Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Smith

It is with the utmost sadness that we announce the untimely demise of Elizabeth Ann Smith on November 8, 2022 in Saskatoon, SK. Untimely? At 95? Well, yes. We all kinda thought she would live forever. Elizabeth Ann Gerrand was second youngest child of Ernest and Edith (Shields) and sibling to Roberta (Backman), Walter, Ruth (Burns), Jack, Donald and Carol. She is survived by brother Gerald and sister-in-law Ella, sister Linda (Jurg); her children Richard, Robert (Valerie) and Susan (Ross), granddaughter Sydney (Jim), and many cherished nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews, cousins and friends.

Elizabeth defined living well. She had a class about her that's from a bygone generation. She loved entertaining more than anything, from picnics and pool parties to holidays spent with family and friends. She always decorated for the season, from springtime Easter pastels to perfectly trimmed Victorian-era Christmas trees. Elizabeth dressed to the nines every day and went all out with everything she put her mind to. Throughout her 80s and early 90s, she hosted many parties. Three weeks before she passed away, she had a big family party for her 95th birthday and was surrounded by those she cared for the most one last time.

Elizabeth Gerrand was born in Melville, SK on October 19, 1927. She spoke highly of her hometown and, always the storyteller, many of her favorite tales were from her childhood in Melville. She fondly remembered events like attending the opening of the Saskatchewan Legislature in 1935, when her father became an MLA. Elizabeth said the best years of her life were spending her summers at Katepwa Lake with her younger brother Gerry.

When she came to Saskatoon in the late 1940s, she went to Saskatoon Business College and took a course to become a Social Director for Cruise Ships, showing an early love of business, adventure, and creativity. She started her career at Woolworth's, then went to the Broadway Variety Store. She took her coffee breaks at the Red Robin Cafe, and this is where she met the son of the cafe's owners, Harvey Stephen Smith.

Harvey and Elizabeth were married in 1955, and shortly after, they moved into the home they designed and built together on Garrison Crescent in the new neighborhood of Grosvenor Park. There was something so special about being in that house, it was full of treasures, art, antiques and collectibles, but it was also homey and warm.

In 1963-1964, Harvey became the president of the Canadian Restaurant Association, and Elizabeth and Harvey truly embraced the bourgeoning jet set lifestyle, going everywhere from Majorca to Machu Pichu. She always said the best education was to travel.

In the 1970s, Elizabeth and Harvey divorced, but Elizabeth never felt that as a woman she had any less of a right to have a seat at the table. She often reflected in her senior years on how proud she was to seek her independence and become a business owner. In the early 1970s, she became the co-owner of Cuisine Enterprises, along with Fred Assaly, whose family she had met through her time working at the Broadway Variety Store. Through Cuisine, Fred and Elizabeth opened Topside Cafeteria, a boat-shaped restaurant in the former Army and Navy department store in downtown Saskatoon. With a keen business sense and an eye for new trends, she was always playing with new concepts. She brought discotheque to western Canada in the mid-1970s when they opened Fast Freddie's in the Parktown Hotel. After disco "came alive very quickly and died very quickly" as Elizabeth would say, she didn't let it stop her drive to bring new entertainment trends to her beloved Saskatchewan. She went on to operate the Artful Dodger English Pub and Mad Mary's amongst others, but her disco memories remained amongst her fondest, she still danced to the Bee Gees right until the very end.

With Elizabeth, there was never a dull moment. She loved having fun on a whim. Even as she aged, she always had something she was busy planning or a goal to achieve; in her late 80s she decided to knit 100 baby blankets for the soon-to-­open Children's Hospital in Saskatoon. She continued her Christmas baking blitzes well into her 90s, making trays of baking for friends and family near and far.

Her three children, then eventually her granddaughter, were the most important things in the world to her. She formed deep and lasting bonds with each one of us; we weren't just her family, we were her friends too. Throughout her lifetime she always had close, dear friends that spanned multiple generations. As she slowed down the last few years, she made sure to share wise words of wisdom, love and support with us often. Ever the social butterfly, she welcomed meeting new friends at Circle Drive Special Care Home for the last three years of her life. She always bragged that the staff treated her like a queen; she loved the daily activities and said she felt like she was 'at the spa' when the staff would do her nails and hair and pamper her.

Elizabeth's family would like to express gratitude to those that enriched her life in her final years, especially through the difficult pandemic period; Nancy, Donna, Carol, Frances, David, Annette, Jamie, Sean, Kirsten and staff at Circle Drive Special Care Home (you know who you are). In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations in Elizabeth's memory to the Recreation Department of Circle Drive Special Care Home, 3055 Preston Avenue South, Saskatoon, SK S7T 1C3.

Elizabeth may be gone, but she had an everlasting spirit that will never, ever be forgotten. RIP!

A family interment will take place in spring of 2023.

Arrangements entrusted to Aime Laventure.