Mary BJARNASON

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BJARNASON: Mary Edna Winifred Bjarnason. It is with great sadness the family of Edna Bjarnason announces her passing in Victoria, B.C. on Saturday, April 23rd, 2011. Her warmth, humour and humanity gave great joy to friends and family. She was born a farm girl near Bannerman, Manitoba on December 10, 1917, and grew up in virtually a pioneering community where electricity and paved roads were strangers and ingenuity was so commonplace that local citizens built their own schools and hired their own teachers. She loved children and as a young woman was destined to follow a road to teaching. She was a talented athlete and as a school girl won a Kodak box camera which started a love of photography that never left her. As a teenager, Edna sold her pony to get money to enable her to attend teacher training college in Brandon, Manitoba and she then taught school in the Turtle Mountain area. Also at the teaching college a young Carl Bjarnason had become best friends of Ray Spafford, Edna's brother, and in October 1941 married Ray's pretty young sister. Edna was interested in the world and travelled widely in the US and Europe. She loved reading and eagerly devoured books on history and murder mysteries. Her love of travel was exceeded only by her love of playing bridge, at which she was a crackerjack, For a gentle women, she took no prisoners at the bridge table. Edna had a keen interest in world affairs. She would have been a fine journalist and was editor of the newspaper in her senior citizens home, The Victorian, where she lived during the late 2000s. Edna loved gardening, and flowers: the more the better; and the more colourful, the better yet. Even in her last days was seen admiring the flowers that grew just outside her bedroom window. Edna was predeceased by her parents Frances and Alva and by her brothers Carl and Ray. She leaves many friends in Brandon, Winnipeg and Victoria. She is survived by her husband Carl, of Victoria, BC; sons and daughters-in-law Dan and Nance of Toronto; David and Linda of Brandon, Manitoba, and grandson Jeff, of Brandon. A memorial celebration will be held in Victoria at a date to be announced. In lieu of flowers donations could be made to Cancer or Alzheimer associations of your choice.“Under the wide and starry sky,Live your life as the world goes by. Glad did I live and gladly go, As I laid me down with a will, This will be the verse you engrave for me: Here she lies where she longed to be: Home is the sailor home from the sea. And the hunter home from the hill.”Adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson.

As published in Brandon Sun on Apr 29, 2011