SHEILA PINKERTON

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SHEILA PINKERTON
December 1949 - April 2019

It is with deep sadness that the family of Sheila Sue Pinkerton announce her passing on April 3, 2019.
Sheila was born December 16, 1949 to John and Lillian (Engemoen) Pinkerton in Canora, SK, the sixth of eight children. She attended school in Canora - Class of 1967, always enjoying returning for reunions with friends and family. Music was a huge part of her life both at home and school including church and school choirs. At university she took part in many drama productions, attending a summer program at Banff Centre of the Arts. She completed a Bachelor of Arts and certification in Education at the University of Saskatchewan. She later studied Drama Therapy at Concordia University, living in and near Montreal for 15 years, perfecting her French and loving Quebecois culture. She moved to Calgary in 1989, earning her Master of Fine Arts in Theatre. She moved to Winnipeg in 1998, living in Bluestem Housing Coop. Her professional career included work as a teacher, counsellor, facilitator of drama groups with diverse populations, case manager and manager in the Social Services, most recently with New Directions for Children, Youth, Adults and Families.
She first knew David van Vliet, among a group of university friends in Saskatoon and re-met David while they were both studying in Calgary, falling in love and marrying. They enjoyed many adventures over their 24 years together, becoming grandparents, travelling, and visiting family and friends. They had many more adventures planned.
She has always had an involvement with story and storytelling, possibly stemming from her large family where story was the currency. She was active in the Manitoba Storytelling Guild, supporting their diverse projects whether through telling stories or accompanying others in expressing their own stories. She believed stories are a potent vehicle for sharing memory, culture, values, and teachings and for building relationship and community. Her work in puppetry was another medium for storytelling to children, and which she performed in schools, libraries and community centres.
Sheila belonged to three choirs in Winnipeg. She loved reading, spending time at lakes, gardening and cooking and particularly playing with her grandchildren. She had a great gift of being able to connect with children, a creative, wise and gentle matriarch to all.
Sheila was a devoted and active member of the Bahá'i community for nearly 50 years. Being the focus of her life she was engaged with local community activities in four provinces. First in the Saskatoon community, the Montreal region, Calgary and Winnipeg. She will be sorely missed for her beautiful singing voice, for her creative story-telling, for her teaching of children, for her sensitive, principled and wise contributions in consultations and her enthusiastic support of community activities.
Sheila's character and personality were a seeming contradiction of qualities, making her so endearing to those who came to know her. She could be earnestly pragmatic and then delightfully irreverent; she could express profound ideals and then find joy in the trivial; she could sincerely empathize with someone's sorrow and grief and then soothe them with heartwarming tales of the heart. She brought these qualities to all the things that she did and made them all the more rich.
Sheila was predeceased by her parents, John and Lillian, sister Patricia, and brother John. She is lovingly remembered by her devoted husband, David van Vliet (Winnipeg); stepchildren, Robin, Owain (Andrea) and Myfanwy (Blake); cherished grandchildren, Henry, Marlowe, Evelyn, Ilya and Susanna; sisters, Shirley Fagundo, Louise (Ken) Hobday, Debra (David Maxwell), brothers, Roy and David (Shelley), brother-in-law Jon (Donna) Van Vliet, sister-in-law Julie Van Vliet; and much loved nieces, nephews, great-nieces/nephews, cousins and many, many dear friends.
Burial will take place on Saturday, April 6 at 1:00 p.m. at Fort Garry Roman Catholic Cemetery (826 Crescent Drive) followed by a Celebration of Life and reception at 3:00 p.m. at the Bahá'i Centre (521 McMillan Ave.) in Winnipeg.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to cancer research, your local public library, refugee support, or a charity of your choice.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Apr 06, 2019