BRITISH LADY MOURNED
By Bill Laye, Calgary Sun

Calgary Sun, Alberta, Canada
Aug. 29, 2006

Family, friends saying goodbye to honoured citizen, author and nurse

Calgary has lost a touch of nobility with the death of a bona-fide
British Lady.

But her many family and friends will always remember Lady Ashkhain
Skipwith, a published author, for her keen wit and huge heart, said
her niece Chantey Aldridge.

Skipwith, 64, died last Wednesday after a 10-month battle with cancer.

Born of Armenian parents in Jaffa, Israel, she came by her royal
title through her second marriage to Briton Sir Patrick Skipwith,
said Aldridge, 33.

"She was a gem, that’s for sure … an amazing woman," Aldridge said,
adding her aunt, an oncology nurse by trade, lived many places —
including Saudi Arabia and London, England.

During the past 10 years she’d been on staff at the Foothills hospital
in Calgary.

"We did all kinds of fun things in London with her and she had a very
sharp wit," Aldridge said.

"It’s a major, major loss for our family."

Aldridge said her aunt’s passions included classical music and
literature — and that love of words is what prompted her to take up
the pen.

Skipwith’s six published books include Ashkhain’s Desert Cookery and
Unload Your Own Donkey — she co-authored Arabic Sayings from Egypt
and Other Countries with Primrose Arnander.

And while she’d long since left the Mideast, Aldridge said her aunt
always tried to keep up with the latest developments — and was deeply
disturbed by recent events in her former homeland.

Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. today at St. Stephen’s
Anglican Church, 1121 14 Ave. S.W.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking donations be made in her
name to either the Canadian Cancer Society () or the
Calgary Health Trust ().

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