Collins, Emma Marie

September 22, 1980 – December 5, 2020

Emma Marie Collins passed away in the early morning of December 5, 2020, in Vancouver, Washington. She had been battling a rare progressive disease since her mid 20’s and fought hard through multiple painful hospitalizations and surgeries, but she finally lost the war.

Emma was born in Toronto, Canada, and her family moved to Mulmur Township when she was just over a year old. She attended the Mulmur Cooperative Playschool, Shelburne Junior School, the old junior school and Nottawasaga & Creemore Public School in Creemore, Ontario, as well as Centre Dufferin District High School in Shelburne before moving with her family to Portland, Oregon, where she graduated with honors from Franklin High School. She attended the University of Southern Oregon for 2 years and then switched to Portland State University, where she got her degree in English literature. Emma then entered the graduate Librarianship program at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She was only a couple of credits short of her Master’s degree, when the progressive ravages of HSAN1E finally made it impossible for her to continue her education.

Emma was a medal-winning gymnast with the Orangeville Gymnastics club, she ran on the cross-country team at Nottawasaga & Creemore Public School, and she was a member of the golf team and the dragon boat team at Franklin High School. She loved the Cowboy Junkies and baby Alice and her dog Mary and owls and the patterns trees made in the sky and handmade earrings and writing and drawing and oatmeal cookies and ginger tea and her best friends Liza and Alex. What Emma enjoyed most though was lying on the back of her pony Bullet and reading a book as he grazed his way around the pasture field on the home farm on the Centre Road.

Emma loved and was loved by her family. She leaves behind not only her parents William (Bill) Collins of Kelowna, B.C., and Kyra Collins of Clatskanie, Oregon, but also her sister Christina Nikiforuk of Surrey, B.C. and her brothers Matthew Collins of Wellington, Florida, and Michael Collins of Portland, Oregon. Emma will also be sorely missed by her grand-parents William and Jean Collins of Kelowna, B.C., her aunt Marni Collins of Toronto, Ontario, and her beloved uncle Dimitry Struve of Santa Cruz, California, as well as her cousin Rosie Struve of Milwaukie, Oregon. She touched the lives of many people on her brief journey through this life.

 There will be a private family gathering to honour Emma once the pandemic makes traveling safe again. Donations in Emma’s name can be made to the HSAN1E Society at: https://hsan1esociety.or