Obituary of MARY RICHARDS

MARY RICHARDS (nee Dann) March 28, 1917 – September 23, 2016 Mom has left the stage but we will remember the performance forever! We three sons have enjoyed her support and and guidance – often challenged – for more than sixty years. We are so lucky! As are her four grand-daughters who often think of her as Mom; the eight great-grandchildren who have always been amazed and astounded that Great-Grandma is so… old!; all of our wonderful partners whom Mom warmly welcomed into our family and treated as her own; and Mom’s/Grandma’s/Great-Grandma’s/Great-Great-Grandma’s Great-Great-Grandson who, living in Calgary, didn’t have a real opportunity to know her or to appreciate the wit and wisdom of a woman reading Don Quixote in her last days. Mom is Mom and each of us has his/her own concept of who Mom is and of her back story. Some of the details are fuzzy. Mom’s parents immigrated to Canada around 1911. Mom and her siblings were born in Winnipeg where she lived her entire life – mostly in the Riverview-Fort Rouge area – on both sides of the tracks. During the 1939-1945 war, she worked at MacDonald Aircraft doing something like installing the wooden ribs of the canvas bodies. Later, into the sixties, she worked at the button counter in Eaton’s, and, in the 80’s, at Villa Rosa. But, none of this favourably compares with the work she did for us! We want to thank Mom’s neighbours, Rhonda and Shane, who did everything they could to keep her with us for a little longer. Good-bye Mom! Dad, Albert Richards, would have been impressed! We, your progeny, your friends, your neighbours salute you! Thanks for so much! Too bad you will be missing your send off: Saturday, October 22, 2016 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. at Cropo Funeral Chapel, 1442 Main St.