NORAH WAGNER

In the late hours of Monday, August 14, 2023, Norah baa (Jordan) Wagner, aged 34 years, passed suddenly from a pulmonary blood clot in hospital. 

On February 23, 1989, in Brandon, Manitoba, Susan Dupuis (Olson) and Brad Wagner were given a son.  She carried her birth name, Jordan Olson, until she came out as transgender approximately 6 years ago. Her spirit name is Wandbi Waste’ Mani (Good Eagle Walking)

She was a hard-working, conscientious person who valued language, film, and wit. A precocious child, she was an early reader and soon developed an extensive vocabulary well beyond her years. She attended Laura Secord School in Winnipeg where she received an excellent education from her teacher Roberta Frolich in grades 4-6. It was in this classroom where she met her best and lifelong friend Gilles Messier. In her high school years in Brandon, she was a Crocus/Neelin student in the EcoOdyssey program with teacher Dave Barnes. Post high school, she set upon following her dream to work in the film industry. She graduated from the National Screen Institute in 2016 and worked with Roseanna Deerchild, Kim Wheeler and Jordan Wheeler. Norah baa had an intelligent and keen sense of humour which she reserved for those she was most comfortable with. She was a superb mimic, especially of her favourite film and television personalities. She refused to live her life according to common conventions and was always her own person despite the cost. We should all be so brave.

“Norah-baa was a person of duty, only outweighed by how she prioritized love. She was a helping hand in this world where the punishment for kindness didn’t matter to her. She was a person of strength and caring and didn’t hesitate to find beauty and strength in the world around her.” – The words of Ezri Beckett Faye, Norah-baa’s true love and life partner.

Norah baa lost her father at the tender age of 12. Brad Wagner was the centre of her life, as he was of hers. If ever there was a bonded pair of souls, it was these two as parent and child and as friends.

She is survived by her partner Ezri Beckett Faye, her mother Susan Dupuis (Nick Chackowsky), brother Jeremy Dixon, stepsister Natalie Dupuis, grandmother Joyce Olson, auntie Nancy Greenwalt (Bill), auntie Andrea Wagner Turchanski, auntie Leah Schofield, and uncle James Wagner.

She is predeceased by her beloved father Brad Wagner, paternal grandmother Margaret Smith, paternal step grandfather Wilfred Wagner, maternal step grandfather Arthur Wambidee, and Uncle Glenn Hobson.

A celebration of life service will be held at 2:00 PM, Monday, September 11, 2023 at 603 Wellington Crescent at Academy Road (Unitarian facility) with Charlotte Nolin officiating. Casual attire is welcome.

Special thanks to family and friends who attended the vigil and those who came together to make funerary garments (Nancy Greenwalt, Jessica Noel, and Deborah Tacan). Special thanks also to EMS and St Boniface hospital staff who did all they could to save her.

No flowers, please. Donations may be made in Norah baa’s memory to The Rainbow Resource Centre.

“…And judge me you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.”

~Jedi Master Yoda.

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ETHICAL DEATH CARE

Cremation & Life Celebrations

530 St. Mary Avenue - Winnipeg

204-421-5501 - www.ethicaldeathcare.com

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