Vera Lodén

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Covenant News

Service Friday for Retired Missionary Vera Loden
WEST VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA (June 10, 2002) - A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at Burnaby North Baptist Church in Burnaby, British Columbia, for retired Covenant missionary Vera Loden, who died in Inglewood Care Center in West Vancouver, British Columbia, last Friday.
The 80-year-old Loden served 21 years on the mission field. She was noted for her teaching skills and her love of children.

Born February 25, 1922, in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, Loden earned her R.N. degree from the Regina (Saskatchewan) General Hospital and her B.S. in nursing from the University of Saskatchewan. She was called by the Evangelical Covenant Church to serve as a missionary nurse in 1950. She had furthered her biblical education at Covenant Bible Institute in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and at North Park Junior College.

Loden began her missionary service in Zaire (then known as Belgian Congo) where she was stationed at Karawa. She served primarily at the nurse's training school there, teaching and counseling nurses. She also worked in accounting and in the pharmacy there.

Off duty, she served as a children's Sunday school coordinator for the mission, meeting weekly with Sunday school teachers to help them prepare lessons for more than 100 kids. She also served for a time on the church's deacon board. Longtime missionary Eileen Thorpe remembers Loden as a warm and caring person who was loved dearly by the children of missionary personnel.

After leaving the mission field in 1971, Loden returned to Canada to specialize in geriatric nursing at a personal care home, Lora Hope Lodge in Burnaby (a Vancouver suburb), while caring for her parents.

The University of Saskatchewan recognized Loden's work in the 1980s, honoring her as one of 10 noted graduates from its College of Nursing. The tribute was contained in a special edition of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix newspaper.

Loden spent much of her later years as a proprietress of a boarding house and Bed and Breakfast hostel in the same facility as the Lora Hope Lodge. Beginning in 1997, Loden lived in a retirement center in Burnaby before requiring more care at another care. She had suffered a stroke days before her death.