Obituary of Ruth Cutsforth

CUTSFORTH: Ruth Cutsforth passed away on Friday, January 11, 2008 at the Regina General Hospital, Regina, Saskatchewan at the age of 85 years. Ruth is survived by: four daughters: Gayle and her husband Terry Risling of Medicine Hat, Marjorie and her husband Craig Marchinko of Regina, Shelley and her husband Greg Sentes of Milestone, Verna Serbet of Maidstone; eight grandchildren: Mandy and her husband Justin Weiss of Medicine Hat, Misti and her husband Jeff Henfrey of Regina, Lindsay and her husband Rob Zentner of Regina, Sarah Marchinko and Daniel Marchinko of Regina, Tara Risling and her husband Kevin Marshall of Calgary, Megan Risling of Medicine Hat and Ryan Serbet of Maidstone; four great grandchildren: Dane and Maya Weiss, Brielin Henfrey and Rebecca Zentner; her brother Harold and Frances Wiltermuth of Maidstone; two sisters: Lora Shaw of Osoyoos, Freida Harlton of Edmonton as well as numerous other relatives and friends. Ruth was predeceased by her husband Wallace Neil Cutsforth on December 7, 1990; two brothers and four sisters. The funeral service for Ruth was conducted from the Maidstone United Church, Maidstone, Saskatchewan on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 11:00 A.M. with Reverend Ean Kasper officiating. The hymns sung were "Peace Is Flowing Like A River," and "The Old Rugged Cross," accompanied on the organ by June Frank. The Maidstone United Church Choir was also in attendance. Special CD music "Will You Remember Me," and "I Have A Dream," was played. Active pallbearers were: Craig Marchinko, Terry Risling, Greg Sentes, Rob Zentner, Jeff Hanfrey and Justin Weiss. Interment followed in the Maidstone Cemetery. McCaw Funeral Service Ltd., of Lloydminster administered the funeral arrangements. The eulogy: Ruth Wiltermuth was born June 24, 1922 at Hilda, Alberta and left this world on January 11, 2008, surrounded by her children and grandchildren at the General Hospital in Regina, Saskatchewan. Ruth married Neil Cutsforth on October 21, 1950. Her loving memory will be cherished by her four children, Gayle, husband, Terry Risling of Medicine Hat, Marjorie , (also known as Jeri) husband Craig Marchinko of Regina, Shelley, husband Greg Sentes of Milestone, and Verna Serbet (also known as Ernie) of Maidstone. Her legacy of love will live on through her grandchildren and great grandchildren: Mandy and Justin Weiss , their children Dane and Maya; Misti and Jeff Henfrey, their daughter Brielin, Lindsay and Robin Zentner, their daughter Rebecca, Tara Risling and her husband, Kevin Marshall, Sarah Marchinko, Daniel Marchinko, Ryan Serbet, Megan Risling She is survived by her brother : Scotty and his wife Curly Wiltermuth of Maidstone and sisters: Lora Shaw of Osoyoos, B.C., and Frieda Harlton of Edmonton; sisters-in-law Grace Cutsforth, Margaret Cutsforth, Alice Wrigh, Masardy Wiltermuth and Karyn Brown, brothers-in-law Butch Cutsforth and Jim Brown. She will be fondly remembered by her many nieces and nephews, especially Bill and Lori Cutsforth and their family. Jann Arden sang: I've got a good mother and her voice is what keeps me here. Feet on ground. Heart in hand. Facing forward. Our mother was loved by all those who met her. Even in her last days, when she went by ambulance to the hospital, the paramedics told Lindsay that her grandmother was a very special person and they couldn't believe how she kept her sense of humour, even in the darkest of times. This was Mom. She was a bit smitten with the actor, Patrick Dempsey, (you know Dr. McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy) and while she was in the hospital we put a picture of him on her wall. She laughed about it as all the female nurses commented, however, she noted that the males never said anything. Her sense of humour was still with her on Thursday afternoon when I was feeding her some frozen yogurt. She was, at this time, unable to speak, however, made it clear to me that I was feeding her wrong and that Jeri or Ernie should be doing it. I asked her if she was firing me and she nodded 'yes' and smiled. Mom always looked for, and found, the good in everything, every situation and everyone with whom she came in contact. She never became bitter or hardened by life's difficulties, which is one of the things I most admired about her. Throughout these last years when often times her pain would make it difficult for her to walk, talk, eat or sometimes even to breathe, she managed to hold on with grace and a pride which never left her. I had the privilege of asking my Mom some questions to put into a family book I was putting together. I would like to share some of those things with you now. Mom's favourite colour was blue, but she said she really didn't dislike any color. She always wanted to wear yellow, but thought it looked awful on her. She loved all flowers, but red roses were