Margaret was born on March 1, 1938 to Ferdinand and Olga Schulz in Martinshöhe, Germany. In 1939, her father was drafted into the army. During the war, they had to flee their home and arrived in Chemnitz in 1944. After the war, the family moved to a town called Oehna, where they had a better life. Their church was 7 km away and they went there by horse and buggy. It was in that church, at age 12 that she accepted the Lord.
In February 1951 the family escaped E. Germany and then fled to W. Germany. That escape was very traumatic. Margaret was almost 13 years old, fleeing in the winter through the forest and darkness was very frightening.
The family emigrated to Canada in January 1953, arrived in St. Johns and continued on the long journey to Chilliwack, BC. Margaret started school again, but they put her in Grade 2 since she did not know English. As a 15 year old, she disliked being in a class with 7 year olds and left school after a couple of months. Margaret started working full-time at the Empress Hotel.
The family joined the Victoria Ave Baptist Church. On June 30, 1956 Margaret married Len Schmidke and moved to Vancouver.
In 1977, she started working in the shoe department at Sears. Margaret retired at the age of 75, having worked for Sears for 35 years. Len and Margaret loved to travel and Margaret had an amazing gift of hospitality.
Margaret and Len were blessed with three children Harvey (Helga), Gordon (Cora), and Elaine (Howard). They dearly loved their eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
In 2014, Len & Margaret moved to Elim Village. By late 2018, Mom was not able to care for herself due to advancing dementia. As a result of this, Margaret moved into long-term care.
On the morning of her 84th birthday, Margaret took her last breath and met her Lord.