It is with great sadness that the family of Elinor Margaret Work announces her passing on Saturday, July 14, 2018 at the age of 93 years. Elinor passed peacefully at Edgemont Retirement Home, in Calgary, Alberta, in the comforting and loving presence of her sons.
Elinor met her husband William Albert in Winnipeg, and they married August 17, 1950. Shortly after marriage, they moved to Calgary for Bill’s job in the oil industry. Bill’s work provided them with several wonderful trips abroad and included a two-year transfer to New York. Elinor survived the passing of Bill in 2011, marking the end of a sixty-year marriage.
Elinor was born on March 1, 1925 in Kenora, Saskatchewan to Regina and James Anderson. She was the fourth eldest of eight children - Mabel, Jean, Eileen, Dorothy, Edna, Jack and Don, all of whom have passed away. Numerous nieces, nephews and extended family will remember her.
The focus of Elinor’s life was her family and she loved providing and caring for them. Elinor immensely enjoyed her children’s friends, many who maintained their own special friendships with Elinor and Bill over the decades. There was always a hoard of boisterous friends around the Rosedale family home and dinner invitations were freely extended. Elinor had a great sense of humour and enjoyed the antics of her children and their friends. She loved people and she loved a crowded house. A few friends regarded her as a second mother. As a true Anderson, Elinor was an animal lover who had a special place in her heart for several cats and dogs who were treated as bona fide family members.
Elinor was an excellent cook, a talented artist, voracious reader and active community member, among other interests. She imbued her children with her love of art and literature. In her youth, Elinor had been a very good student who excelled in school but had to put aside her own academic desires after high school to help her widowed mother provide for the family.
Although Elinor spent most of her time within the home, she had a flair for fashion and was always very stylish when she went out with Bill and her close friends Norris and Denise Warthe.
Elinor will be lovingly remembered by her children, Frank (Kim), Cathy (Brian), Gordon and David (Karen); seven grandchildren, Meagan, Carl, Samantha, Brett, James, Hillary and Dana. Although Elinor was not able to spend much time with her nine great-grandchildren who reside in the US, they will undoubtedly hear stories about their great-grandmother. They are David, Sadie, Calista, Leah, Macie, Josie, Millie, Jackson and Luke.
The family would like to express thanks and appreciation to the staff of Edgemont Retirement Home, where Elinor resided for the last six years of her life.
A celebration of Elinor’s life will be held in September for friends and family. Memorial donations may be made in Elinor’s name directly to the Calgary Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (calgaryhumane.ca/donate/)
Expressions of sympathy may be forwarded to the family via the website www.fostersgardenchapel.ca
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