Inoa Van Dreser

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Inoa Van Dreser

1986 - 2025

Inoa Van Dreser was rarer by far than even her beautiful name. Inoa was gorgeous and invaluable; she shone in the sun so as to put the most precious stones to shame. Her sudden passing on October 10 has left those who knew her stunned and heartbroken. We who loved her best are devastated beyond description.

Though utterly bereft in the wake of this breath-stealing tragedy, we are nonetheless visited by visions and vivid reminders of Inoa at her most joyful and delighted — enchanting everyone within earshot, at ease, resplendent, and entirely at home with herself.

Inoa was born in the midst of political and paramilitary turmoil, to a distinguished paternal family in Esteli, Nicaragua. Inoa's mother, the Harvard-educated theologian Susan Van Dreser, was engaged in regional missionary work when she married an Estelian native and later found herself expecting — and expecting only one child. Born in the moments after her sister Isora, Inoa in turn would forever be her mother's surprise baby.

Inoa in turn never tired of surprising others, memorably spending 45 minutes (in the icy crepuscular dusk of an inhospitable December evening, no less) under a parked car in Isora’s driveway to maximize the chance of inflicting a myocardial infraction on her unsuspecting quarry.

Inoa moved with her immediate family at the age of two months to New York State, where she lived happily with her maternal grandparents. The twin girls, learning to talk, named each other 'No-no' and 'So-so.' Inoa always held dear her memories of hand-in-hand walks with her sister and grandfather in the forests and by the streams of Pennsylvania and Vermont. Her family would later emigrate to Winnipeg, Manitoba, when the twins were aged three. These great geographic perambulations would prefigure the many travails and obstacles Inoa was to overcome.

To describe Inoa is to be faced with both constancies and contradictory corollaries. There was nothing average about her, and simple condensations can only be achieved by balancing the extremities of the whirling vortex through which she traveled in life. A diminutive five-foot-flat, as an artist behind the bar she had no trouble 86ing violent goons twice her size from establishments in which they had worn out their welcome. Neither did she turn a deaf ear to the woes and triumphs of the great range of humanity who would return to her places of work time and time again — not for their ambiance or fine cocktails, but rather solely to bask in her presence, and find the healing and camaraderie she offered her fellow souls, be they ailing or in the heights of celebration.

Inoa had a profound sense of aesthetic balance, and would respond viscerally to the arrangement of visual elements, whether in a film or a living room. It is perhaps the case that this same deep-seated sensibility was at the heart of her fervent belief in social equality, in fairness among people, and in justice for all. There was little that could raise her ire more than a perceived imbalance in material circumstance or opportunity. This extended and was amplified by her own extraordinary emotional sensitivity; she possessed for and bestowed remarkable compassion upon life in all its forms (saving perhaps certain insects).

No one looked better in a Bernie Sanders sweatshirt — a sight that effortlessly combined fervent political spirit with the sheer beauty of nature, and inspired in the most jaded heart the possibility of romantic fulfillment. Inoa cared for the well-being of those she had never met near as much as those she had known all her life. The professorial caliber of her authority and expertise in the design, history, and evolution of lamps and chairs deserved genuine recognition. To watch a movie with her was to hear each one of those objects itemized and defined upon its appearance.

In natural surroundings, Inoa’s capacity to appreciate the sumptuous spectacle soaring into our senses from the ceaseless symphony of nature and change was both uplifting and inspirational. The beauty of a bloom or the gradating chromatic variegations of an autumn leaf; the scent of citrus; the whisper of a breeze in the trees, the rumble of thunder, flash of lightning; the soothing staccato of rain and its rhythm thrumming upon the rooftop; or the setting and rising of the sun on the horizon were made all the more vibrant and apparent in her easy company.

So too did Inoa love and care for all that shared the gifts and burdens of pleasure and pain; for all that would flourish or wither in response to the energies of the universe. Plants and animals thrived under her care. She was indefatigable in her efforts to cultivate gardens, just as she was friendships. A more loyal person, few have encountered. The unparalleled depth of her capacity to love was breathtaking, humbling, and at times even overwhelming.

Wherever she lived, her radiant friendliness would make admirers of neighbours reaching up and down the block. Her homes were ever-increasingly visited by deer large and small, rabbits, chipmunks, groundhogs, foxes, raccoons, and all manner of birds. Whether this was as a result of her subtle emanations of goodwill, or her tendency to lob vegetables into the yard, who is to say. Most likely it was both. None were loved more than her cats, Blue, and Gunnar, the latter of whom once stood down a full-grown buck in the early light of a cool autumnal morning.

Forever plagued by the coldest of toes, Inoa was blessed with the warmest of hearts. Her sense of fun endeared her to all — not least young children, with whom she invariably found common ground and treated as equals. None more so than her beloved nieces, Bellamy and Willa, her co-conspirators in a wide variety of criminal enterprises and unbreakable secret bonds. She was their Aunt-ie-NoNo, and she loved them more than life itself. Bellamy and Willa’s mother, Isora, and father Eric, are anguished beyond reckoning by the sudden loss of Inoa. They are joined in their grief by Inoa's cherished mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, whom she loved with characteristic intensity, and who mourn her passing in equal measure.

Inoa was a fine judge of character, and the very best of friends. Shira, Shanda, Jody, Sam, Trevor, and Earl —as well as countless others whose omission here warrants deep apology— deserve special mention. Inoa's partner, Timothy, is inconsolable. The innumerable individuals whom Inoa touched with the magic of her being have cried many tears and will doubtless cry many more. She was such a soul to make the most devout atheist reconsider and hope for the prospect of an eternal paradise.

We will seed the aching gulf of her absence with the flowers of kindness, love, and, beauty. Inoa will forever remain irreplaceable. We are all so lucky to have known her.

A Celebration of Life will be held from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on November 9th at The Leaf in Assiniboine Park.

All are welcome.

Tributes: www.neilbardalfuneralhome.com

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Nov 01, 2025