Ms. Adelina "Lena" Caruso, 78, of Burnaby, BC, Canada passed away from cancer on May 19, 2022, in Burnaby  Hospital with Ken Moren, her loving partner of 50 years at her bedside holding her hand as she drew her last breath. Lena will be dearly missed and always remembered by those that knew her.

Lena was predeceased by her father, Cosmo and mother Dolorata and brothers Mike, Joe and Tony. She is survived by a brother, Nick, and sister Assunta. 

Lena requested a celebration of life be held in her honor as opposed to traditional funeral services. We request all of Lena’s loved ones to join us in celebrating her beautiful life at Bonsor Recreational Facility on June19 at 2PM.. 

Lena grew up on a small farm near Civitanova del Sannio in the Molise district of central Italy. At age 10 or 11 she emigrated with her family to Canada who joined an older brother Joe on a farm near Taber, Alberta and completed her schooling in nearby Picture Butte. After high school, she and her sister Assunta left home to join  brother Tony in Vancouver where they found a tiny basement suite in East Van.  

A short time later she enrolled at BCIT and studied to be a chemical lab technician. Her first job after graduating was at an industrial lab doing mineral assay work.  She soon moved on to a better job doing water quality analyses and later seafood quality testing at Canada's Food & Drug agency. 

She was careful with her earnings and soon saved up for the trip of her dreams, a grand excursion through Europe covering France, Spain. Italy and Greece stopping off to visit the home farm near Civitanova and brother Mike who had a bar in Capri.

After returning to Canada in early 1971, she found a small health food store at 4th & Burrard who offered her space to set up and operate a juice bar in. She did this for a while but did not make a living at it. She soon found work at an existing health store/cafe on Howe St. downtown and was working there when she met Ken who was doing an installation at a stereo shop around the corner on Dunsmuir. On a subsequent visit to the cafe, Ken summoned the courage to ask her out and she accepted. They kept on seeing each other and it turned into a relationship.

Then summer arrived and Ken had to return to work in the Yukon doing surveying for a new road going up through northern Yukon all the way to the Arctic coast at Inuvik, NWT., the Dempster Highway. While he was up there he and Lena corresponded by mail and in one letter half jokingly suggested it would be cool if she cane up there, not expecting she might actually do it.

Well some days later he got a call from friends in Whitehorse that this girl from Vancouver had arrived looking for him. That weekend he came down to Whitehorse, found her a place to stay and they had a joyful reunion. She found work in the local supermarket and he went back to work up North. After a couple of months it was getting too cold & snowy up the Dempster for surveying work so the job shut down for the winter. EI time for Ken... but not for long. A call came late January to go to work in the Ft.Nelson area of the Alaska highway relocation project where the crew from the previous summer had done a bad job of their survey work and it needed to be redone urgently before spring construction season. So off Ken went slogging through 3 ft. deep snowdrifts for the next few months. Luckily it was a relatively mild winter and he was well dressed for it. The job finished up just in time, and back to Whitehorse he went. 

Toward the middle of summer, 1973, he bought an old Austin Mini SW. and set about fixing it up for a road trip. Then they packed up their things and headed down the Alaska Highway. After a adventuresome camping/road trip they finally made it to Vancouver. After a short time looking for a place to live, a friend said he knew of a house for rent cheap on Pender Island in the Southern Gulf Islands. So off they went to check it out, liked it and moved there to begin their next chapter.

Lena went to work in the little restaurant at the gas station on N. Pender Island while Ken set about setting up a TV/Electronic repair business. The house had plenty of garden space for Lena to indulge her green thumb.

Well things happen as they will and Lena found herself with child early that spring  and in July headed over to  Victoria to consult with an obstetrician. At Victoria General Hospital July 23rd. 1975, a boy, Seamus Leo was born, her first child.

After a few years they tired of island life and the very limited income possibilities there, they packed up and moved to the mainland late 1979, moving into a secluded little house in N. Burnaby on Kitchener St. near Sperling Ave. with a few fruit trees surrounded on three sides by dense laurel hedges and a nice garden space out back. Lena loved it. Although unknown to her at the time she soon discovered she was pregnant again and on March 8, 1980 in a home birth attended by a midwife friend of Lena's, after a very short labour, gave birth  to a daughter, Camille. 

Ken found work with an importing company as the warranty service tech and they enjoyed their life in what was like a country house but in the city. 

Then Lena got pregnant a third time. Very early one morning late in her pregnancy she woke Ken up with the news that her labour was well underway.  She told him that she didn't want to wake him earlier. Panic time! No time to get to the hospital. Fortunately Ken had been present for Leo's birth and had assisted the midwife in Camille's. So on January 20 1983, with the assistance of Dr. Ken, amateur obstetrician, baby Miriam was born.

Eventually, the house in Burnaby became unworkable due to deterioration and no maintenance by the owner, and it was time to move. After a short search they found a place on William St. between Nanaimo & Renfrew in East Van. 

At this time (1986) Ken was, with a partner, starting up a computer repair  business dealing with the then very new home computers, having gotten into them as soon as an affordable model came his way a year or so earlier. A suitable location was found for the shop and soon thereafter Computerman!! was born.

After a couple of years  Lena  found work with a company providing cafeteria services at various locations including Burnaby City Hall and others.  By this time the kids were in school, so day care was not an issue. Even with all this going on Lena managed to get her gardening fix.

Two more moves in East Van followed, first to the next block on Parker Street, then to a house at Venables & Kamloops St. During this time the three kids each finished high school and moved on, Leo to Edmonton,  Camille to the downstairs suite in the house and went to work for Uprising Bakery and finally Miriam to art school in Halifax, NS.

During this time Camille had a boyfriend, Brent move in with her and not too long after gave us our first grandchild, Little Brent (LB).

Lena was very happy to be the doting grandma and happily provided day care.

Then Camille got a new job with BCLCB and after a while moved to a house in Surrey with her best friend there. Lena was not to happy about this as it was a long way to travel to see the grandchild. Then a house next door to Camille became available and so off to Surrey we moved.  Around this time Leo moved back from Edmonton and as we had plenty of room in the new place in Surrey he moved in with us.

During this time Miriam had finished at art school in Halifax and accepted a job in Toronto with the U. of T.  She managed a visit or two but still lives in Toronto with her husband who is an art professor at the University.

Eventually it became time to move out from Surrey and Camille found us a place in North Burnaby, a nice house with a basement suite, 3 bedrooms up and 3 downstairs. By this time Camille had another child, Jeyvion. So she took the basement suite with her two kids and Lena and I and Leo had the upstairs. 

The new place offered great gardening space for Lena which kept her happy along with looking after the kids.

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