Myra Schofield

Myra Schofield, born December 7, 1941 passed away peacefully in Calgary on April 26, 2014 at the age of 72. She was one of eight children born to Alex McIntyre (Ship Plater’s helper) and Mary Daly (Domestic Servant) in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland. She immigrated to Calgary, Alberta in 2009 from Dumbarton, Scotland with her husband Samuel Schofield. On May 7th they would have celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary.

Myra is lovingly remembered by her husband Samuel Schofield, her children (oldest to youngest) David, Samuel, Janette and Susan; her “in-law” children who she loved dearly, Cornelia, Liz, Lloyd and Mick; grandchildren (oldest to youngest) Graham, Christopher, Keighley, Aileen, Rebecca, Kyle, Lillian; her

“in-law” grandchildren Sandra and Nina; great grandchildren Connor and Emily; Step grandparent to Neil and his wife Liz, Kelly and her partner Paul and James as well as step great grandparent to Sophia, Jacob and Isobel.

She was pet grandparent to Charlie (her favourite), Lucy, Roxy, Lola, Koby, Pepper (passed), Diego and Casper; pet great grandparent to Max and Shyla.

Myra passed away peacefully following a courageous and short battle with cancer. She managed her illness the same way she managed her life – practically and with little fuss so it was no surprise to see her leave this world so quietly and gracefully when she was ready.

Myra loved spending time with her loud and noisy family and cherished time when the whole family got together which was often. There was no doubt that she loved her family and her happiest moments were spent with her grandchildren who she would sing and dance with and talk for hours on the family stories. With grandchildren, the true beauty of Myra was evident and her joy in them had no limits.

She enjoyed knitting and baking and her real passion was books. She loved reading and would spend many a happy hour tucked up on the couch with a good book. She enjoyed travelling and whilst quite a shy and private person, Las Vegas became her number one holiday destination and it is true that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas as she never revealed why this was a favourite for a tee-total, non-smoking, non-gambling and sun adverse type!

In her final days, Myra said she was pleased that she had helped shape her children into the adults they became and it is was with great pleasure her husband and children celebrated and honoured her life on Saturday, May 3, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. at the South Calgary Funeral Centre.

To the friends of the Schofield family

From the time of her diagnosis to her passing, our many friends and acquaintances walked the journey with us and we (the family) would like to thank everyone for the extraordinary kindness they showed Myra. We truly appreciate the support of everyone. We would like to make special mention to the McQueen family who have known her since she first started visiting Canada over 20 years ago and thought of her as “mum” and treated her as so, to the Francis family who visited often and gave her reason to smile especially when Kevin wore his uniform, to the Stunell family who gave her lots of laughs especially when Colette told her what Trevor was getting on the 6th Sep, to the Grey Family who loved her so warmly and reminded her of the great sense of humour the Brits have and to the Harris family who helped Myra and Sam settle into Canada and made Myra their friend.

A special thank-you to the many friends and family in the UK who sent love and comfort across the miles and let us know how much they loved Myra and will miss her.

Myra’s at home care team included daughter’s Susan, Janette and daughter in law Liz. The “girls” would like to say thank-you to Mick, Lloyd and Sam for being supportive and stepping up in managing their homes, children and pets and just for being there to hold them on those busiest days, on the stressful days when there simply wasn’t enough hours, on those low days when mum was very sick and for understanding why they needed to focus on mum’s care. Good times to follow that is a promise.

Music Medley Tribute

Myra had asked her grandchildren to pick a song to remember her by. The music medley was played before the service and afterwards at the reception tea. The grandchildren chose as their songs:

“I wish I was in Glasgow” (Billy Connolly) picked by Graham as he knew his gran’s heart always belonged to Glasgow and she shared many stories over the years of growing up in Glasgow with him

“See You Again” (Carrie Underwood) picked by Keighley who connects with the song as it expresses the love she has for her gran

“Is this the way to Amarillo” (Tony Christie), picked by Rebecca as her gran would dance and sing with her to this song and it will be favourite memory for her to keep

“I'm Carrying Your Love with Me” (George Strait), picked by Kyle who knew his gran loved country music and would like his choice

Scottish favorites “Ally Bally, Ally Bally Bee ( Coulter's Candy)”, “Ye canny shove yer granny aff a bus” and the Skye boat song” picked by Christopher, Aileen and Lillian who live in Germany and who remember their gran for singing these songs to them. Son David had to keep on singing the songs long after gran went home.

During her display of photographs songs selected by Myra were played and these included for husband Sam “You’re my best friend” (Don Williams) and "Memories" by Barbara Steisand, for her children she picked "If tomorrow never comes" By Garth Brooks and "When I get where I am going" Brad Paisley.

