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Alexandra Sandra ('Sandy') Ross

February 6, 2017

AlexandraRoss

It is with a great deal of sorrow that we announce the passing of Sandra Ross. Sandy left us in the early hours of the morning of February 6th at her home in Golden, BC, bringing to an end a long battle with a number of debilitating medical issues. Sandy’s strength and perseverance in the face of medical adversity were defining qualities throughout her life, and these qualities were never more evident than earlier in her life when she survived a battle with cancer as a young wife and mother.


On February 25th, 1942 Sandy was born in Kircaldy, Scotland to Alexander and Mary Hill. At the age of seven she immigrated to Canada with her parents and younger sister Rae (Rebecca). The family settled in Calgary where the girls were joined by two more siblings: Donna and Ian. At the age of fifteen she left school to take a secretarial course, then went to work to help support the family.


She met her future husband, Roger, while working in the office of a manufacturing plant in Calgary, and the two married on December 29th, 1962. During the next eleven years, Sandy and Roger had three children and their lives took them from Calgary, where Deborah was born, to the Lower Mainland, where Donna and then Mike were born, to Tahsis on Vancouver Island, then Kamloops, before finally landing them in Golden in 1973.


Sandy was a dedicated wife and mother who bonded with each of her children in a special way. She treated her children’s friends as though they were family and made her home a welcome refuge for many. She was an excellent listener and valued the thoughts and feelings of others. This caring nature extended to the various animals, injured and otherwise, that her children frequently brought home, and the Ross household was rarely without a pet or two. Such was her love of animals that the SPCA became her charity of choice.


In 1984 the Golden Chamber of Commerce decided they needed someone to manage their office and coordinate their activities with the Ministry of Tourism. Sandy became the first Chamber Manager working out of the red caboose. By the time she retired in 1999 the Chamber had progressed through a number of locations to their present location in the ‘new’ CP Rail station. Through it all she worked tirelessly to promote Golden’s business community and both local and BC tourism. Her years with the Chamber included annually teaching a variety of courses to students and young adults, and she enjoyed the opportunity to share



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