Obituary of Velma Phyllis Henry

HENRY ~ Velma Phyllis Henry passed away at the Capital Care Lynnwood, Edmonton, Alberta on Monday, November 23, 2015 at the age of 88 years. Velma Henry leaves to mourn her passing: three daughters: Bev & Bruce Davidson, Debra & Marvin George and Bunny & Roy Empey; six grandchildren: Jill Davidson, Mark Davidson & Leslie Zilkowsky, Garth George & Courtney Williams, Blaine George, Jessica Empey, Blair & Kenzey Empey; and brother, Gordon Guy. Velma was predeceased by her parents, John and May; husband, Floyd; two sisters, Murial Hall and Audrey Kjelland and brother, George Guy. Donations in memory of Velma Henry may be made to Paradise Valley Cemetery Fund. McCaw Funeral Service, of Lloydminster, Alberta administered the funeral arrangements. Card of Thanks The family of Velma Henry would like to thank everyone for the beautiful flowers, for the food brought to our homes, for the visits, and to all those who made donations in memory of Mom. Special thanks to Brett for all the techi support you gave Jill and to Glenn and Dave for making Mom’s celebration of her life run so smoothly. Your care and comfort is above and beyond. Fred Sirrett - you are so good at your job. Mom had always said she would love to have you do her service. We thank you very much for making time to be with us. Your thoughtfulness at this time will never be forgotten. Eulogy for Velma Henry WOW! Nana would be so happy to see you all here. I could see her just cruising around saying hello to everyone. Today we celebrate the life of Velma Phyllis Guy Henry. She was a daughter to May and John Guy and a sister to Muriel, George, Gordon and Audrey. Today we would like to recognize her brother Gordon who was able to make the trip to celebrate her life. She was the wife to Floyd Henry and the mother to Bev, Debbie and Bunny. She was a mother-in-law to Bruce, Marvin and Roy. Velma was the nana to Jill, Garth, Mark, Blaine, Blair and Jess. She was the great-grandmother to six great grand dogs, and when we said that she would smile and shake her head. (Us grand kids fell behind on that one.) Velma's was a sister-in-law, an aunt, she was a friend and a co- worker to many. We thank you all of her treasured friends for being here today. Velma was born April 1927 where the average yearly income was $2,400, a new car cost $495 and a new house was $7682. A loaf of bread was only $0.09, a gallon of gas $0.12, a gallon of milk $0.56, gold sold for $20.67 and silver was $1.09 an ounce. In 1927 the life expectancy was 54 years. Velma was John and May's third child. Gordon recently told Velma she was her dad's favourite and her nick name was "Flop." This news made her so happy and she would beam with a huge smile and also laugh. She grew up in the Moyerton district, where the family were involved with farming, raising cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys and grain farming. Velma attended the Moyerton school which was a one room school house for grades 1-9. She always talked about the joy of Christmas gifts coming from Scotland because they were so poor. In 1941 the family moved to P.V where her dad John, brothers’ Gordon and George farmed and their family also owned the local Rehill Dairy. Nana delivered milk before school. Velma married Floyd Henry in 1949 and they were blessed with three daughters. Velma started driving a school bus in 1950 using the car as a bus. Floyd was a very busy trucker hauling cattle to Edmonton during the day and grain to the elevator at night. In 1957 they purchased and started Henry's general store. The girls learned at a very young age to work hard and they became very capable in the store. In 1965 the cabin at Laurier Lake was built. The girls spent many hours water skiing, swimming and entertaining. In 1967 Floyd had a severe heart attack and needless to say the workload for Velma and the girls increased. In 1972 Henry's store was sold and is presently the PV. Drop in Center. In 1975 tragedy hit and Floyd was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Velma sustained a head injury and a broken ankle which after several surgeries and was still not healing well. Debbie and Bruce both quit their jobs and returned to keep the businesses going. After a successful grafting of the ankle in Edmonton Velma returned to the love of bus driving. She continued to drive buses for 45 years from 1950 to 1995 and at age 65 she retired. In September 1995, Velma sold her home and relocated to a new home in Lloydminster one which she helped design and her biggest thrill was to have green grass. She wanted to have sod, pavement, edged flower beds and no more country dust. She loved her home and focused on her gardening. But soon this fidgety, hard-working gal became restless and wanted a job. Debbie signed her up with Sobeys and she was there for 20 years. Sobey's became the perfect job where she sampled food, visited with her old friends and gained many more new friends. She managed her section like it was her store and she worked about 35 hours a week where she stood for every shift. Bev called her Miss Mundare because she sampled so many hundreds of pounds of Mundare sausage. Then at the age of 84 Velma missed a shift. Even though she got the clot buster, this was a huge change for her as she had a stroke. Velma was then relocated to Edmonton where she lived out the remaining time we had with her. As she continued to age she never complained and always tried new things. Her smile would light up the room when you came to visit her. That would never get old because now she wasn't speaking as much. She loved going to The Keg where she felt spoilt drinking ginger ale out of wine glasses thinking she was drinking white wine and loved mashed potatoes. She passed on a lovely 100 year old chocolate cake recipe, she loved dancing and attending old time dances, and taught her girls after they finished cleaning the house on the weekends. She would toss the chicken dance on the record player and would show us grand kids how to do the chicken dance. Right till the end she loved to have her hair permed and cut, modern purple glasses and wearing nice clean clothes and being well groomed. As for us grandchildren there are many memories: At least one of her grandsons loves spicy food after this sauce disaster! There were numerous times where the little boys tasted Tabasco after swearing. Nana would line us up and when I say us - It was golden mark and angel garth and dump Tabasco into our mouths. To which I remember a reply of "is that the best you can do." Thanks Mark ya dummy! Cause now comes out the soap cheese grader technique with our teeth. I Think that’s the best she could do. Jess and Blair can remember Nana re organizing the house furniture and fridge. Coming in from the barn and trying to find a glass in the glass cupboard but the pots were there. Its amazing how much a woman of her age and stature could move. Nana would have numerous clocks so at the strike of the hour between bird songs, gongs, bells and whistles you knew it was the hour. Tough getting some sleep around there. Blair always like the fact that when Nana would talk to you she would dig into your neck, so then you would walk around protecting your neck, One of my best memories is dad crawling into bed with Nana after harvest. Brother Blaine was acting up in the night so mom went and crawled into bed with him. Dad came home and dropped the pants, popped the shirt off and began to crawl into bed. Just before laying down he looks and says “OH wow deb looks more like her mom every day.” Then it all came together…. Holy cow I almost crawled into bed with Nana. Whew. Blaine he talks about the night that nana got into the wrong pills and got a little wound up and was cruising around the house at all hours of the night. Blaine nicked named her Turbo and it stuck. Jill thanks Nana for teaching her for the work ethics she gave her. Jill would come see her and could remember her smile and her eyes how they would light up. Nana thank you for your knowledge, your love of birds, the way you cared for your personal items and talked kindly about your friends. Nana we also thank you for your gingerbread cookies, your hard work ethic and your standards as you have passed these same traits on to many of us.