Michaelena Hickman

Our family celebrates the life and mourns the passing, on Sunday, February 26th, of Mickie Hickman, née Semeniuk . Born November 20th 1926 in Goodeve, Saskatchewan. Mickie passed peacefully in the loving embrace of her children and grandchildren. She was the daughter of John and Sophie Semeniuk. Mickie was pre-deceased by her beloved husband of 31 years, John B. Hickman, by sisters Ann and Olga (“Sammie”) and brother Peter.

Mickie was a remarkably determined person: if she set her mind to something, it would happen. As a young woman of 18 years, financed partly with the proceeds from sales of eggs filched from the family farm, she left the prairies, on her own, to study nursing at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. She graduated in 1949 at the age of 23 and, in 1955, married John Hickman from Grand Bank, Newfoundland.

In 1957, the young family moved to Halifax, where Mickie resumed her nursing career while raising her four children. In 1969, she earned a Diploma in Public Health Nursing from Dalhousie University. She continued to practise her profession at the Halifax Infirmary, the provincial Department of Health and, from 1975 until her retirement in 1987, at Camphill Hospital as Assistant Head Nurse and then Infection Control Officer.

After her retirement from active practice, Mickie served as a member of both the Nova Scotia Residential Tenancies Board and the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

While she enjoyed sewing, knitting and crafting, Mickie’s true passion and joy was to dote on her children and grandchildren, all of whom she loved dearly and for whom she spared nothing. She is survived, with great and abiding love, by her children Brenda VanDerVoort (Blake) of Middle Sackville, Bernice Edwards (Chris) of Rothesay NB, Beverley Southcott (Steve) of Dartmouth and Brent Hickman (Kathy) of Timberlea; grandchildren Jeff and Kelley VanDerVoort, Mickie and Margaret Edwards, John Southcott, and Ben and Laura Hickman; and sister Sophie Kowalchuk of White City SK.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to the team at the QEII Hospital Halifax Infirmary site.

Visitation will be from 2-4 pm and 7-9 pm on Thursday, March 9th at the J.A. Snow Funeral Home, 339 Lacewood Drive, Halifax. The funeral service will be conducted on Friday, March 10th at 12:30 pm at Fort Massey United Church, 5303 Tobin Street, Halifax. Donations in memory of Mickie may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or a charity of the donor's choice.