EDYN CATE BELLA ROTHENBURGER – April 24, 1979 – March 7, 2018

In the early morning hours of March 7, 2018, our daughter, sister, aunt, grand-daughter and friend Edyn left us, anxious to join her son Mykel.

Edyn was kind, compassionate, fun-loving. She was a friend to animals and a dire enemy of garden slugs and aphids.

She loved to laugh. It came out in a low, slow rumble, like a pickup truck trying to start on a low battery.

One of the things her brothers and sisters remember most about her was her refusal to back down, whether in defense of clients of the Y women’s shelter where she worked, or of Mykel as he made his way through life. Another phrase that comes to mind is, “finding a way.”

She was adventurous, too, not hesitating to climb up a 60-ft. mast on a sailboat, jump off a high rock cliff into the ocean, or sky dive just to see what it was like.

Born in Kamloops, Edyn attended R.L. Clemitson elementary school in Barnhartvale, graduating from Kamloops secondary school in 1997. After a year in Winnipeg, she returned home to obtain certification at the University College of the Cariboo (now Thompson Rivers University) as a human services worker.

For the past 10 years she worked as staff resources coordinator at the Y women’s shelter.

Life wasn’t always kind to Edyn. She struggled at times in her earlier years, and in later years suffered from ill health.

But pure joy arrived on Oct. 4, 2000 in the form of Mykel Leslie Fritz Frank-Rothenburger. Never has there been a stronger bond between a parent and child, maybe in part because Mykel wasn’t even a year old when it became just the two of them at home.

They often reassured each other that it was “Mum and Bub” against the world.

But let’s back up a bit. As a little kid, ‘Boo’ (a nickname that stuck with her throughout life) fell head over heels in love with an older man — her grandfather, Les Alaric — during frequent visits to Les and Kay’s home in Oliver, sometimes spending part of summer vacation with them. Les died when she was five, but she stayed in touch by going outside and talking to him as she gazed up at the stars.

During her school years, Edyn played soccer and took part in the Kamloops Festival of the Performing Arts. At 16, she fell in love again. This time it was with Bradley, a six-year-old Quarter Horse-Tennessee Walker cross with attitude. Edyn and Bradley drifted apart over the years, but they were happily re-united this past Christmas.

In recent years, Edyn loved more sedate past-times such as camping trips with extended family, sailing, crafting, reading, celebrating Christmas, gardening (that’s where the slugs and aphids come in), painting, watching The Walking Dead with Mykel, eating “Raspberry 4 Lucie” crêpes at Cora restaurant, searching for sand dollars, and taking a 10-lb. package of canine dynamite named Willy for walks.

Not to mention Monday night TV dance shows and a 24-hour online auction where she recently sold a pair of worse-for-wear running shoes for more than the asking price.

Most of all, though, she loved family. Loved being with them and loved seeing them together. She and Mykel loved family camping trips and vacations on Jon and Rene’s sailboat. She and her ‘Daddio’ Mel volunteered together during last summer’s wildfires, caring for evacuated horses.

Her relationship with her brothers and sisters operated under strict laws of nature: every storm will pass; love and forgiveness must always prevail.

And she was a good aunt.

Edyn served on the board of the Kamloops and District Elizabeth Fry Society and as a server at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where she was baptized last November.

After Mykel took his own life March 31, 2017, at just 16, we tried very, very hard to hold onto her, but he was waiting for her to come home.

Missing her are her mom Irene (Jon) Buckle, dad Mel (Sydney) Rothenburger, sisters Sunnie (Mark), Kelly (Graham), and Aija (Danny), brothers Ryan (Carman), Jacob, and Matthew (Elise), grandmother Kay Alaric, nieces Jordan (Jeremy), Amy, Marcella, Deina, Harper, Leila, Kaitlyn and Nora, nephews Kyle, Coby, Carter, Del, Tai, Robert, Lucas and Ben, great nieces Paetyn and Oakley, great nephew Greyson, Mykel’s cat Leo, Edyn’s dog Willy, and her horse Bradley.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Mykel Frank-Rothenburger Bursary, c/o the B.C. Interior Community Foundation, would be gratefully accepted.

A celebration of Edyn’s life will be held at 1 p.m., Wednesday, March 14 in St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, 360 Nicola St., Kamloops.

“Mumpus loves, loves, LOVES her Bumpus!”