Olive Rebecca McCall

Olive McCall, widow of Gordon McCall, Regina, Sask. died on July 7, 2005 at the age of 90 years. The funeral service was held in the Chapel of Tubman Funeral Home, Wolseley, Sask. on Monday, July 11, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. with Rev. Dr. Mark G. McKim officiating. Interment followed in the Wolseley Cemetery. The casket bearers were: Ian McCall, Carla Aitken, Warren McCall, Carolyn McCall, Murray Laverdiere and Lloyd Wilson.

the following is the eulogy as given by grandchildren: Ian McCall, Carla Aitken and Warren McCall.

IAN:

Friends and family of Olive McCall, we are gathered here today to pay our last respects to a dearly loved mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, sister-in-law, aunt, cousin and friend. We will miss you deeply, but we are grateful for the gift that you were to us and the long, full, contented life you led.

We want to celebrate your life and the gifts that you passed on to us. Grandma was a warm, loving person who was engaging and caring to her friends. Grandma maintained close friendships with her former work colleagues long after she retired. Grandma loved her family deeply and while hosting countless family dinners this love was very evident and alive. As her family, we really felt completely and unconditionally loved by grandma.

And while grandma was an example to us in how she made us feel loved, she was also an example to us in how she dealt with adversity in life. Widowed in her early 40's, grandma and our father left the farm, moved to Regina and sought further training to re-invent herself after such a tragic loss. The tragedy she faced did not conquer her, she conquered it. This has been an inspiration for me whenever I’ve faced dark times and challenges that threatened to overwhelm.

Grandma had a keen wit and sense of humour. This was the gift that endeared her to all of our spouses. Even in her advanced years Grandma’s wit was still lively. I remember visiting her at the Elmview Senior’s Home where she had moved in February, 2004. Grandma was sitting in the front row of their church service. At the end of the service the Priest asked grandma if she was catholic, she replied loudly, “Oh no, I’m not Catholic, but I’ve never had anything against them.” Grandma liked to laugh. Her home was a happy place.

CARLA:

There are so many memories that have made grandma who she was to us. We were her grandchildren and other than our dad there was no one more important to her.

Now there was a relationship, a mom and son who have seen it all and went through it always together. It speaks very highly of our Grandma to see the dedication and devotion that dad has had for her and other members of the family. Every Saturday, mom and dad go shopping for groceries at the Co-op and grandma went too. If we were cutting our lawn, we were cutting grandma’s...

As a child I spent most weekends with grandma, either Friday or Saturday night and our activities ranged from watching Dallas, going shopping downtown for nothing in particular, setting our hair in rollers, playing cribbage, to just talking, but the evening always ended with a slice of toast, usually cinnamon. Grandma taught me to polka in her tiny living room on Athol Street, how to iron on her tea towels and that clean nails were always important, especially when interviewing. Grandma took me to Wolseley by bus to visit great grandma and grandpa and for my grade 8 grad, took me to B.C. by train to see Aunt Elsie.

There were countless meals with the entire family crowded around grandma’s kitchen and Easter meals with family filling the living room. It was always good food, fun and laughter.

Grandma supported us in school, in music and in sports. I remember one year she decided to pay me $1 for every goal I made. By the end of the season, I made more than $100 and grandma didn’t offer again.

And being a great grandma didn’t stop with us. It extended to her great grandchildren: Madeline, Mathew, Joshua and Laura. A favorite picture has grandma kneeling under her kitchen table playing zoo with Madeline.

This was our grandma and we always knew we were important and loved because grandma showed us everyday.

WARREN:

So what made our grandma such a great person? She was born in 1915 in the R.M. of Montmartre, probably at home with mom and dad, Sam and Jane Wilson. Sam came from Scotland, Jane from Ontario. She was the second oldest of seven children - big sister Myrtle is here today, as is sister Mabel and sister-in-law Bertha. Norman, Vera, Cliff, Muriel, Rob and Tena, Roy, Gordon, Noel, Elsie, Neil and others have gone ahead to join that family circle in the sky which now has grandma too.

This is Saskatchewan’s Centennial year. There’s been a lot of thought and talk and celebration focusing on our province. I know I’ll sound like a biassed grandson when I say this, but I believe that grandma embodied much of what makes Saskatchewan great. Many of the values and virtues that Ian and Carla have talked about - hard work, humour, determination, concern for family and community - grandma shared these with the best of Saskatchewan. Here was a woman that was born in the middle of World War One. She married Gordon McCall in 1933, began the rigorous life of a farmer’s wife and gave birth to our Pa, Clifford Robert Douglas McCall in 1934 - all of this in the depths of the Dirty Thirties. She saw loved ones off into harm’s way in World War Two - Uncle Cliff, Uncle Norman, Les Wright and Uncle Roy. Uncle Roy who’s buried in northern Italy was killed fighting the Nazis while serving Canada. Alongside the trials and tribulations caused by these global events, there were more immediate, personal tragedies - the drowning death of Vera and her boy, illness in the family, hardships of making a living from farming - where there has only ever been two really good years, 1926, I believe and next year. But there was good times too - dances, cards, family gatherings and sports days. One of dad’s early memories is grandma and grandpa sitting on their porch on the farm, singing. And then came the fifties, the death of grandpa, the move to the city and the challenges and opportunities there.

And through all of this, through the good times and bad, grandma stayed strong and she kept on trucking. We’re Scottish, as you can tell - if this was the old country, she’d been the head of our wee clan. She learned certain lessons, took certain values from her times, from her family and friends. She was a member of the Credit Union and Sherwood Co-op until she died. She was a lifelong member of the United Church. And she was a card carrying member and supporter of the CCF/NDP right to the end, her involvement with the party dating back to its early days, back to watching Tommy Douglas give speeches off the back of a hay wagon at a picnic on the Fobar’s farm.

Grandma worked hard, she was frugal and she was tough - she was putting in her garden until just a few years ago. We loved grandma so very much and it is hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful human being. We are all better people for having had her in our lives. Grandma lived a good life, a full life - and her death brings to mind a passage of scripture from 2nd Timothy, Chapter 4, Versus 6 and 7. “For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.” Grandma, Olive McCall has departed this world, but she leaves so much with us who knew her, who learned from her, who loved her and were loved by her. Thank you for joining with us today in this time of mourning and celebration at the passing of Olive Rebecca McCall.

Besides her husband Gordon, Olive was predeceased by her parents Sam and Jane Wilson; grandson Neil McCall on December 3, 2003; brothers Norman and Clifford Wilson; sisters Vera Sluser and Muriel Wilson; sister-in-law Elsie Wilson and brothers-in-law: Noel Laverdiere, Horace Hinton, Robert (Tina) McCall and Roy McCall. She is survived by her son Doug (Carolyn), Regina; grandchildren: Ian (Ana) and their daughter Laura, London, England; Carla (Larry) Aitken and their family Matthew and Joshua, Prince Albert and Warren (Kelly), Regina; daughter-in-law Carolyn McCall and her daughter Madeline, Regina; sisters Myrtle Laverdiere, Wolseley and Mabel Hinton, Wolseley; sisters-in-law Bertha Wilson, Regina and Edith Greenwood, Langley, B.C. and also numerous nieces and nephews.

The funeral arrangements were entrusted to Wes Banbury of Tubman Cremation and Funeral Services, Wolseley, Saskatchewan, Canada, 1-800-667-8962.