Jean Elizabeth Tiffin

21 Oct 1920 - 11 May 2023

The Blue Jays have lost one of their most ardent supporters but the Barker sisters are together again. Jean Elizabeth Tiffin (nee Barker) passed away peacefully at Oliver Lodge on 11 May 1923 with her family by her side. The last of her generation, Jean was born in Saskatoon and grew up in the Blucher District. That was where she found her love for baseball, having played on a girls softball team. When her father left the farm, she and her sisters moved with him to Saskatoon where she met her future sister-in-law Marion. Before marriage Jean and Marion travelled together. She never really talked about it but a look at her photo album shows places like Vancouver, Victoria, Montreal, Niagara Falls, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Is it any wonder she had no problem in her 80s flying to Toronto or taking a bus to Seattle to see the Blue Jays play? Or later taking trips to Mexico and Hawaii. When Jean married Andy she moved west of the city. Jean and Andy spent many hours working side by side renovating their house on the farm to make it a home. Along with raising her family she proceeded to begin raising chickens that produced award winning eggs much to the chagrin of competing neighbours with a large chicken operation. She sold these and the chickens on her weekly route in Saskatoon. It was much like having a route for a milkman. This of course lead to the famous chicken moving parties each fall attended by neighbours, friends and relatives. The Barker siblings were a close family and family gatherings were frequent, even when they weren't moving chickens. The Tiffin farm was often the place where everyone gathered including friends and neighbours as well, to discuss the state of the crops, play cards or maybe just to move chickens. Andy passed away in 1997 but Jean wouldn't hear of leaving the farm. She'd already had one shoulder replaced but she had her huge garden and riding tractor mower so she wasn't going anywhere. There was water to be hauled for the cistern and the garden. And there was always firewood to be put up for the winter to keep that old heater in the kitchen going. I wonder how many 83 year old women show up at emergency with a chain saw injury after driving themselves to town? The worst thing was she ruined a new pair of gloves. It wasn't until 2005 that she finally decided to retire and moved into an apartment in Saskatoon. Finding that perfect apartment with a view could of course only be done by the three Barker girls as a team. She often said maybe she should have made the move sooner. There she made many lasting friendships. She also had her second shoulder replaced. She gave up driving in 2010 but that didn't mean she stopped bowling, now she took the bus. It wasn't until 2018 that she agreed to move into an Independent Living facility. Now it was she and her daughter-in-law Diane that checked them out and she chose The Franklin. There she lived quite happily watching her sports and commiserating with her friend Bonnie about the state of the Blue Jay's pitching. By December 2021 she had become quite frail and after a brief hospital stay, resulting from a fall, she moved to Oliver Lodge where she had always hoped to be able to go, having been a generous donor to the facility.

We would especially like to thank the staff at Oliver Lodge for the excellent care she received there. We spent a lot of time with her during her last days there and spent a fair amount of time talking to staff who obviously cared deeply for her. We took to asking them a simple question. "Did she strike you as being an independent person?". The response was almost always the same, they laughed and would proceed to tell us how much they loved her spirit and that she knew what she wanted and didn't want and wasn't afraid to say so.

Jean was predeceased by her parents Roger Barker and Jessie(Stockman), siblings and spouses Reg Barker(Cathy), Henry Barker(Vee), Ida Baillod(Harvey), Myrtle Camp(Don) and of course George who found them later in life. She is survived by children Joe(Diane) and Marcia(Dave), grandchildren Tiffiny(Ed), Alicia & Jeremy(Anna) and great grandchild Kaleb and numerous nieces and nephews.

Those we love don't go away. They walk beside us every day. Unseen, unheard but always near.

Still loved, very missed and oh so dear.