Other songs played have been chosen by the family members and hold special meaning to them and include "There you will be" (Faith Hill), "Wind beneath my wings" (Bette Midler), " A place called love" Johnny Reid, Scottish Pipe Band "Flower of Scotland and Scotch on the rocks".

Flower tribute, Myra's family selected a beautiful casket display of bright yellow flowers and also selected individual flowers that they placed with Myra. Those flowers included: Dad: Red Rose, Susan: Yellow Carnation, Mick White Carnation, Keighley - Daisy, Kyle - Pink Carnation, Sam - Yellow Daffodil,

Liz – Violet, Graham Tulip, Sandra Tulip, Nette Scottish Heather, Lloyd Scottish Thistle, Cornelia Freesias, Lillian Lily, Christopher, Nina, Connor & Emily blue roses, Aileen - tulip, David Scottish Silver Thistle. Honorary family member Summer (Rebecca's BFF) placed a sun flower as she thought of Rebecca's gran as her gran.

Myra's final words to her husband Sam were " Special love to my husband Sam, thanks for walking the road with me, sharing the good times and bad, thanks for the family you gave me, thanks for the laughter you brought into my life, but most of all, thanks for loving me"

Each of Myra's children shared a memory of their mum and son Sam read these out during her service;

David’s Memories of Mum.

When I met my wife Cornelia, and was getting serious as a Scotsman and German woman could get, Mum wanted to meet this new potential member of her family, I lived in Hamburg at this point so without any help, Mum and Dad booked their flights and hotel, mum called me and informed said that she had booked a hotel in the Rinehart area of Hamburg and that the hotel boasted historical heritage , To which I asked Rinehart? Yes why?That’s the Red light district of Hamburg- " Oh" , she stated and then all I could hear was yelling being hurled at Dad, who thought that the hotel daily tariff for the full package now made sense.Talk about Mum and her German sign language

Sam’s Memories of mum

My teen years consisted of a time when we lived in Dumbarton, involved me and my best pal Sammy Barkley “the two Sammy’s” we wanted to see an X rated movie (an 18 or older) something about giant chickens eating people. We decided that since neither of us had begun shaving or indeed had any peach fuzz to speak off ,we could disguise ourselves as two law abiding adults, by the use of my mother’s make up, my pal Sammy was a dark haired boy so we naturally choose Mum’s black mascara to thicken his eyebrows and touch up a nice thick moustache, I was more red headed so I of course thinking black would look ridiculous, on me I chose another color of mascara a light brownish one, when mum walked in on us who knows the her first thoughts when she caught her teenage son and his best friend applying makeup on each other, I thought we both looked the part, with our painted on Tom Seleck moustaches and thick bushy eyebrows, we drew some odd looks on the way to the movies wherein we were promptly refused entry, our plan had failed. My mum was laughing her head off when we left for the movies and was still laughing 40 minutes later on our return home. Nearly 40 years later Mum would still tell that story and laugh.

Such was the life I enjoyed growing up, never judged, never pressured only supported and encouraged to follow whatever path I chose. That was Mum’s philosophy, At 26 I finally found the strength I needed to fly the security of the family nest, when I did fly, I flew approximately 4000 miles to Canada that was back in 1988, In around 2005 my family started to move to Canada first Susan, Mick Graham and Rebecca, then Janette Lloyd, and eventually Mum and Dad so by 2009 we had the whole gang in Calgary. We all live within walking distance to each other and Mum and dad were in their element, doing their rounds on a Saturday morning, we’d each call other and warn the other of the impending door knock, followed by the HALLO! THERE. And mum’s shushing of Sam.

Janette’s memory of Mum

Mum always liked to travel and when Susan and I decided to get away for a couple of days to Las Vegas, we dutifully asked mum and dad if they wanted to come. Mum loved Las Vegas so she readily agreed to the trip. While going through airport security, Lloyd and I in front, mum and dad at the back, the Cron's luckily where not on the same line up as us, so they missed what happened next. Mum taps me on the shoulder, “What triggers those beeping things off?” I reply “Anything metal, but don’t worry they get you to remove your shoes and belts, you will be fine” I told her. As we slowly moved closer to the impending possible scan or pat down, which mum is declaring her displeasure at the invasion of privacy blah blah blah, I realize mum is doing a little bit of a jig behind me and as I turn around to see what she is doing, I see she is trying to take her bra off, one arm out of the sleeve, still under the sweater, bra strap hanging down and then the other arm doing the same manoeuvre. I asked her what on earth she was doing; her response was “I don’t want my bra clip to set the machine off!!” The sight of her shaking her bra out of her jumper, then proudly facing the security guards, daring them to pat her down, always makes me smile every time I have gone through airport security since

Mum memories from Susan

I wanted to share my favourite and best memories of mum.

