Helen Balzer Obituary BALZER Helene Dora 'Helen' nee Engmann Aug.19, 1922- July 19, 2025 Passed away peacefully at Trillium Lodge, Parksville, BC, at the age of 102 She is predeceased by her husband John (Hans) 2004, by her parents Bruno and Minna Engmann, and by her siblings Otto (1910), Helmut (1939), Olga (2006), Liesbeth (2019). Helen is survived by her children, Ursula (Joe) Damolin and Helmut (Lynn) Balzer, her grandchildren Michael (Tiffany) Damolin and Laura (Steve) Meloche, her great-granddaughters Peyton and Hailey, and was Tante Leni to nieces and nephews in Germany, Calgary, Kingsville, and Leamington. Helen was born on August 19, 1922, in Heidersdorf, Schlessien, Germany, the youngest of 5 children. She had many stories of her youth. After the trials and tribulations of life in pre and wartime Germany, she found herself in Bietigheim, Wrtt. There she met John and were married in September 1950. In 1957, Helen, John, and children immigrated to Canada. They settled near Leamington to be closer to John's family and made a new life working in the apple orchards of Point Pelee. After 5 years, they purchased a little home in Windsor. Helen found work as a cleaner at the downtown YWCA and the eventually at the GM Trim Plant. In 1969 they built a new home in Tecumseh where they grew a large garden with strawberries, raspberries, vegetables, asparagus, tomatoes, and pumpkins. After retiring, Helen and John moved to Kingsville and enjoyed many years of flower gardening, yard sales, and travelling. 'Together they Wandered'. Helen loved to knit and crochet, and her baking was enjoyed by many. A few years after John passed, Helen moved out to Vancouver Island to live with Helmut and Lynn. She loved the Island because it reminded her of the home of her youth. There she lived the last 17 years of a full long life!