Sherry WALLMAN

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WALLMAN (McQuarrie): After a brief illness and with family by her side, Sherry passed away on Wednesday, May 4, 2016 at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. Sherry was born on September 14, 1938 at the Cottage Hospital in Miami Manitoba to John Henry Mikael Wallman and Marguerite Muriel Sharpe (Wallman). While she was still an infant, Sherry and her mother returned to the Miami area, offering Sherry the gift of being raised by not only her mother, but by her grandparents George and Maggie Sharpe and with the love of her favourite Auntie, Rhea Livingston. Later her mother took a teaching position in West Kildonan and Sherry found much to do at school in Winnipeg, where she attended Laura Secord School and later, Gordon Bell High School where her high school career culminated in her giving the valedictory address. It was during this time that her loves of classical music and of theatre took hold, that she embraced her fiercely independent streak, and that she realized that her “lot” as a girl should not be inevitable – and decided that the gender expectations of the time would not define her. These qualities shone through in everything she did throughout her life, but no more so than in how she chose to parent her daughters. Following high school she attended the University of Manitoba, earning her B.Sc. in 1959. She subsequently enrolled in a graduate program in Microbiology, which led to her accepting a position with Health Canada in Ottawa. In 1963 she returned to Winnipeg and married Neil McQuarrie. There were few opportunities for microbiologists in Manitoba at the time so she enrolled in the Faculty of Education and received her teaching certificate. She and Neil joined forces and taught in Roland and Gladstone before returning to Winnipeg and moved into a new home in the developing Fort Richmond area. There they took in a pair of delightful girls, Carla and Doralda, as their foster daughters – girls who she came to love as her own, and did so for the rest of her life. These girls moved back to live with their own mother shortly after Sherry gave birth to her first daughter, Shauna. The next year Neil took a position at Brandon University and the family moved to Brandon, where their second daughter, Kerry, was born. At home with her daughters, Sherry developed many valued friendships and delighted in resurrecting her skills as a spinner, a sewer, a knitter and indulged in her passion for live theatre by working with local groups as a makeup artist. She placed great value in the skills she had learned from her grandmother, and demonstrated remarkable patience in her efforts to pass them on to her daughters. She believed strongly that her daughters should be able to ‘do’ and that anything worth doing, was worth doing well. An oft-repeated question, learned from her mother and extremely aggravating to her impatient children was, “If you don’t have time to do it well, how will you ever find time to do it over?” Her creativity was boundless and showed up in the most unexpected ways, and she remains famous among her children’s friends as a creator of “magical” birthday parties. Sherry was a teacher in every sense of the word. Along the way, she taught everything from auto mechanics to organic chemistry. She tutored school children, university students and adult learners. Some of the most enjoyable and fulfilling experiences of her career took place in Manitoba’s northern Indigenous communities, and she felt great affection for the people and communities that welcomed her through the northern teacher education program. In all of these environments she always sought the path to understanding. In her view, there was no one way that people learn, and it was always her mission to make her teaching fit the student. Sherry never formally retired. She just found new things to do. She became involved with the Commonwealth Air Training Program Museum where, among other things, she edited the newsletter for several years. She was committed to supporting the Memorial Wall on the museum grounds which lists all those who died in the RCAF and related Commonwealth air forces during WWII. Two of those named were her cousins. Sherry was a woman whose talents were many and varied. She was a creative woman who carried with her a commitment to excellence. She also had a plenteous store of opinions which she shared generously. A time of remembering, reflection and celebration will be held at at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 28at the Don Glen Hall in the Park Avenue Activity Centre, 311 Park Avenue E in Brandon. In keeping with her desire for those in the medical profession to be able to provide the best care possible, her love of science, and her generosity of spirit, she has donated her remains to the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine’s Service After Death Program, to support the advancement of medicine through anatomical education. Flowers are gratefully declined. Donations in memory of Sherry can be made to The Memorial Wall Fund at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum or a charity of your choice.

As published in Brandon Sun on May 21, 2016