Born in a homesteader cabin on the wide Montana plains in 1919, Harriet moved with her family as a young child to Vulcan, in southern Alberta, where she spent the remainder of her youth. Daughter of an itinerant farm labourer, and the third oldest of seven children, she spoke often of the poverty of her childhood during the ‘dirty thirties’ but also of the strength of a mother who saw to it that all her children completed high school and were exposed to music. One of her favourite stories was of the time her mother received a small inheritance and, over the protests of her husband, promptly “…put on her hat, marched into town and bought a piano.” It was at this time that she met her husband, Bill, the son of the town policeman, and a fellow member of the church choir. During the first years of their marriage they lived in Luscar, a small coal-mining town in the Rocky Mountains west of Edmonton. When Bill left the mine in 1944 to study for the ministry the family (which by then included two children, David and Leona) moved back to Vulcan, then Calgary, and in 1948 made the big move to Greenmount, Prince Edward Island. Apart from a short time spent in Ontario she would spend the rest of her life on the Island, where two more children, Barbara and Merrill, were born. Her close association with the Church of Christ, and firm adherence to the teaching of Scripture were central pillars of her life experience.
Wife, mother, grandmother, pianist, teacher, friend, public speaker, minister’s wife, pie-maker par excellence and master Scrabble player of the family, she had a lasting influence on the lives of many.
In addition to her four children she leaves behind a sister, Libby, in Calgary, a foster daughter, Cathy Bradshaw, a wide scattering of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a circle of friends who remember her with great fondness.
Full of years, Harriet died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Oct. 18, 2014 at the age of 95, several days after suffering a stroke. A memorial gathering for family and close friends is planned for some future date. Arrangements entrusted to MacLean Funeral Home Swan Chapel. Online condolences may be made at www.macleanfh.com.

Hommages