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Valerie Elaine Sandaker

Valerie Elaine Sandaker passed away on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. She was born in Glendive, Mont., July 26, 1964, to Maurice and Alice Sandaker. The family will be having a celebration of life for Val sometime in the spring.

When she was 5 years old she moved with her family to Bonners Ferry, Idaho. She graduated from Bonners Ferry High School in 1982, where she was very active in sports, music and drama.

After high school she went to North Idaho College where she met her husband. She married Ron Strobel in June of 1986, and they had two children, Hailey and Avery. They later divorced.

She worked for 13 years at the North Idaho Eye Clinic and later as a special education assistant in various schools in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, until two years ago.

She devoted her life to her children while they were growing up. She had a major love of the outdoors and water. She enjoyed music, camping, fishing, taking scenery pictures and anything to do with water. She even did a triathlon years ago. Every year four or five of her school mates would meet every summer to get together to camp or do fun things. She loved and treasured those times.

She moved back to Bonners Ferry about a year and a half ago to be closer to her family.

Val was preceded in death by her father, Maurice. She is survived by two children: Hailey (Strobel) Samuels and Avery Strobel; her mother, Alice Sandaker; two brothers: Aaron (Sheila) Sandaker and Grant Sandaker and one sister: Marcia (Tim) Foust, and many nieces and nephews that she dearly loved, and all her many friends.

She will be missed for her smile, her big heart, her laugh and her wicked sense of humor. She was loved by so many and she will be greatly missed.