Remembering Dana Rayment
Lutheran Campus Ministry – Edmonton mourns the passing of Dana Rayment, past Chaplain at NAIT and MacEwan University, and spouse of past Chaplain Richard Reimer. Dana’s obituary, written by Richard, is below, followed by funeral information.
“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away …”
Dana Rayment, beloved wife, daughter, auntie, friend, died Sunday, November 16th, 2025, peacefully, taking her last breath following a glorious sunrise, held by her husband and surrounded in love by immediate family.
Her husband, Richard Reimer, would often say that while he got lost in the trees, Dana saw the forest—that is, the vastness of life, its possibilities, its mystery, its beauty, its invitation. She seized all of it as terrain for the imagination, fearless in a dizzying array of media: ballroom and modern dance, photography, glass fusing, jewelry making, encaustic, painting, sketching, theatre, Pilates, and spiritual care. And she turned her enormous creativity to food, an inveterate gardener, growing heirloom tomatoes from seed she’d ferment annually—140 plants this year (!) for salsa, pasta sauces, tomato juice—tomatillos, purple cabbage, borage, nasturtiums, a riot of vegetal colour. An outstanding cook, many will recall the delicious hospitality (with some experimental exceptions!) that flowed from her kitchen.
A lover of her Ukrainian heritage, she relished traditions passed on by her Baba and mother, drawing intricate ‘pysanky’ (Easter eggs) and baking ‘kolach’ (braided bread), and teaching these to generations of students gathered by Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Alberta, where her husband served as a Chaplain. She herself took the expansion of the ministry into NAIT and MacEwan University from fledgling to flourishing as a Chaplain using the creative media of art, singing bowls, meditation, and ‘yurt yaks’ (more later).
Her spirituality was, as she said, ‘Christian with bits’—as a feminist, and survivor of sexual abuse experienced in the church, fighting to raise up the stories and perspectives of women, and feminine imagery for the divine, ignored, marginalized, excluded in a history and hierarchy privileging men. She practiced an inclusive spiritual caregiving that utilized art as a means of self-exploration, and included potlucks and cooking lessons in her home, and painting in the gazebo, to foster community among students from a wide diversity of nationalities, races and creeds, men, women and those who identify otherwise. And it wasn’t without humour—as those who came across a ‘yurt yak’ that she and her Jewish colleague set up in the middle of a NAIT hallway, with the invitation to candy and the sharing of “Ghost Stories from Around the World!”
Dana was a loyal friend, open, passionate, vulnerable, and her ‘chosen family’ extended into many communities, especially in the arts, volunteering on the board of FAVA (Film and Visual Arts Society of Alberta), making films for its Gotta Minute Festival, and sharing with Bobbi Westman in the directorship of Theatre of the New Heart, focusing their mandate on supporting ‘emerging’ productions to the benefit of many local theatre companies. Through theatre she turned pain into catharsis. In “The Adventures of Ayla and Avalon,” staged at the Fringe Festival, she chronicled the ‘renovation gone sideways’ of her basement Pilates studio from the perspective of her cats, their snide comments about the unscrupulous contractor making children giggle, and their toppling of the ladder as he reached the top rung, witnessed in shadow behind a scrim, suggesting, for adults, the ultimate revenge! And out of the ashes of her experience with infertility, she wrote and produced, “The Photo,” plumbing a photographer couple’s agony over a stillbirth through the fiction of witnessing in photos her growth to adulthood, eventually coming back to reality in the framing, with their stillborn, of a final, still photo.
For all her independence, Dana was fiercely devoted to her family and loved them deeply. She is survived by her mother, Christine Rayment; her siblings, Alfred (Debbie), Pam (Michael), and Brent (Simone); her nieces and nephews, Madeline (Skylar), Nathasha (Ryley), Piper, Aidyn (Mackenzie), Amber, and Sage, Eric (Suzanne), Nikolai (Mae) and Prosper; and her great-nieces and nephews, Esme, Henry, Cedric and Ayla.
She was predeceased by her father, Danny Rayment.
Diagnosis with end-stage pancreatic cancer was crushing, but Dana lived with determination to the end. She will be missed beyond measuring by her husband, for whom she was closest confidante, wise counsel, adventuring companion, gorgeous beauty and dearest friend. Reaching their 35th anniversary, September 1st, he wrote, referencing their wedding text from Song of Songs, “You are ‘my love, my fair one’, I’m so lucky to have come away with you!”
Richard would like to thank those who constructed the backyard solarium Dana had always wanted: Rick Mast, Markus Wilhelm, and Mark Koeppen, the volunteer crew who prepared the way by disposing of the ‘ratty’ old gazebo and furniture; and Ken Schmermund, and son, Brandon, of Vast Improvements, who completely readjusted their calendar to complete the construction, with help from Alf Rayment, in time for Dana’s birthday!
And a special thanks to the physicians, nurses, chaplains and staff of the Cross Cancer Institute, the Palliative Home Care Service of Pilgrim’s Hospice, and especially the Tertiary Palliative Care Unit at the Grey Nuns Hospital.
If you wish to remember Dana best, grow a tomato plant and enjoy its fruit. Or, if you would like to to make a memorial donation, direct it to Amnesty International, a non-profit dear to Dana, the Tertiary Palliative Care Unit at the Grey Nuns Hospital, or Pilgrim’s Hospice.
Gathering to Mourn
The Funeral Service for Dana will take place on Saturday, November 29, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. at Hosanna Lutheran Church (9009 163 St NW). The service will also be live-streamed on Hosanna’s YouTube channel, linked below.
A light lunch will follow immediately after the service.
Internment, for those who wish to attend, will take place after the lunch at Glenwood Funeral Home & Cemetery, 52356 Range Road 232, Sherwood Park
Collecting Photos for Dana’s Funeral
Help us celebrate Dana’s life in ministry by sharing your memories and photographs.
LSM alum Mark Koeppen is collecting photos of Dana and Pastor Richard’s ministry to present at Dana’s funeral and to use in memory of her.
If you have photos and memories to offer, click the button below to to submit them.
Because the form allows you to upload files, it will ask you to sign in. If you are unable to sign in, please feel free to send your photos to Pastor Elly McHan at pastorellymchan@gmail.com.
Curating Stories of Dana and Pastor Richard’s Ministry
We continue to hold Pastor Richard Reimer in our love and prayers as he grieves the loss of his beloved spouse, Dana.
Our current students and young adults have been remembering and sharing stories of Dana and Pastor Richard’s impact on their lives, and are working on collecting those stories in cards and letters to give to Pastor Richard in memory of Dana.
We know that our community carries countless more stories of ministry moments that left an impact and conversations that shifted and shaped lives along the way. We would invite you to take time to reflect on Dana and Pastor Richard’s impact in your life and to add your stories to ours in cards and letters.
We invite you to send your cards and letters to:
Pastor Richard Reimer
c/o Lutheran Campus Ministry – Edmonton
169E HUB Chaplains’ Centre
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1
We will forward your cards and letters to Pastor Richard.