Obituary for Anna Elina Kataja
Anna Elina Kataja (née Haapaniemi) passed away peacefully on Monday, November 6, 2023 in Coquitlam, BC.
Born June 11, 1929 in Ähtäri, Finland. The third youngest and last survivor of seven siblings. Elina married Tauno Loyva (d.1987) in 1949. Elina is survived by her sons Esa Loyva (wife Tarja Loyva, daughters Larissa & Jessica), and Leo Loyva (first wife Sharon Loyva son Ryan and daughter Amanda and second wife Myrna Loyva). Her daughter Kirsti passed away in 2019 (husband Darryl Mount and sons Russell and Curtis).
Elina and her small family moved from Ylistaro Finland to Sudbury Ontario in 1958 where she worked as a seamstress specializing in designing and sewing, usually women's clothes and especially wedding dresses. They moved to Coquitlam in 1964 where she continued her vocation.
Elina was very active in the Vancouver Finlandia Club and enjoyed organizing parties and dances and becoming friends with countless other Finnish immigrants in the 1960s and 70s.
Elina married her second love, Paavo Kataja (d. 2005) in 1986. Paavo was a commercial fisher. Together they enjoyed a fruitful later career fishing for salmon, halibut and lingcod off the west coast of Vancouver Island. She loved the ocean. Elina and Paavo also enjoyed being snowbirds in Florida and made the trip many times by car across America. There is a thriving community of resident and vacationing Finns in Lake Worth Florida where they made many friends. Elina loved cooking, dancing and gardening and her dogs, big and little Tasha. She was fortunate to be a great-grandmother 7 times over and savoured her senior years in her beloved Peachland, where she lived for 30 years.
Thank you to the staff at Swedish Home in Burnaby and Belvedere Care Centre in Coquitlam for their care for the past two years.
Born June 11, 1929 in Ähtäri, Finland. The third youngest and last survivor of seven siblings. Elina married Tauno Loyva (d.1987) in 1949. Elina is survived by her sons Esa Loyva (wife Tarja Loyva, daughters Larissa & Jessica), and Leo Loyva (first wife Sharon Loyva son Ryan and daughter Amanda and second wife Myrna Loyva). Her daughter Kirsti passed away in 2019 (husband Darryl Mount and sons Russell and Curtis).
Elina and her small family moved from Ylistaro Finland to Sudbury Ontario in 1958 where she worked as a seamstress specializing in designing and sewing, usually women's clothes and especially wedding dresses. They moved to Coquitlam in 1964 where she continued her vocation.
Elina was very active in the Vancouver Finlandia Club and enjoyed organizing parties and dances and becoming friends with countless other Finnish immigrants in the 1960s and 70s.
Elina married her second love, Paavo Kataja (d. 2005) in 1986. Paavo was a commercial fisher. Together they enjoyed a fruitful later career fishing for salmon, halibut and lingcod off the west coast of Vancouver Island. She loved the ocean. Elina and Paavo also enjoyed being snowbirds in Florida and made the trip many times by car across America. There is a thriving community of resident and vacationing Finns in Lake Worth Florida where they made many friends. Elina loved cooking, dancing and gardening and her dogs, big and little Tasha. She was fortunate to be a great-grandmother 7 times over and savoured her senior years in her beloved Peachland, where she lived for 30 years.
Thank you to the staff at Swedish Home in Burnaby and Belvedere Care Centre in Coquitlam for their care for the past two years.