated issues and work problems with Donna. Speaking from experience anyone taking her on had better have done their homework or be doomed. If you happened to be fortunate enough to get the upper hand she would get a little smirk that was the sign you were winning but I didn’t see it very often as she was usually a jump ahead. She held no grudges and as long as we all got to an answer so we could get onto the next job she was happy.
Even though Donna was a good friend I didn’t work with her on a day to day basis until about 2004. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Donna was extremely good at what she did in her professional life, anybody that knew her knew that she was very smart and a good appraiser. Her analytical skills and ability to gather background information were second to none as was her work ethic. Donna worked for over 20 years for BC Assessment and was highly respected in her field as the online tributes to her can attest. My motto was “if you want something done right, get Donna to do it”.
Our group of friends have enjoyed Donna’s company and caring over the years. She was an instigator who made things fun, interesting; we often felt like we were just along for the ride but we wouldn’t change a thing.
She was our friend; loyal, honest and supportive, what more could we ask?
Thanks for being our friend, we miss you; our dinners will never be the same.
To Bob, and to Gord and all the Gurney girls, I was very sad to hear of Donna’s passing. On behalf of the Coccia family I send you all our heartfelt condolences,
I understand, due to the overflow in the Chapel some people may have missed the slide show tribute to Donna. I have posted it online at the link below.
http://www.big3media.com/donna_0001.wmv
My condolences Dear Lori, Traci and families, and Bob and Gordon
Donna, how I will miss you, my dear friend. I can’t begin to put into words our friendship over the last 56 years. I mean, how can I express even the joy of us persistently attempting to learn to rock and roll when we were 11 until still dancing to the Night Train Revue all these many, many, many, years later. We loved to dance and that kept us young. Cheerleaders forever! Love ya, girl. Keep a spot beside you for your pals. xxxooo