her favourite. Her favourite singer was Charlie Rich. Her favourite possessions are her dolls and her pens. When she was young, Mom's favourite part of going to school was the holidays when they would make decorations for the windows. All the decorations were made of paper and she laughed when she told me about them because she remembers them so fondly, however, also remembers that they were actually rather unattractive. This love of making things remained with her throughout her life and she would spend many hours with her ceramics and knitting. She loved making all kinds of crafts with her grandchildren. All the grandchildren have commented that making crafts with Grandma is one of their best memories of the time they spent with her. Mom had a special memory of a trip she took with her parents to visit her Aunt Lizzie in Veteran, Alberta. It was late fall and they travelled in a Model T. It was very warm for that time of year and you had to take the windows completely out for ventilation. Then, as the day went on and it cooled down, you had to stop and put the windows back in. She said she was glad they never ran into any rain coming up quickly or they all would have been soaked. She spoke often of trips she had taken with Gayle and her family, or Jeri and Craig, such as Newfoundland, Minneapolis, the mountains in Alberta and B.C, and to visit her sister, Lora, in Osoyoos. In July of this year I took her to Saskatoon to See 'Mama Mia' which she really loved and the song, 'I Have a Dream', which we just heard is from that musical and that is when she chose it as a song to be played at her funeral. She enjoyed the outdoors, the lakes, hills and ROCKS. Whenever she went somewhere she would pick up rocks. When any of us went somewhere rocks were brought home to Mom. Even when she was out walking she was always looking for shapes or faces in rocks, or different colors of rock. She has quite a collection. Her family's main form of entertainment when she was growing up was visiting with neighbours and relatives. This continued throughout her life as spending time with family and friends remained one of her most cherished activities. She always looked forward to her visits with Uncle Scotty every Sunday morning for coffee and to going over to his house for one of his wonderfully prepared meals. She also enjoyed visiting, shopping and many other activities with Lori, whom she often referred to as her 'fifth' daughter'. The other activity that Mom particularly loved was baseball. She fondly remembers her days of playing softball and watched baseball on television all her life. I think if she could have, she would have played it all her life as well. She enjoyed watching and/or hearing about her grandchildren and their activities: Misti's choral trips and baseball, Ryan bowling, Lindsay and Brielin dancing, Sarah and Daniel playing soccer, Tara, Mandy and Megan speed skating , Dane playing hockey and she was especially pleased that Megan has such an interest in baseball. When Mom was a child her favourite playmate was her sister, Lora. She had a very busy childhood, what with the large family and all the farm chores, that she had very little time to herself, but she liked to sneak away and read in her room or go outside on a hill and watch the clouds. She continued to watch the clouds throughout her life. When we were driving to Regina last month we were picking out animals, faces and shapes in the clouds. She treasured all her friendships, especially with Hettie, May and Doreen. Barb has been an extraordinarily wonderful neighbour and friend to Mom over all the years we have known her. When she was growing up, Mom's family expected her to be a wife and mother, however, she always dreamed of being a teacher. Mom's teacher, Mary Chisholm (nee Donovan) was a person she greatly admired. She inspired Mom to become a teacher. Mom considered her greatest accomplishment was graduating high school and then attending Normal school in Saskatoon and earning her permanent teaching certificate. She was the only child in her family of 10 to attain higher education. Mom taught for 10 years at a variety of one room school houses in the North Battleford area, including Radisson, Borden and Dee Valley near Maidstone, where she taught all grades from one through ten. She always preferred the 'little ones', but she obviously had an impact on the older children as well because about 8 years ago she received a telephone call from a former student, who looked her up because he wanted to tell her how much effect she had had on his life and that he had always admired and respected her. This phone call came almost fifty years after she had taught him - that's the kind of person she was. While Mom was not employed as a teacher after she was married, she remained a teacher her whole life. She was always inspiring those around her to grow, experience