Obituary of Bernice Valerie Marie Bergstrom

Bernice Valerie Bergstrom (née D’Aoust) passed away unexpectedly on February 19, 2024, while wintering with her husband in Mesa, Arizona. A beautiful soul, gone too soon. She was 69.

Bernice was someone whose laugh could be heard from down the street and whose love could be felt from anywhere in the world. Her absence will leave a significant gap in the lives of her family and the many who considered her a friend.

Born on October 9, 1954, in Zenon Park, Saskatchewan, Bernice was the middle of six children, born to parents Maurice and Cecil D’Aoust. Her family moved to Prince Albert in 1968. When Bernice was 16 she went on a blind date and met a handsome, thin, and somewhat nerdy 18-year-old boy.  Two years later she and that boy, Warren Bergstrom, were married. Throughout their fifty-one years of marriage the two created a life and family to be admired.

Bernice built a career out of her attention to detail and her love of numbers. She retired in 2016 as the Credit Manager at the Prince Albert CO-OP after nearly 30 years of dedicated service. Bernice worked hard her whole life, taking night classes while juggling a full-time job and raising young children, earning the education she needed to move into senior management. After her retirement, she was appointed to the Board of the Co-operative Health Center, a role in which she took great pride.

Bernice was proud of her career and the relationships she built with her clients and colleagues. As a loyal employee, Bernice was also a devout CO-OP customer – only diverting in the rare case there was a better deal offered by the competition. (Sorry mom, your secret’s out. We will continue to hide the grocery bags for you.)

In their retirement years together, Bernice and Warren travelled often, visiting family and spending time in Mexico. They were truly best friends who did everything together, living the retirement they had always dreamed of. They fell in love with Mesa, Arizona after their first visit last year and planned to spend as much time there as possible. Bernice left us while living in her paradise with her husband by her side.

Bernice will be remembered for how deeply she loved, unconditionally, and how openly she gave – her baking, her crocheting and most importantly her time. She truly loved hard and if you knew her, you knew that.

While she had a successful career, she was forever proud of her family, touting her children as “her greatest accomplishment”. Bernice was known to share stories of all their accomplishments, great and mundane. To her children, she took every opportunity possible to tell them how much she loved them and how grateful she was that all three grew up to be successful, well rounded and that each found a partner with whom they too could build a beautiful life.    

Bernice is survived by her doting husband Warren, her son Duane (Twyla) Bergstrom and her two daughters, Melissa (Chad) Smith and Alana (Nicholas) Johnson as well as her six grandchildren Lucas, Lily, and Monty Bergstrom, and Auden, Cohen, and Gabriel Smith, whom she loved with all her being. Bernice lived by the motto, raise your kids well so you can spoil your grandkids, and she did.

She is also survived by her close sister and brother-in-law Barb and Larry Hillier as well as her siblings Irene Brenneis, Claude D’Aoust, Robert D’Aoust, Jackie Lavoie and Georgette D’Aoust, as well as many in-laws, cousins and friends who cherished her deeply.

She is predeceased by her mother Cecil (née Choquette) and her father Maurice D’Aoust as well as her mother and father in-law Jean and Olaf Bergstrom.

A Celebration of Bernice’s life will be held at 1:00 p.m., on Thursday, March 21, 2024.  Plaza 88, 888 Central Ave, Prince Albert, SK.  Interment to follow at Prince Albert Memorial Gardens, Hwy #2 South.

Family and friends wishing to send online condolences are welcome to visit www.beaulacfuneralhome.com.  Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Beau “Lac” Funeral Home and Crematorium, Marianne Turcotte, Funeral Director, Prince Albert, SK 306-763-3322.