I've been Ingrid's friend since 1953 when she came from Germany to my Grade 7 classroom in Ponoka.  Our Science teacher paired us up to clean the gold-fish tank, thinking we might become good friends, because Ingrid came from a German-speaking family and I came from a Danish-speaking family.  We both loved to sing and sang in the school Glee Club all through High School.  On Tuesday nights September to June we went together to the  Ponoka United Church C.G. I. T. program from Grade 8 to Grade 12.  Ingrid lived NW of the school and I lived NE of the school.  We often walked part-way home together - talking and laughing and dreaming about everything.  Sometimes we stopped in at each others' homes, also enjoying visiting with each others' parents.  When it was time to graduate, we both bought our first pair of 'high heels' and practiced walking in them on my mother's kitchen floor.  My mother was coaching.  All hilarious!

After graduation Ingrid studied to become a nurse, I became a teacher.  In 1963 Ingrid married Kurt, a German, and lived in Calgary.  Ingrid had two healthy children, Susan and Michael.  In 1967  I married John, a Dane, and we moved to Calgary.  I had one 'special-needs' daughter, Maggie.  Our life-styles were very different, but because we both lived in the same  Community again, it was easy for us to keep our friendship active.  We kept 'in touch' by phone, we continued to visit in each-others' homes, we attended operas together, and sometimes we travelled together up to our hometown of Ponoka to visit old friends.

After Kurt died in 1997, Ingrid travelled a lot.  She drove together with her brother-in-law, Paul, all over Canada.  She did tours in Europe and Africa, and Cruises around Cuba, Mexico and South  America - sometimes with family, but also often alone.  Through all the years Ingrid faithfully 'kept me posted' on all her 'comings and goings'.  Even after her cancer surgery in 2012, she still travelled a lot until  finally in mid - 2017 the cancer had worn her down.  What a 'brave heart' she  was.  Really, Ingrid had the heart of a dancer, always happy to be in the company of others.

Ours was an easy-going friendship, never placing formal demands on each other, always hoping the best for each other.  A few weeks before Ingrid died, she phoned me from her hospice bed.  She was thinking about songs to sing at her funeral.  She sang a few lines of "beyond the sunset ... there is a brighter world, I know".  Ingrid has now reached her final destination, the best place of all - in God's Heaven of Peace and Love forever - where someday Ingrid and I will meet again - "singing with the angels in our long white robes" - friends forever.