and learn all they could. Mom met Dad, when she was teaching at Dee Valley School in 1948. I asked Mom what originally attracted her to Dad and she giggled and said 'well, he was pretty cute back then'. He gave her a diamond engagement ring and they were married on October 21, 1950 and she was wearing a blue satin wedding dress. She kept this dress for many years and I used to play dress up with my sister, Verna and we would wear the dress. Unfortunately, while we were living in Regina, Gayle was home visiting with a pregnant cat and the cat decided to have her litter on Mom's wonderfully soft satin dress. So, needless to say, we lost the dress, but not before Mom made doll clothes out of the remnants. I have a love of clothes and following discussions with Mom she told me she always liked to wear stylish clothes. While she was teaching, she loved to go shopping and get new clothes. So, I guess I got my clothes fetish from her. She told me that it was okay - that I could blame her for that one. She remained a lover of stylish things and spoke several times about how she thought Andrew should give her a tattoo. Jeri, Mom and I got temporary tattoos at the fair a couple of years ago, but she never got around to the real thing. Her love of shopping was passed on to her children and grandchildren and she was always up for a shopping trip anywhere - whether it was Field's here in Maidstone, the mall in Medicine Hat, Lloyd or Regina. Over the past few years Mom and I had the wonderful opportunity to take several shopping trips to Edmonton. We loved finding bargains and I would put her in a wheelchair so that we could shop longer. One year we got lost while Mom was navigating the map and we laughed and laughed because while we didn't know where we were, there was a store on the street, so we went in and then found out how to get back to our hotel. The last of these trips was in 2006 when we had the car's backseat and trunk completely full of treasures we had purchased. She was saddened when she wasn't well enough this past summer to go on an Edmonton shopping trip. The last shopping excursion we had was the Monday before she went into the hospital. Lindsay and I wheeled her around the Southland Mall in Regina for a while and we went out for lunch at Smitty's where she always loved the strawberry waffles. All of these things made up who our mother was, but the one thing that she told me, and I quote "I live for the kids, just spending time with them". Now, I'm sure that doesn't surprise any of you. She loved the children, all of the children and they loved her. She spent countless hours playing games with her grand and great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Whenever it rained Mom would recall her and Ryan making toothpick boats and sailing them down the street gutters. I'm sure more than one deck of Uno Cards has been ruined and the printing almost worn off of the rummy tiles over the years from games played with children and grandchildren. It was so hard on her this last year because she wasn't able to pick up Rebecca or to crawl around on the floor with the other great grandchildren. I could continue with stories about this incredible, loving woman, but I know you all have your own special memories and thoughts. Please share these with our family and friends. Jeri put together this group of flowers from her garden - strawflowers represent everlasting love, rosemary is for remembrance and baby's breath is for the innocence Mom always found in everyone. These four stones represent the four stages of life. A family is a group of people linked by love who have learned to live, laugh and sometimes cry, together even though they may be quite different. There is a magic bond and many shared experiences binding us no matter how far we stray. My mother's family included friends of all ages and we were blessed to have known her. Our mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, friend is a part of us and she will be with us all forever. Mom, your pain is gone, and we are glad that you can now rest in peace. Your family and friends will cherish your memory and take care of one another, so you need not worry about any of us. Good bye precious lady, we will miss you until we meet again. Card of Thanks The family of Ruth Cutsforth expresses heartfelt thanks to the following persons and/or organizations for their kind and compassionate care of their mother: EMT's and Paramedics from Milestone and Regina, the staff of Regina General Hospital Unit 6F, Dr. Gavin Daniels, Reverend Ean Kasper. Gratitude is extended to June Franks, the Maidstone United Church Choir, UCW and McCaw Funeral Service. The cards, flowers and generous care packages which were received from the community members were greatly appreciated. Donations may be made to the Kidney Foundation or to a Charity of the Donor's Choice.