Joanne POLLOCK

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POLLOCK: Joanne was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba on January 28, 1948 to parents Joe and Nellie Manns. She passed away on May 3, 2018 at the age of 70 years. Her funeral was held on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at the Neepawa United Church. Joanne grew up in Carberry but spent much of her time on the farm at Firdale with her older sister Phyllis and her family. After high school Joanne attended Brandon University where she graduated with both her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education. When home one summer she met the new Ag Rep for the Carberry area, Jim Pollock and married in August of 1969. During the early years of marriage, Joanne worked as a teacher at Glenboro high school and later at Carberry high school. In the spring of 1974, Joanne and Jim moved back to the Pollock farm at Neepawa and started a family. Son, Justin was born in November 1974 and their second son, Mark followed in June of 1977. Soon after having their family Joanne started back into the workforce, teaching adult upgrading in Neepawa and later working for Stats Canada. In 1988 she started working for good friend and local MLA Glen Cummings in the constituency office, also managing 3 campaigns for Glen. After Glen retired from politics Joanne stayed on to work for Stu Briese for a term. Joanne loved to travel. Her and Jim have seen most of North America together over the many trips they’ve had. Family vacations sometimes started with simply driving to the end of the lane and then deciding which direction to go. One of her favorite trips was with Mark, Jackie and kids to Florida. Joanne was all about community. Her community interest probably started while she was working on election campaigns or during her time at the constituency office. In recent years she was an active member of the Neepawa Medical Clinic Board and she took much pride in its accomplishments. Joanne was a wonderful mother and grand-mother. As a mother she was a rock, you could always count on her support. She also laid out expectations for the boys to work hard, contribute, be accepting, get educated, have fun but be respectful to yourself and others. As a grand-mother, Joanne was proud and supportive. She would always have time to run grand kids to hockey or other events. Grand children were often at her place to bake cookies or puffed-wheat cake, have freezie/cheezie parties or just to have a visit. Grandma was the one that the kids could talk with about anything. Joanne was a wonderful friend and social butterfly. She loved having daily coffee visits with the crew at the Chicken Delight and her Saturday morning “ladies” coffee. She wouldn’t miss that for the world, it was something that she continued with even when she was feeling poorly. Whether you were family or a friend you could always stop by and have a warm visit and a glass of wine with Joanne at the kitchen table. The kitchen table, Joanne spent half of her life there. It was her wheelhouse, where she did election planning, selling seed, farm meals, helping her kids study, family game nights, baking with her grand-children or simply just having a good conversation and a few laughs with family or friends. That kitchen table is where she did her best work. It will be a much different place without her. Joanne was a fighter. She received her cancer diagnosis in June of 2017 and decided to fight it with all her might. Through all of this, she seemed more concerned about how her family was feeling rather than worrying about herself. Joanne was predeceased by her parents Joe and Nellie Manns, sister Phyllis Smith, brother-in-law Stan Smith, father-in-law George Pollock and mother-in-law Jean Pollock. Joanne is greatly missed by brother Gary (Pat) Manns, husband Jim, sons Justin (Marsha) and Mark (Jackie), grand children Samantha, Sage, Brody, Emma, Ally and Julia. Joanne’s family would like to thank the doctors, nurses and the rest of the staff at the Neepawa Health Center for the excellent care that she received while there. Also, great thanks to Mary-Ellen Clark at Neepawa Palliative Care and to Home Care for their wonderful support. The family would also like to thank her friends for their many visits, thoughts and kind words. White's Funeral Home in care of arrangements. 204-476-2848www.whitesfh.ca

As published in Brandon Sun on May 26, 2018