STICKLE, CLARA VALERIE CLOWATER RN Born March 23, 1911, in Doaktown, New Brunswick Died August 25, 2005, in Fredericton, New Brunswick "I am a nurse, you know." Thus began most encounters with Clara Valerie Clowater Stickle, RN, whether you were her taxi driver or the security guard confiscating her scissors at the airport or the clerk at Sears wrapping a pretty blouse. Clara's will to live was prodigious, but her dear little body could no longer stand up to the gradual degeneration of several longtime ailments. The supports that kept her alive were taken away and she died in bliss on August 25 in Fredericton of no one particular thing. Clara's daughter Carole and her niece Emelie want to express their gratitude and appreciation to all caregivers and support staff in the palliative care and rehabilitation units at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton for the care and compassion proffered Clara in the last weeks of her life, and for their forbearance. It is a large and long-lived family that produced Clara and we descended on you often. Thank you, Dr. Hall and colleagues, Clara's nurses and licensed practical nurses, the lovely woman who sought to restore Clara's ability to walk, and all of Clara's helpers. You are superb caregivers and magnificent human beings. That old nurse would be so proud of you. Clara's husband, Robert Stickle of the Island of Unst, the northernmost point of Scotland, predeceased her 41 years ago. Robert was a Merchant Mariner when Clara met him in Montreal in 1937 and she fell hard for the dashing Black Scot with the dark curly hair and his passion for life. Carole Stickle Clements is the only child of Clara and Robert. Carole and her husband Bob mourn Mum in Edmonton, Alberta. Nanny adored her granddaughters and their families: Deborah Shearer and her husband Trevor, and their daughter Tabatha, 6, whom she visited just last summer in Calgary, Alberta; and Valerie McCarty, her husband Richard, and their children Alison, 14, and William, 7, of Edmonton, Alberta. Clara is survived by her elder sister Reta Patterson Seeley, 98; her elder brother Weldon, 96, and his wife Barbara Winton Clowater, 92; and by her younger sister, Inez Wood, 92, all now residents of Fredericton. Clara was predeceased by her youngest sister Emelie Hubert and by her younger brothers Oran and Vinta. For those interested in genealogy, Clara was a daughter of Abel Clowater and Carrie Mitchell, both of whom lived to the great ages of 94 and 98, respectively. Clara leaves behind an astonishing number of young and not-so-young relatives, some immediate and others once, twice, thrice, and several times removed, and equally as many friends. It was a remarkable thing for a young woman in Clara's time to leave the waters of the Miramichi behind and land upright as a registered nurse in Montreal. Clara was intensely proud of the profession and her place in it. Clara nursed at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal for most of her career, and then indulged in some private duty nursing in the city that she loved. She retired at the age of 71. When her formal career as a nurse was over, Clara returned to New Brunswick to meddle in our affairs, boss us around, diagnose our troubles, nurse our ills, and love us, especially the small children that we would bring into her life. Clara was 94 years old when she died, and until she went into hospital a few weeks ago, she lived her own life, in her own apartment, and at her own pace. At her own pace, indeed. When Clara finally abandoned a perverse refusal of help and accepted a walker, she grabbed that wheeled thing and used it to scoot up and down the hallways of Risteen's Landing for exercise, to visit neighbours, to collect the mail, to go down to have her hair done just so, and to appear exactly on time for Saturday morning bridge parties in the Common Room, dressed with that Montreal styling she adopted decades ago, in full makeup and with precisely the right jewelry to go with her dress of the day. Phew! That happy mix of pleasures was augmented by long daily telephone conversations with family and friends, shopping trips, and dinner parties. Clara loved to set a fine table and share a nice meal with one person or many. She appreciated good conversation with her guests, shared a newspaper with her neighbours, and used the evening television news as a soporific as well as a source of information. Clara was admirably assisted in her independent lifestyle by her family, by her friends and neighbours at Risteen's Landing, and by Lily Liu of Beijing, the roomer in whom she found a devoted friend. The Red Cross homeworkers were remarkably patient and helpful. Clara could be demanding when she was not her sweet self, and she often sent them away. There will be neither visitation nor viewing. Clara has been cremated and her ashes will be interred at another time. We will gather to celebrate Clara's life and death at the Brunswick Street Baptist Church in Fredericton, New Brunswick, at 11 o'clock in the morning on Monday, August 29, 2005. After the service, you are invited to congregate in the Common Room on the third floor of Risteen's Landing, 151 Queen Street, Fredericton, New Brunswick, for a light luncheon of tea, sandwiches and sweets. That will give us the opportunity to talk about Clara and tell more stories. She won't mind the least little bit. If you wish to send messages of condolence, Clara's family in Alberta can be reached at 9245-154 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5R 1T4. Her family in New Brunswick can be reached at 862 Brunswick Street, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 1J1. If you would like friends and family far away to read this obituary, please direct them to McAdam's Funeral Home Web site at www.mcadamsfh.com and ask them to click on Obituaries. We Maritimers will persist in sending flowers to acknowledge a death, even when the family suggests we make a contribution to a needful cause, right? Well then, Clara loved daisies.