Peacefully on June 16, Merle was called home by our loving Father. There, she was welcomed by her parents Rene and Elizabeth Normand, sister Lil, and granddaughter Rachel. A heavenly reunion and celebration in the glory of God's full and unending love!
She leaves to mourn her loving husband Jerry with whom she recently celebrated 62 years of marriage, daughter Gail (Dave), sons Gerry (Nancy), Mark, Mike (Tracy), Paul (Sandra), Norm (Sue), grandchildren Travis, Jolene, Beth, Jess, Becki, Montanna, Tory, Mason, Liam, Makailey, Emily, Zac and Colby, also 7 great grandchildren, her brother Gordon (Shelly) and many extended family members and a multitude of friends.
Merle’s life was her family and her faith. Her love of family and Jesus was present in all she did. She leaves us a legacy of love and precious memories of countless family events including many family reunions.
Merle was born in St. Boniface on March 19, 1937 to Rene and Elizabeth Normand. She was the youngest of three and grew up in south St. Vital. She spent a lot of the summers of her childhood with her maternal grandparents out on their farm in Camp Morton, traveling there by train. She had many fond memories of those times. She left school at an early age and worked at various jobs, we remember hearing about her first job as a pin setter at a bowling alley. She met a young man, Jerry Grossman, at a New Year’s Eve house party in 1958 and then, on May 2, 1959 they were married at St. Gerard Roman Catholic Church and they began their life together. They ran a dairy farm in Whitemouth and welcomed their first two children during those years. They traded country life for city life and moved into Winnipeg in 1962, residing at several addresses until they settled in St. Vital, Merle’s childhood neighbourhood, this time running a little grocery store called Sunshine Corner from 1965 until 1970. Those were busy years, with their family growing to a count of six children, one girl and five boys. One of our favourite memories is Mom helping us kids set up a pretend store outside with the cousins who lived next door and having real treats that we could buy with leaves and acorns. In summer of 1970, it was back to country life as the family moved to a small farm in Lorette, Dad’s old neighbourhood. Mom had her work cut out for her, moving into a home with only cold running water, no modern plumbing and supplemental heat from an old-fashioned wood stove. While Dad worked to modernize the house, Mom kept her family clean and fed without the help of a lot of modern conveniences. Some farm animals were added to the scene, with Dad and the boys handling most of the chores while Mom oversaw the fresh milk and eggs, keeping a few customers supplied. She made her own cottage cheese, on the woodstove, and to this day we have not tasted anything better than hers. In her lifetime, Mom must have processed many literal tons of food. She canned and froze most of the produce we grew in our acres of garden. She made pickles and relishes of all kinds. Jams, jellies, juices and she would can all the BC fruits as they came into season – cherries, apricots, peaches, pears and plums. When they decided to start growing strawberries to sell, she processed countless jars of jam. Years later, when they turned the strawberry fields into a U-Pick operation, she enjoyed welcoming and visiting with the berry pickers. Even with all of the work, she always wanted there to be time for fun and at her insistence, an aboveground swimming pool was put up and there was always that cool off time to look forward to after the field work and chores were done. She made sure all her children went to church and received the sacraments, the family attended mass at Christ the King in St. Vital. The years passed and children grew up and began starting families of their own. The new loves of Mom’s life began arriving, she became a grandmother in 1986. Over the next while, she became Granny to fourteen grandchildren and she delighted in having them over for playdates. She set up a room just off the kitchen with a pretend store, blackboard and all kinds of simple, old-fashioned toys for them to explore. She enjoyed “baking” with the little ones, for the squirrels and birds. She planned outings for the whole family to enjoy, treating everyone to the Shrine circus, an evening at Ice Capades and even the Nutcracker Ballet. A new and bigger swimming pool was added and all the family enjoyed many pool parties at Granny and Grandpa’s farm. We were blessed with many family dinners for all of the holidays and we entertained her with talent concerts and impromptu performances by the grandkids. Her love of family was great and there was nothing she liked better than having everyone around the table. She especially loved Christmas and though she decorated their home for all occasions, even Valentine’s Day, she created a wonderland for Christmas with a beautiful nativity scene, a church scene and snowflakes and snowmen everywhere you’d look but always with the birth of Jesus being the focus. In the summer she took pleasure in making her garden, growing flowers for her butterfly garden and with Dad’s help keeping a red geranium given to her from a grandson propagated for over ten years. She planned many family reunions for both sides of the family with games and activities where people came and reconnected with each other. In the last few years of living on the farm, they had a pumpkin patch from which they supplied the grandkids and neighbourhood families with their jack-o-lanterns. In addition to her six children and their spouses, her fourteen grandchildren and their partners, Mom took great delight in her seven great-grandchildren Kiesha, John, Jaden, Julianna, Arden, Anna and Daniel. She so enjoyed having little ones in her life once again.
During the period of their life with children grown, Mom and Dad did a little traveling – going on a road trip as far south as Mexico with her brother Gordon and his wife. Another time, they took the train to BC and later a trip out to Batoche, SK with friends. Mom never liked to be away from home and family very long. She began to get involved with her Metis heritage and became very active in various ways. She always loved dancing and old-time fiddle music and she and Dad attended many events, meeting up with old friends and making new ones. She was involved as an elder with her local MMF chapter and helped promote Metis culture at the local elementary schools. Mom and Dad hosted many crib tournaments and whist card parties at their home through these years. She was a woman who didn’t place much importance on being fashionable or fancy but she had her signature style - she loved to wear red and she kept her hair style for all her years, doing pin curls to achieve her lovely waves. She continually wore her gold cross as a symbol of her strong faith. She had a lovely smile and a mischievous sense of humour and could tease and make jokes yet she had a lot of wisdom to share with all of us. She prayed faithfully for her beloved family and encouraged us all to trust in our Heavenly Father. Our loss is great and we will always miss her and keep her close in our hearts and memories.
Our family would like to extend sincere gratitude to all the wonderful staff of Residence Despins for all they did to help us care for Mom and add to her time of living there. Also many thanks to the great staff at St. Boniface Hospital who cared for Mom during her many hospital stays this past year.
Due to Covid restrictions, funeral mass will be celebrated on June 23 with immediate family only at Christ the King Roman Catholic Church with burial to follow at Green Acres. You are invited to join us virtually by accessing the Livestream link at www.greenacresfuneralhome.com in the Upcoming Services tab.
"And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." I Corinthians 13:13
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