Vicki Eileen Laker

January 30, 2020

Vicki Eileen Laker February 1952 to January 2020 Vicki Eileen Laker was first a painter, an artist, but also a writer, a poet and a musician, a lover of Mozart and classical music in general. She had a zest for life and took delight in the simple things like a good cup of coffee or decadent dessert. Vicki completed art school in Calgary, Alta. and did an undergraduate degree in Toronto, where she studied German language. She liked to travel, saw much of Canada and also travelled to Vienna a number of times. More recently she volunteered at the STOP (Toronto) helping with their gardens, drop-in meal and counselling programs as well as participating in many urban gardening projects. She was also a wonderful poet and was very active in the poetry community in Toronto. Vicki is survived by her two children Paula and Justin Cross and their step-father Larry Mewhort of Calgary. Their father Billy Cross predeceased her. Vicki is also survived by one sister, Marilyn, and by her brother-in-law Mr. John Schadt senior who was the husband of her late sister Patricia Ann Schadt (nee Laker), and their two children Jonathon J. Schadt and Laurel Susan Schadt of Ontario. Vicki will be missed by all and we are sorry to lose her to illness at an age much younger than most. We will miss her smiling devil-may-care good humour. Here is a poem I am sure she would have liked, passed on by a priest in Montreal: "Those you love don't go away they walk beside you every day Unseen, unheard, but always near So loved, so missed, so very dear"