Obituaries

Gayla was born in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, the youngest of eight children of Ray and Myrtle Dahlman. She had a great childhood in a busy farm family.

She was predeceased by her parents, her sister Marlene Watson and her brother Rodney Dahlman and her true love, Allan Derges. She is survived by her sisters Lind Anderson, Deanna (Henry) Nienaber, Donna Dunn, Elin (Iver) Sletmoen and Vicki (Ron) Holmes and numerous nieces and nephews. Her children Adam, grandkids Liam, Adyson, Jack and Fletcher; Jana (Mark) Roemer, grandsons Freddie and August; Ray (Marissa), grandsons Archer and Ellis; sisters-in-law Ruth Francis and Lois (Sid) VanDerVelden and five nieces.

Gayla had many fascinating careers! She had an advanced science degree with a major in biochemistry from the University of Saskatchewan.

Gayla met Al Derges in University and they got married on February 15, 1975.

She then became a laboratory technologist with a major in hematology. That career was short lived but lead to a sales career with Fisher Scientific dealing with clinical, educational and governmental customers and later with Technicon.

They lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba then Fairfax, Virginia for two years where Al worked at the sales training centre for Xerox in Leesburg, Virginia. They really enjoyed the history and community in Virginia. Adam was born there.

From there they moved to Sherwood Park, Alberta for two years, where Jana was born. Al started a business in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan called Derges-McFadden Office Products. After 2 years, the business was consolidated in Regina. This prompted their move to Craven, Saskatchewan to a charming home built in 1886 that provided them with major projects over the next 25 years. This is where Ray was born. During this time, she started helping a friend take photographs of food for the Best of Bridge Cookbooks at PrintWest. She ended up working there for over two decades and climbed her way up to VP of Human Resources which she enjoyed so much.

In 2005 she designed and they built the house of their dreams. The house was built in Deer Valley, Saskatchewan and she worked hard to move it to Lumsden, Saskatchewan where it now sits after realizing it was on a landslide! Her Deer Valley neighbour offered her a consultant position at Solvera, consulting in IT management. This eventually led her to an account manager at SaskPower, doing strategic planning for investment in IT.

Besides work, she was dedicated to her garden, had a love for golf, was a fierce advocate for those navigating the medical system and a charged voice for keeping the humanity in politics. But mostly, she loved her family and those friends that became family. She was a dedicated mother who made a point of getting to know her children’s friends and staying as deeply involved in her children’s lives as they allowed (which was a lot!). And although she never wore the title officially, she was a beloved teacher, mentor and inspiration to so many, simply by the example of how she lived.

In 2013 she lost the love of her life, Al Derges to cancer.

Six years ago, Gayla was diagnosed with a rare and fatal form of ovarian cancer. With little effective treatment available, the researcher in her took over. She had already navigated the cancer industry in depth with Al’s journey which made her determined to find unconventional treatments that worked. This research took her to Envita in Scottsdale, Arizona. Thanks to the generosity of her friends and relatives, she was able to receive unconventional and highly innovative treatments that included in-depth genetic testing, IV therapies, genetically targeted fractionated chemotherapy, CT guided Tomo radiation and various naturopathic treatments. In follow up she was seen in Regina by Dr. Laura Stark, ND who practices Metabolic Cancer Care. Through her gentle guidance and well researched treatments Gayla’s life was extended much longer than anyone would have predicted.

Anyone who met Gayla was impressed by her. She was curious, fearless, competent, inclusive and thoughtful. Her management skills were extremely good both at work and at home. She was a dedicated wife and mother, sister, daughter and friend. She researched impeccably and shared her knowledge with those who sought her sage advice. She was fun-loving, witty and resilient beyond imagination. Words people have used to describe her in their letters that they wrote to her during her illness are gracious, intelligent, beautiful, wise, strong, intuitive, courageous, an inspiration, caring, a wonderful friend, trailblazer and change agent.

One dear friend said: “Your love of family is legendary”.

We have to agree. We will miss her terribly.

Gayla’s family is thankful for the care from Dr. Lee, Dr. Poteet from Envita in Scottsdale and Dr. Juliet Ekeh in Regina. Mostly, her supportive care from Dr. Laura Stark, ND and her team at Thrive Naturopathic who carried her gracefully through the most difficult part of her journey with a Metabolic Approach to Cancer. This allowed her to uphold a great quality of life right up until the end. Thanks also to the others in the IV room who shared their stories and provided mutual love and support.

Gayla held the belief that rational, evidence based, and individualized cancer care should be the standard and accessible to all.

The family requests for those who choose to donate, send funds to the Gayla Derges Memorial Fund through Dr. Stark's office. This fund will provide financial support for those pursuing best practice cancer care using the metabolic approach and otherwise couldn’t afford it. Donations can be sent via e-transfer to hello@thriveregina.com or via cheque to Thrive Naturopathic with GDMF in the memo.

If there is one lasting thought for all of you, it’s that relationships were everything to her. If you knew her, you know. She LOVED her people. Even if she only knew you a little bit, she remembered your name and something she loved about you. She spoke so highly of everyone. Truly a great friend. One of her dear friends asked her for any sage advice before she died and she said: Be kind. Even when it’s hard, be kind. We need more kindness in the world.

We are going to Celebrate her Life in a bit of a non-traditional manner on Sunday, August 13, 2023 in Lumsden, Saskatchewan at the Lumsden Hall. We can meet outside to visit starting around 2:30 p.m. and enter the Hall at 3:00 p.m. to begin. There’s room for everyone, so please know, if you knew her, if she meant anything to you or impacted you in any way at all ~ you are invited to join us in Celebrating her Life the way she would have wanted!! (And participated in planning).