Arcadia Pilskalns Nicklay passed away on Oct. 18, 2012, after a seven-year battle with cancer. She leaves behind a large, loving extended family and many, many whose lives were touched by her kindness and generosity.

She was born in Toronto on March 17, 1965, the sixth of seven children, and spent her first 12 years in Cuba, N.Y. Her family decided to pick up and move to Missoula with no clear plan for her father’s employment, placing their future in God’s hands. This absolute trust in divine providence defined her for the rest of her too-short life.

From a young age, Arcadia and all of her siblings received weekly piano lessons. While in New York, this required a drive of 100 miles to learn from a master teacher. She was proud of the lineage of her instructor, who claimed to have been taught by a student of a student of a student, etc., of Beethoven’s teacher. She became an outstanding pianist, winning numerous competitions, beginning at age 5 and continuing through her college days in Missoula, where she won the Youth Concerto Contest twice. She was also invited to participate in “A Grand Evening,” an event involving the top pianists in the region, with 12 grand pianos on stage at one time.

In the spring of 1989, she met her future husband, Daniel Nicklay, in a linguistics class at the University of Montana. They married on Dec. 22 of the same year, while he was still attending school and she was teaching music in Victor, Mont. Just over a year later, their first son, Andris was born. After his death of complications from hydranencephaly, she announced her retirement from teaching, so that she could stay home and raise her own children.

Subsequent moves took the Nicklays to the wheat fields of north-central Montana, the rugged mountains of Troy, Mont., and finally to Coeur d’Alene in 2000.

In each of these places, Arcadia became a central figure in her church community. Never shy about her beliefs, she inspired literally hundreds of people with her faith. When struck with cancer in 2005, she embraced it as an opportunity to minister to others who suffered. She always carried a supply of medals, crucifixes, and prayer cards to distribute to strangers, and always remembered them in her prayers. In the end, she was honored to suffer, offering the pain as a prayer. She spent her last days consoling others and inspiring them with her unflagging confidence in the goodness of God.

She is survived by her husband, Daniel Nicklay, and eight children, Jacob, Markus, Andrew, Mary, Emily, Katharine, Therese, and Joseph. Also, her parents, Andrew and Arkadia Pilskalns, of Stevensville, Mont.; her parents-in-law, Ray and Cary Nicklay, of Missoula; and six siblings, Athena Abernathey, Arthur Pilskalns, Eve Williams, Paul Pilskalns, Andrew Pilskalns, and Orest Pilskalns, and more than 50 nieces and nephews.

Requiem High Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, at St. Thomas Catholic Church, with rosary the previous evening at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church at 6 p.m.

She will be buried beside her sweet little Andris in St. Mary’s Cemetary, in Stevensville, Mont., at 10 a.m. Thursday, in the shadow of the Memorial of the Unborn Children.

An account is being established at Wells Fargo to defray funeral costs and assist with childcare other related expenses.