Obituary of Louise Turcotte-Hrynchuk

Louise Turcotte’s Eulogy

You can always tell where a beautiful soul has been by the tears and the smiles left behind.

Louise Turcotte was born on August 6, 1932 to Elphege and Malvina Courchesne in Chauvin, Alberta.  She was the second youngest in a large family and she is the last one in her family called to our heavenly home by the Lord.  Mémère’s family all grew up on a farm in the Chauvin area.

At age 16, while helping one of her older sisters, Juliette, with babysitting and harvest chores, she met a handsome farmhand working on Juliette and Rene Larouche’s farm.  They fell in love and were married on June 7, 1949.  She was to be Lionel’s loving wife and partner for the next 45 years until God called Pépère home in November 1994.

Together, they raised 9 children starting out on a small grain farm 3 miles SE of Chauvin raising cattle, pigs, chickens, etc.. as well as Mémère’s huge gardens to feed us all.  Fourteen years later, Mémère & Pépère bought the original Courchesne farm north of Chauvin and moved there on March 26, 1963 on Faye’s (my mom’s) 13th birthday.  As a young mom, cooking, cleaning, canning and sewing her children’s clothes was just part of Mémère’s daily routine.

Hard work, dedication and love is what helped and made it work when raising their 9 children.  As a result, today, their family has grown to a legacy of 23 grandchildren & 17 great grandchildren.  A beautiful large family and Mémère’s heart had ample love to make us all feel special to her.

Mémère & Pépère were always active in their parishes and communities in Chauvin and later in Lloydminster.  Mémère was an active member of the CWL in Chauvin and continued on after 1985 with the Lloydminster CWL.  She also volunteered as a Eucharistic Minister to distribute communion to seniors in the nursing homes and hospital.  Louise volunteered many hours to help organize luncheons for countless funerals over the years.  She was president at the Legacy Senior Center for quite a few years as well as president of her condo association. She did not back away from responsibility and took her roles very seriously.

Mémère was active in many sports activities over the years suck as curling, lawn bowling, dancing, playing cards etc., and she enjoyed these very much.  Usually her social calendar much busier than any of ours.

Mémère and Pépère enjoyed their retirement years in Lloydminster, keeping very active, until cancer was part of Pépère’s last 7 years.  Mémère was his loving caregiver without a complaint.  Faye remembers her dad’s last words to her.  He said “I will miss all of your kids, but I will miss Mom the most.”  What a beautiful testimony to their marriage.

In 1998 Mémère remarried Mike Hrynchuk (a friend who has also lost his loving wife of 45 years).  They had some very good years of companionship, travel active roles in the senior’s center until Alzheimer’s claimed Mike’s life in 2014.  Another heart break for Mémère.

Mémère lived through a bout of colon cancer in the early 2000’s.  Then two brain stem strokes within the past 10 years eventually lead to different stages of dementia/Alzheimer and the loss of her speech ability (one of the most difficult things for us to accept as her family).

Although our list could go on endlessly, some of the memorable moments or favorite memories of her children are:

Her unwavering faith – She always trusted that God was in charge of her family.  She had a very close affinity to Mary, our heavenly mother, and said countless rosaries for her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, relatives and friends for as long as she was physically able to.
Her charitable soul for donating her time and money whenever and wherever she could make a difference.  She taught us that is always comes back in blessings tenfold.
Her son-in-law’s remember she would ALWAYS make their favorite meals or dessert whenever they came for a visit.
Her famous tourtierre – Joelle says it took some maneuvering and very close observation to obtain mom’s recipe down pat.  The trick was that Pépère was the official taste tester for the exact right spice combination.  I am happy to say with Joelle’s guidance, I made my very first giant tourtierre this year and feel I did you proud Mémère.
Her immense love of flowers – Flowers made her happy.

