May Ida Gillam Cooper

The Coolen, Cooper and Gillam families wish to announce the peaceful passing of May Ida Gillam Cooper, after a short battle with dementia, at the age of 83, in the Berkeley on Green St., Halifax, Nova Scotia on January 18th, 2017. May was predeceased by her parents, Solange Marie (Etcheverry) and Michael Philip Gillam of St. Pierre and Miquelon, France; her first husband, Richard James Maurice Coolen, Halifax, N.S. and her second husband, Herbert William Edwin “Bert” Cooper, LaHave, N.S.; her brothers Ruben (Peggy) Gillam, Coleman’s Cove, N.S and Howard “Mike” (Florence) Gillam, Montreal. P.Q.; her son David James Coolen, Halifax, N.S. and her daughter, Heather Ann Nazar (Laurence Lighter), Niagara on the Lake, Ontario.

May had successful careers in retail sales, office administration, bookkeeping, and real estate (being the top agent in the Maritimes for her company for several years) and following her retirement explored her artistic passions with successful new careers, as an artist and for a decade, as the owner and operator, of Fort Point Art Gallery, Lahave. In her fifties, May developed a fascination with sailing and in her fifties, took up welding and welded the steel hull and helped build, with Bert, their dream sail boat, the “Hearts’ Content” which they sailed, for more than a decade, to The Labrador, P.E.I and Newfoundland in summer and Florida and the Bahamas in winter before retiring to Lahave, N.S and North Fort Myers, Florida.

May was a devoted friend, supportive mentor, loving mother and step-mother and an affectionate grandmother and great-grandmother to all “her children”. She was creative and proactive, courageous and energetic, calm and reflective, realistic and always open-minded, non-judgemental supportive and positive and encouraged others to live their lives in the same way.

At May’s request there will be no funeral service; she will be laid to rest with her daughter, Heather and brother, Ruben in Coleman’s Cove, N.S. and with her mother and her beloved Bert in Camp Hill Cemetery. A summer gathering will be announced at a later date to celebrate her life.

Each and every day May’s spirit will live forever in the hearts of her dear friends and her family and may we learn from the example May set for us how to live each day to the fullest.