Agnes M. (Latremouille) Goss was born April 1, 1918 in Kamloops, B.C., to Lyda and Eliodore Latremouille of Little Fort (formerly Mount Olie), B.C. The story is told that one of her uncles phoned the Little Fort store to announce the birth, but no one believed him thinking it was an April fool’s joke as he was the family practical joker.
She passed away from this world and into the presence of her Saviour, Jesus Christ, on His birthday, Christmas Day, 2008 at the home of her son Bill after four months of struggle with congestive heart failure. She had lived in her own house until early August of 2008, gardening, knitting, keeping in touch with her children and family, and being a loving friend to her neighbours of some 42 years. She remained a Canadian citizen to the end.
She attended Little Fort School through Grade 8 and continued living on the family farm helping raise her younger siblings and doing farm work. Her older brother Louis, her father, and she started a fishing camp on Taweel Lake near Little Fort. Among other things, she regularly packed guests in on horseback.
When WWII started and Louis was called to serve, she took over the running of the camp. At the end of the war, when a “turkey shoot” (target competition with rifles) was held in the village, she was the best shot of all – including all the men, many of them recently returned from the war.
She said shortly before her death that if the horses got away at Taweel, she would just walk home to Little Fort; “we thought nothing of walking 20 miles”.
She was a talented woman, able to grow a wonderful garden and cook delicious meals; shoot, gut, skin, cut up, and cook a moose; load and manage a pack train of horses; manage a business and employees; be a loving and inspirational mother to all her children – this included being our proctor for B.C. government correspondence school; be a good sister to her siblings, and dutiful daughter to her parents.
Although in her earlier years she rarely left Little Fort, she managed to study typing and shorthand by correspondence courses. She loved poetry and the writings of Shakespeare and others, and as a young mother would burst into song just driving into the village with her children.
She was an avid reader of the Reader’s Digest and National Geographic so she was very up-to-date on current events and very knowledgeable about geography. She loved her crossword puzzle books, scrabble, boggle and any other word games that she could find. Many a game of scrabble was played at her kitchen table.
In about 1948, she met John Goss, an American guest at the camp, and married him in 1950; together they had four children – William, Jesse, Marguerite, and Robert. They bought the fishing camp and she managed it.
She continued managing the fishing camp until 1968, when the family moved to Okanogan, Washington, where John Goss worked in real estate and apple packing and she was a homemaker, mother extraordinaire, and a prolific gardener. She was locally well-known for selling night crawlers and worms to the fishermen.
Her house was a “safe haven” for many who knew her (in both B.C. and Washington) –she accepted us all as we are and treated us all equally.
It has been said by several that if not for her loving kindness, they don’t know if they would have turned out as well as they did and got through their lives to the present day.
She always enjoyed a good joke, but never at anybody’s expense. She did often roll her eyes, shake her head, and sigh at her offspring’s senses of humour.
To the very end, she was razor-sharp mentally, reminding her children and health-care providers of appointments, medications, etc., and remembering relationships, birthdays and anniversaries of many far-flung relatives.
She was preceded in death by a son, Jesse, shortly after his birth, and by her father Eliodore Latremouille, mother Lyda (Pement) Latremouille, brothers Glen of Vernon, B.C.; Louis of Merritt, B.C.; Joe (Denise) of Kamloops, B.C.; and Albert (Tiny) of Revelstoke, B.C..
She is survived by her sister Lyda (John) Eastman of Stony Plain, AB.; brother Bob (Carol) Latremouille of Red Deer, AB.; sisters-in-law Gertie (Louis) Latremouille of Merritt, B.C., Julietta (Glen) Latremouille of Kamloops, B.C., son Bill (Robin) Goss of Burien, WA., his son Jon, great grandson Taliesin William Goss, and daughter Kara (Alex) Shafer, daughter Marguerite (Max) Persson of Berwyn, Alberta, and her sons Carl (Laurie) and Jeremy Persson; son Robert (Julie) Goss of Kamloops, B.C. and his children; Amber (Russ) Strickland, Owen, Brian, Meghan and Evan Goss; step son Pal (Mary ) Goss of East Wenatchee, WA., and numerous nephews, nieces, cousins and wonderful friends.
Memorial services will be held July 9th, 2009, in Okanogan, Washington, at 2 p.m., in the Masonic Lodge Dining Room (basement) and on July 11th, 2009 in Little Fort, B.C. at 2 p.m., in the Little Fort Community Hall.