Ximena Marulanda-Martinez

Ximena was born on April 23, 1969 in Cali, Colombia as the third daughter to her parents Carmenza Martinez, and Eliseo Marulanda. She grew up in the city of Cali, went to a catholic school and later went to college to study business administration. Her professional career was mainly in the banking sector, where she advanced to be a branch manager. Her two sisters, Adriana and Monica were always there for their little sister and remained very close. Ximena's strong catholic faith gave her joy and endurance in good times and in challenging times. She was always true to herself, and a leading example in many ways.
Ximena was an outstanding swimmer, and was placed upon the winner's podium many times. Her dream was always to make it to the Olympics. Later in her marriage, and while living in northern countries, she was exposed to winter sports and became a good skier. In 1999 she made the decision to move to Canada and started her new life in London, Ontario. After a year in the gastronomy field, she again found herself in the banking world, and over the following eight years developed into a Financial Advisor at TD Canada Trust.
It was in London, Ontario, she met her husband Dietmar, who was in town on a 3-year work assignment from Germany. They were married in 2002, and just a few years later were blessed with two lovely children, Emily and Maximilian.
In the years following 2007, the family took on a few opportunities from Dietmar's employer to move first to Germany, and then to Sweden. These years were very memorable, and new languages and traditions influenced the family's life. Ximena spoke four languages and had many experiences that few people will ever have.
In 2014, the family moved back to Germany, where Ximena also started work as a Sales Coordinator for a Canadian IT company. It was there where Ximena was diagnosed with a brain tumor that later turned out only to be a metastasis. She later received word about an rare lung cancer that was the main cause of her struggles. Nevertheless, and after successful surgery and treatment in Germany, the family decided to move back to Canada in August 2016, which was a long sought wish. From the very beginning of her time in Calgary, more complications became evident, and the cancer began to grow again. She has spent long periods in the hospital, and within a short time it became sad reality that there was no cure. On May 18, 2017 Ximena gave up the fight and left the world to which she brought so much kindness, brightness and hope. Ximena will be kept in loving memories across the continents. She will be greatly missed, especially by her husband, her two children and her mother and sisters in Colombia.
Farewell Ximena!