Louise Abraham

Louise Abraham (84) passed away on June 10, 2010 at the Bonner General Hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho. A Wake will start at 5:00 pm on Sunday, June 13, 2010 with a Mass Of Christian Burial at 10:00 am on Monday June 14, 2010 at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Interment will follow in the St. Michael's Mission Cemetery, Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Louise Martha Abraham was born November 22, 1925, at home, in Creston, B.C., Canada. She was raised in the traditional Kootenai ways, and enjoyed her time horseback riding with her sisters and her dog, swimming, fishing, and trapping and gardening with her mother. At the age of five she began attending St. Eugene Residential School in Cranbrook, B.C. As a young woman, she moved to Green Bluff, WA, where she worked as a cook for an orchard farmer and his family. This began her time as a seasonal worker, and she traveled throughout central Washington with her first husband, Noah Adams, harvesting and picking at area farms. In 1951 she married her second husband, Abraham Abraham, of Bonners Ferry. They had five children. She spent the rest of her life in Bonners Ferry, where she enjoyed huckleberry picking, sewing, and cooking for her family. She held many jobs in Bonners Ferry, working at a laundry downtown in the 1950’s, the old restorium in the 1970’s, and at the gift shop at the Kootenai River Inn. She enjoyed gaming and playing bingo at the Kootenai River Inn. Her love of travel took her to many places around the world, from Alaska to Mexico, Arizona, the Disney Resorts in California and Florida, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Atlantic City. Though she took pleasure in traveling, she always looked forward to coming home to Bonners Ferry. She also enjoyed watching her many grandchildren and great grandchildren growing up and playing so close to her home. She is preceded in death by her mother, Marian, father, Paul, her husbands, as well as her sons, Raymond and Taylor, daughter, Pauline, four brothers, three sisters, grandsons Michael and Douglas, and granddaughters Eva. As a final loving act, God called her granddaughter Juli home following her grandmother’s passing, so they may be together forever. She is survived by her children, Ronald, Eileen, Dixie, and Adeline, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was very important to the survival of many of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho’s traditional culture and language. Her first language was Kootenai, and it was the first language of her children as well. They have passed the language and skills she taught them on to their children and to her delight, they are passing it on as well.