Maya Angelou once said, “ your eyes should light up every time your children walk in the room.”  This was true for Louise.  Always so happy to see her children or grandchildren.  Each of us treated as special and loved as the other one.  Each putting more sparkle in her blue eyes.

She never forgot anyone’s birthdays or anniversaries.  Always so organized.  We remember as young grandchildren her having wrapped us all individual gifts for Christmas.  Usually a box of chocolates with money taped on it.  No one ever forgotten and yet so many of us.

For us grandchildren our most precious of memories were from our large family gatherings.  Children sleeping in every corner, on couches, or under pool table forts.  Everyone excited from Grandma’s homemade soup or even better traditional Boxing Day tourtierre.  One time I had come into the kitchen as Mémère was just finishing making some soup for all of us.  She was worried she didn’t have enough and was in the process of opening 3-4 cans of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup to add to her pot of homemade soup.  The look of horror on my face was akin to solving the mystery of Santa Claus. I said “Mémère!! Is this how you’ve been making your soup the whole time?!!”  Mémère all of your food tasted like love made It, from marshmallow squares to big turkey dinners.  All of it delicious!

We remember, and most of us still have the afghans you made for us.  We remember endless candy bows of werthers, caramels, mints and those mini mystery wrapped candies.  Your well-kept beautiful garden that you let us grandkids pick clean of peapods and strawberries in summer weeks spent at your house.

Our memories involve a variety of things for each of us grandchildren such as;

Plastic flowers in outdoor flower pots
Silly denture less kisses
Fruit loops and Corn pops
Afternoons at Bud Miller Park
Lawn bowling
Getting halls as treats
How much you loved singing at church
You putting Javex on bee/wasp stings
Collecting eggs from the coop with you
Your distinct laugh
Flats of Co-op pop hidden under the stairs saved as treats for us.
Your beautiful flowers
The way your hands looked, and how they felt on ours
 And, your absolute selflessness.

Mémère, Grandma, Mom, we will miss you so very much as you join Jesus in Heaven.  We know a beautiful celebration is being held there with all the ones who love you there.

Pray for us, your family and watch over us.  We love you!

Que je me retrouve, une journée, dans ton embrace au ciel, ma belle Mémère.

Louise Turcotte-Hrynchuk passed away at the Lloydminster Hospital on Thursday, August 31, 2017 at the age of 85 years.

Louise leaves to mourn her passing: her children, Faye (Leon) Mercier, Dianne (Jim) Berling, Guy (Dawn) Turcotte, Neil (Sue) Turcotte, Bert (Lorna) Turcotte, Joelle (Walker) Rogers, Celine (Barry Wahlberg, Luc (Brenda) Turcotte, Lynette McDonald; her grandchildren: Monique (Ravi) Pandarinath, Marc Mercier (Lisa Barry), Gisele (Jeffery) Brawn,  Shannyn (Ryan) Morphy, Aimee (Alex) Lowe,  Paula Turcotte, Joe Turcotte, Tom Turcotte, Alex Turcotte; Sara Turcotte, Jamie Trickett, Leeza Turcotte, Kegan Turcotte, Melissa Trickett, Dynelle (Sean) Dunn, Justin (Jacey) Turcotte, Tiffany Rogers, Bryce Rogers, Andrea (Tyler) Warawa, Mitch (Lisa) Wahlberg, Peyton Turcotte, Reid Turcotte and Hunter McDonald; and her 17 great grandchildren.

Louise was predeceased her husbands, Lionel Turcotte and Mike Hrynchuk and all of her brothers and sisters.

The Prayer Vigil for Louise will be held at St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, Lloydminster, Alberta on Monday, September 4, 2017 at 7:00 PM.

Mass of Christian Burial for Louise will be conducted from St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, Lloydminster, Alberta on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 at 1:45 PM.

Donations in memory of Louise may be made to the Alzheimer Society or Charity of Choice.

Louise's funeral card can be viewed or downloaded from the link below.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/5d578ec1-a132-4aab-afb9-67977d6c4211