Karina Villar Sanabria Obituary

Karina Mirella Villar Sanabria, a perfectly pretty and petite Peruvian princess, passed away quietly in her home on April 20, 2025, accompanied to the hereafter to the sound of her children playing.

Despite knowing virtually no one living in Canada, Karina immigrated to Canada in 2008. A year later she stole a so-so young man's heart, refusing to give it back. He didn't object and the two were married in 2010. She loved her job in human resources, which she saw as a very tangible way of helping and serving people, of looking out for others and caring for them. She has a special fondness for young colleagues and loved mentoring them, being recognized with an award for leadership from the University of Toronto. Her diligence in her work was a daily prayer, and a way for her to show her love for others.

Her greatest love, however, was for her friends and family. She loved her friends and was always wanting to do her best for them. In 2018 her family expanded in a special way to include her two children, Michael and Kayla, whom she loved dearly. She found in the Holy Family of Nazareth a model of the home she sought to build.

In 2022. Karina was diagnosed with cancer. She fought to the end and won! It just wasn't in the way expected. She never gave in to despair, never gave in to hopelessness, never lost her compassion or love of others. Even at the last she would remind everyone how blessed she had been by God, how thankful she was for everything, and to remember to praise Him. In the end, she won! … we just happened to lose her in the process.

Karina is survived by her husband – her knight in business casual – Nathan, their two children, Michael and Kayla, her parents, Jose and Alejandra Villar, and her brother Marco and his family.

We ask that in lieu of flowers that anyone interested make a donation to the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre or Holy Family parish Whitby on her behalf.