October 21, 1983 – Edmonton, Alberta
October 11, 2024 – Calgary, Alberta
Rhoda Elisabeth Mitchell, mom, sister, daughter, pal, advocate, campaigner, intersectional feminist, Dutch Blitz aficionado, and occasional connoisseur, handed away on Friday, October 11, 2024, on the age of 40.
Rhoda was born on October 21, 1983, in Edmonton, AB, to the delight of her mother and father, Alice and Invoice Mitchell, and her older sisters, Ruth and Sheona. Shortly after, she was whisked away to the household dwelling within the mountains of Peru the place she lived till she was 4. The household relocated to Edinburgh, Scotland, the place Rhoda began faculty carrying a vibrant purple tie and a gray gown. Her schooling continued in Quito, Ecuador, when she was seven years previous, the place the household lived simply quarter-hour south of the equator. The following vacation spot in Rhoda’s worldwide journey was a transfer to Calgary, Canada, the place she began junior excessive and went on to finish highschool. All through her faculty years in Calgary, she developed a ardour for the clarinet and solid lifelong buddies in band. She was a gifted clothes designer, and her household was thrilled to search out she additionally had a aptitude for inside design, freshening up dowdy bedrooms and darkish basements on a shoestring funds.
Having completed highschool, Rhoda enrolled on the College of Calgary the place her appreciable mental rigour paired together with her rising concern for folks on the margins underpinned her research in Social Work. Throughout her bachelor’s degree in social work, she returned to Ecuador, spending transformative months in Riobamba supporting orphaned kids and infants. She rounded out her undergraduate research with a semester in Pune, India, studying from native fairness and improvement practices.
Following within the footsteps of her older sisters, Rhoda launched into a CIDA Youth Internship. Her posting was with the worldwide NGO Oxfam-Québec in San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima. It was right here that she left a major a part of her coronary heart, working at Centro Mujer Teresa de Jesús, supporting gender violence prevention packages, and in the end establishing a girls’s shelter, which was later named after her. She returned to Canada to finish her grasp’s degree in worldwide social work earlier than working for 5 years again in Peru with Oxfam-Québec, creating the Gender Justice Program for Oxfam in Peru, the place a lot of her work centered on gender coverage.
Alongside the best way, she met Jesus Llerena Reyes, and so they married within the surf city of Máncora, Peru, in 2011, joined by Canadian and Peruvian household and buddies in a ceremony that included dancing, fireplace consuming, an outbreak of gastroenteritis, and a scruffy canine named Duque. After travelling by Colombia, Jamaica, and Cuba, they moved to Calgary in 2014, the place Rhoda labored on the Girls’s Centre of Calgary. Pondering again on her time on the Girls’s Centre, Rhoda mirrored, “One of the programs I am most proud of is my work developing the Women in Leadership Program.” Her colleagues remarked that she was unflappable in occasions of disaster.
At all times a lover of infants and youngsters, Rhoda was beside herself with pleasure when she found she was going to turn into an auntie, which occurred with the arrival of Future, the daughter of Sheona and her spouse Kendra Mitchell-Foster. Quickly after, Amilie and Jaiden arrived in brief succession.
It was an extremely particular announcement when Rhoda shared with household and buddies that she was pregnant, and Adrian William Llerena Mitchell was born on June 26, 2016. Rhoda described the months following his start as the perfect time in her life.
Rhoda, Jesus, and child Adrian travelled to Peru in February of 2017 to introduce Adrian to his paternal grandmother Ysabel Reyes Mori, and aunt Karlita Llerena Reyes. The joyous, celebratory journey modified instantly when Rhoda suffered a rupture of an arteriovenous malformation whereas in Lima, or, as Rhoda would later put it, her mind exploded. What adopted was a interval of hospitalization, a switch again to Canada for therapy, and an extended journey to restoration.
Someday later, Rhoda grew to become unwell once more. This time extra steadily, and what adopted was an extended interval of power ache and unwellness, punctuated by hospital admissions and invasive therapies. By way of all of this, she confirmed up in each approach she may for her unimaginable little boy, Adrian, who was the sunshine of her life; the middle of her world. Rhoda’s braveness and willpower to be right here and to be properly, was extraordinary. Even in her moments of biggest ache, she lamented that not everybody had entry to the healthcare and providers she did. The combat for a greater world was in her on a regular basis.
In her quick life, Rhoda was so many issues to so many individuals and lived a life stuffed with wealthy experiences. She will probably be remembered for a lot of issues, however her readability of imaginative and prescient, even in her personal deepest struggling, for a fairer, extra equitable world, will spur every of us to do our half for peace and justice.
A Celebration of Rhoda’s Life will probably be held at McInnis & Holloway (Chapel of the Bells, 2720 Centre Avenue N, Calgary, AB) on Friday, October 18, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. Reception to comply with within the Hospitality Centre on the Funeral Dwelling. All are very welcome to attend.
Household and buddies who’re unable to attend in individual are invited to hitch Rhoda’s Celebration of Life streamed stay (see hyperlink under) on the day of the service. For many who are unable to view stay, a recording of the service will probably be posted.
If buddies so want, in lieu of flowers, we all know Rhoda would love you to exit and smash the patriarchy. Memorial tributes could also be made immediately by e-transfer to [email protected], which will probably be donated to Centro Mujer Teresa de Jesús in Lima, Peru, in her honour.
Condolences, reminiscences, and pictures could also be shared and considered with Rhoda’s household right here.
In residing reminiscence of Rhoda Mitchell, a tree will probably be planted within the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Space by McInnis & Holloway Funeral Properties, Chapel of the Bells, 2720 Centre Avenue North, Calgary, AB T2E 2V6, Phone: 403-276-2296.
Click on Right here to Signal the Digital Visitor Ebook and Watch Rhoda’s Celebration of Life
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