February 13, 1947 ~ October 8, 2024

Milana was born to her loving mother Stanislava Horsky and father Milan Prochaska in Pribram in the Czech Republic. Her childhood was spent with her doting maternal grandparents and mother, her stepfather Ivan, and eventually, to her great delight, her sisters Ivana and Zdena.

She loved rock music, tight jeans, long hair and dreaming of a future that included her love of art, reading and travel. When the Communists occupied the Czech Republic in the late 1960’s, her mother made the difficult decision to leave everyone and everything behind to take her family to a safer place – Canada.

They began their life as Canadians in Montreal, where a large Czech population led to Milana meeting the love of her life, Jiri, at a Czech play. Within six months the future doctor had convinced Milana to marry him, and they travelled across the country to BC for their honeymoon, where they fell in love with the mountains and sea, and decided to make that their new home.

They had a daughter first, Teresa, then a son, Thomas, whom they raised to walk and run, ride bikes and ski, to make the most of the natural beauty of Canada.

Milana was an enthusiastic wife, a somewhat reluctant mother, but she did her best with both. She had lifelong struggles with addiction and mental health issues, which impacted most of the last decades of her life, but not before she got the chance to meet her two oldest grandchildren, which she called the loves of her life.

Twelve years ago, after suffering traumatic head injury, she was confined to a wheelchair and living in a care home, forever removing from her life the ability to talk, walk, or be present in the way she surely would have wanted to be.

Predeceased by her loving husband of 53 years, Milana died with her children by her side, The Beatles playing in the background.

We hope that her stardust is now swirling in the sky along with our father’s, and that she’s finally at peace.