Nora Gabriel

Nora Gabriel

Manti, Utah

Nora Vas Dias Einfinger Ylst Gabriel, 85, passed away July 21, 2016 in Centerfield, Utah. She was born August 24, 1930 in The Hague, Netherlands to Karel Frederik and Helena Van den Berg Vas Dias. She married Franjo Einfinger in 1949 in Nottingham, England.

Nora became a neophyte linguist early in life. Her family’s native tongue was Dutch, but in secondary school she also studied Portuguese, German and English, something of a traditional curriculum at that time. After marriage she and her husband moved to Brazil, a Portuguese speaking nation. Shortly after they divorced. Nora with two young children, Carmen and Fred, began to live her life in Brazil raising the children alone in the big city of Sao Paulo and later in Santos on the coast of Brazil.

When the children were grown-ups, in time she moved on to Long Beach, California. She attended Long Beach State College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in languages, with a major in Spanish and minors in French and German.

Another move, a few years later, brought Nora, and her second husband Eege Ylst to Santaquin. But ever interested in language, Nora enrolled at BYU, earning a teaching certificate and specializing in English as a second language. That led to teaching in the school district’s adult education program.

Sometime after Eege’s death Nora met Joseph Gabriel, a widower who had spent most of his working life in California after immigrating from Portugal, met with the help of mutual friends. They were married in the Manti LDS Temple in August 1990 and moved to Manti.

Why to Manti? "The temple," says Nora Gabriel. "The temple, the beauty, the peace, the flowers, the birds and the white clouds over the mountains.

The sub-title of one of Nora Gabriel’s books reads: "A Woman’s Life Expressed in Poems". It’s been a rich life, she says: a life experience at The Hague, took her to England, Brazil, Long Beach, Santaquin and Manti in Utah. And it has included experiences as daughter, student, wife, mother, widow and along the way, conversion to a new faith.

Nora is survived by her daughter, Carmen Einfinger, NY; siblings; Elly de Ruiter and Kiek van der Waardt both of The Netherlands; Fred Vassi, of Salt Lake City, UT. She is also preceded in death by her parents and son, Fred

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 12:00 Noon in the Red Church in Manti, 300 South Main, where friends may call after 11:00 a.m. Burial will be in the Manti Cemetery. Funeral Directors: Magleby Mortuary, Richfield, Salina and Manti. Online guestbook at www.maglebymortuary.com