Lita Lucille Shepherd

Lita Lucille Shepherd passed away quietly at the Foothills Hospital, Calgary, AB on February 3, 2022, at the age of 94 years.

Lita was always one to face life confidently, having made many decisions early in life. She talked fondly of her growing up years in Mirror, Alberta, 213 kms northeast of Calgary. She had many friends as she grew up, a number of them living on the farm, akin to her mother Anna’s upbringing. Nevertheless, she was glad she could grow up in town, since her father supported the family as a career steam locomotive engineer. Harry, also known as Henry, her dad, made daily trips on the CN rails to Calgary, or as far north as Tofield, near Edmonton, our provincial capital. Lita enjoyed skating, and since they lived close to the rink, on those winter days, she was able to get ready in their house, and then skate on the hardened snow and icy street to get to the rink where she would enjoy the afternoon.

The family moved to Calgary, first living in the southeast, close to her dad’s work, and then moving to the northwest, where she lived in the family home until her passing. I understand that Lita’s adult career as a registered nurse assistant, (nurse’s aid) came to her very naturally. She would put in her time at the hospital (the Grace hospital) and then she would take a lot of time for herself. Nursing even took her to England where she spent about two years working as well as connecting with her father’s English roots. Even though she was born in small town Alberta, in Mirror, she always spoke of that experience as very natural, she had no problem living in Canada or in England.

Lita had two brothers, one older and one 2 years younger. While other parts of her life were well organized, she admitted that living with her brothers was a challenge. So, giving in to accommodate the larger interests of the family may have some caused some tension, but in the end her was very fond of her younger brother, and even displayed a pencil stretch she had done of him. Lita did mention that international excursions were limited to trips back to England while Harry was alive, but later Lita and her mother had great opportunity to travel to many distant places, Hawaii, Hong Kong and even Macau a Portuguese enclave near China. When we got to know Lita in the early 2000s she even mused of visiting places such as Brazil where my wife, Helena and I (David) have connections.

But travel did not have to be airplane trips to some exotic place, it could be here in Calgary and area. Lita had a car, a dark green 1972 4 door Chevelle with a black vinyl roof. Even in retirement years Lita kept driving, and even volunteered delivering food for the “Meals on Wheels”. After every trip she would return the car to the single vehicle detached garage that still had the traditional doubled doors, each hinged on the vertical opening, no remote and no roll-up door for Lita. She did this for most of her retirement, and then, without any coercion, she sold the car, now almost a collector’s item, for $2500. How she would have liked to keep that freedom to motor anytime, to anywhere, but she knew her limitations and gave up driving before she ever caused an accident.

Lita spent many hours in her home, watching television. The TV guide in the Sunday Sun newspaper was all she needed. She was never bored. She also attended seniors monthly get togethers, she took care of her own shopping and banking, she rode Calgary transit buses and always tried to live as independently as possible.

Though Lita had to go to the hospital a few times in her later years, she always expressed so much gratitude that she never “caught cold” or the flu, and that she could get around even as a pedestrian. In times when we had endured a real cold span in Calgary, she would comment on how mild the winter had been. Just nothing bothered Lita, what a contentment she displayed!

Lita lived a full life right. Yes, she had a fall at the end, and some previously. Nurses and doctors in the Foothills hospital, Unit 71, gave her the best treatment possible. Covid reasserted itself and visitation was severely curtailed and then even forbidden in her last 10 days. Staff tried their best to have Lita talk to friends on the cordless phone, but her health was declining rapidly even though some of us expected her to pull through. Not having any firsthand discussion with her final earthly caregivers we understand that Lita quietly slipped away in the early hours of February 3, 2022, the year she would have turned 95 years old.

Lita is preleased by her parents Harry and Anna Shepherd and her brothers Keith and Bruce Shepherd, and many friends in Calgary, and even an email correspondent in Seattle, Wash.

Lita is survived by and sadly missed Allen and Merrilyn Webster of Red Deer, Alberta, Joan and Bob Weder of Big Valley, Alberta and Joan and Henry Moncion of Kelowna, British Columbia as well as relatives from Red Deer and Calgary on her mother’s side of the family, and by friends in Mount Pleasant and other parts of Calgary, people that took care of personal issues she had to give up.

A private internment was held on February 10th with Foster Funeral Home caring for the details, with interment in the Queens Park Cemetery.