Olivia Megan Rose Phillip

September 23, 1986 – July 21, 2017

“Her nickname was Bean, because when she was growing up she was a tall, lanky string bean.”

The family of Olivia Phillip are gathered together, preparing to say goodbye to her. Her sisters, Lyndsay, Jacqueline and Melanie sit on the back porch of the house they grew up in with their father Nelson, friends and family coming and going, checking in, offering love and support, bringing food.

While there is immense grief, there are also smiles and laughter in reminiscing about her.

Olivia was killed in a car accident Friday, July 21, on Highway 93/95 near Island Pond.

Most recently living in Cranbrook, Olivia grew up on the Akisqnuk reserve in the Columbia Valley, one of four sisters who always seemed to be together. Their mother, Anne, who passed away two years ago, raised her daughters to be close and strong together. Anne’s own strength and determination was evident in everything she did, as was her unwavering love and belief in her daughters.

Olivia’s three children, Mataius, six, Marriah, four and Marcus, three, are too young to really understand their mom is gone, but the family has gathered around them, and they will be raised knowing love.

And while the enormity of what has happened is still sinking in, preparations are made for the wake at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 26 and funeral at 11 a.m. on Thursday, July 27, both at the Akisqnuk Band Hall.

While those plans are made and stories told, everyone’s eyes stray constantly to all the children playing in the yard, making sure they are safe and happy.

They talk about how much she loved to sing, karaoke one of her favourite activities.

“She was the singing queen,” Nelson says with a smile. “And she was so determined and hard working. When she put her mind to something she did not stop until she was done.”

Her current job was as a flagger, but her favourite job, sister Melanie said, was making pizza.

“She loved that! She would bring home pizza all the time,” she said. “But the most important thing to her was family. She was a very loving mother. And if you were her friend or family, there was nothing she would not do for you. She had a huge heart.”

Always smiling, always doing her best at whatever she did, former David Thompson Secondary School aboriginal education worker Barb Cote said she remembers Olivia coming into the ‘ab-ed’ room one day with “amazing highlights.”

“I asked her where she got them done,” said Barb. “She said she did them herself, and I thought, gee, I should get you to do mine. She was very talented at whatever she did.”

The four sisters are now three. It is hard to take in when you leave the house that you are not hugging Olivia as well.

But the best parts of who she was will remain alive, her memory kept fresh for her children and family with stories and photographs, all of which show a smiling, loving Olivia… as a child, as a daughter, a sister and mother.

Olivia leaves behind her sisters Melanie, Jacqueline and Lyndsay, children Mataius, Marriah and Marcus, loving partner Jeremy Gus, father Nelson Phillip, stepfather James White, and countless other family members and friends. She was pre-deceased by her mother Anne Phillip.

Submitted

Article Share