Pet memory:

As a child I remember I begged and begged for a cat and we got one from the neighbour upstairs, we called him Skippy. I loved Skippy with all of my heart. Every night my mum would come into my bedroom, pull back the covers, see Skippy tucked in beside me, drag the cat from the bed, skelp my leg and then kiss me good night. All within 60 seconds, action, temper, love. That was my mother.

Winching Advice:

Mum had lots of opinions and sayings she used as an example when “winching” i.e. dating - I was often told to “keep my hand on my hapenny” whilst I understand the sentiment I didn’t much care that all potential suitors were told almost on arrival to our house following introductions to keep “it in their trousers” and “no funny business” needless to say I didn’t have many second dates.

Gift Giving:

Mum had her own value system and greatly believed we should all be treated the same. In later years she took that one step further so that if she was buying gifts it would be the same gift for all of us. At Christmas we learned to open our gifts at the same time so that the first person to open their gift of PJs didn’t spoil it for the second person and third. She enjoyed getting a bargain and once we all had opened our same gift she would tell us the price of it. I never knew whether to congratulate her on getting a bargain or for the giving me the same gift as Liz and Nette.

Girls Night In Memory:

About once a month a group of us ladies get together at someone’s home for “girls night in”. At GNI we chatter about our lives, laugh mostly and build our friendships. Recently at one GNI we were talking about tattoos and I said I was going to get one for my 50th Birthday and mum replied “over my dead body” – who knew. Anyway, Colette shared her beautiful tattoo tastefully decorating her back with the words “more than you ever know” which are special and final words from her own mother who has passed. As Colette told this story I watched my mother’s eyes fill with tears and decided I may do a similar tribute for my mum. In her final days mum was surrounded by people who loved her and cared for her in her illness and wanted to help her suffering, one of those “non-family” visitors was Kevin F, who I’ll describe as a man in uniform. Enough said. My mum loved Kevin F and on his final visit although she was very sick and becoming less and less responsive she did manage a smile and uttered “my handsome visitor”. My mum never spoke in my presence after that. So I am just saying here and now mum, you got your wish as in no way will I be tattooing “my handsome visitor over” my back.

The family had few words to say about her illness and summed up their thoughts in this address to cancer

It would be easy to remember you in my wife/our mother’s dying - we will not - we choose only to remember her living.

It would be easy to recall the pain and misery you brought to her life – we will not – as our moments of joy and laughter are plentiful and many

It would be easy to blame you for her death – we will not – in her illness we saw the great beauty of human kindness and our lives are richer for it

It would be easy to attribute our tears to your presence – we will not – our tears are filled with love for a life well led

It would be easy to hate you for what you are a vile and horrific disease – we will not – we will unite in our strength and we will join others and fight you every single day until you are defeated

You thought you would get all the attention – you did not – all the attention was on my wife/our mother and her strength and courage

You thought she would be scared and frightened – she was not – she was indifferent to you in her life, you did not scare her, she accepted you

You thought your ugliness would be revealed in her passing – it was not – she passed with great grace, peace and dignity held closely by her loved ones

You thought our loss would be your victory - You did not cause a loss – my wife lives on in our children and who they are today is because of who she was – there is no loss she lives forever in our hearts and souls.

Acknowledgements and thank-you:

Myra was looked after at home from November to April by her family. She went into Sarcee Hospice in those final days and whilst it was very sad for the family to hand-over the care of Myra they could not have asked for a better care team than the staff in the hospice. Special thank-you to Penny who was on shift and was able to help the family on Myra’s passing.

During her home care she was supported by the Palliative Home Care team and her primary nurse was Barb Kearns and the family appreciate the support, interest and care provided.

To all the staff at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre – thank-you for treating Myra with care, dignity and respect

To all the amazing staff and volunteers at the Canadian Cancer Society Alberta/NWT Division who gave her rides to treatment, you are unique and special people who want to fight cancer through helping others and we are glad she got to meet a few of you.

Thank-you to everyone who brought her gifts of love, flowers, presents and food, with special mention to Canadian Cancer Society staff member Joanne who made Myra home made soup so that she could continue the social aspect of enjoying a meal with her family when she was no longer able to eat solid food.

South Calgary Funeral Centre who have taken Myra into their care and helped plan her celebration of life.

Messages of remembrance may be left for the family in the Guest Book section of this website memorial. The family invites all who knew Myra to record their favorite Myra story.