Obituary of Fae Ilene Stewart-Rock

Ilene passed away peacefully in the Stettler Health Care Complex on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at the age of 85 years. Fae Ilene Lagore was born December 16,1927 on the family farm, north of Stettler in the Bar Harbour area, to parents Earl and Mary Lagore, (Dykstra). She was number seven in the family at the time that eventually grew to twelve. At the age of four Mom was helping Grandma do laundry and she caught her arm in the clothes wringer. Grandma sent the older kids to get Grandpa, who was working a ways away. Grandma carried Ilene with her arm wrapped to stop the bleeding and proceeded to run to Stettler to the Mills Hospital. After a short distance Harold Rochon stopped, but he soon ran out of gas. Grandma again started running and Mr. Baker's car stopped, and believe it or not he got a flat tire, Grandma again picked up Ilene and continued to run to town. Eventually the third car managed to get them there. She spent months in the Hospital and for her therapy the Doctors and nurses had her follow them around "helping" by carrying pails full of sand to strengthen the tendons and ligaments in her arm. She made a full recovery and we all grew up having a great respect for the wringer washer. She remembers spending Christmas in the hospital and talked about the little gifts the nurses gave her like an orange, a rag doll and home made candies and cookies. She attended school at Vimy Ridge until grade eight when she stayed home to help with the younger children. She was so proud about five years ago when her and her sisters put on the first reunion of Vimy Ridge school. She had the time of her life with all of the students, a memory she always treasured. Her first jobs outside of the house were working for Homer and Marie Kneeland, Gladys and Ray Nelson, and then with Mrs. Brookhart at her boarding house, helping with cooking cleaning and child care. She remembers loading all the furniture from Nelson's into a truck and taking it to Kneelands to vacuum because they had power. In her early 20's she and long time friend Marguerite LaRose went to work in Lacombe at the Red Rose Cafe. They hadn't worked at the cafe long before they noticed that just down the road was a garage where a certain mechanic by the name of Art Rock worked and he would come to lunch every Friday. They met, married and mom became an instant mother to Donna; a special bond that would continue through the years. They moved the family to Wetaskiwin for Dad's work and it was there where Pat was born, then to Bashaw where Herb and Verna were born. When Dad worked for Normie Holt, we lived in Sebee, at the base of Mount Allen, (the watermark on the memorial card is the exact location of our house.) The year before the 88 Olympics were to commence, before the work to build Kanaskis Lodge, we took a family vacation back to the spot and Mom and Dad walked around the area and found the foundation of our house. Herb remembers Mom going outside and banging pots and pans to scare away the bears before we kids were allowed to go outside to play. Dad repaired the trucks hauling ore out of the mountain, down to the Exshaw Cement Plant. Dad's job brought them to South of Stettler where the three "little boys" Barry, Stephen and David where born. While living here Mom raised a huge garden, raised chickens and milked goats, all the while keeping six kids clothed and fed. In 1960 we moved to Botha Train Station where Mom had the job of receiving freight off of the train and having it shipped by truck to towns further east. When we lived in Botha, there was very seldom a weekend when there was not a dance in the Botha Hall. The days of having liquor in the hall were not here yet so the spirits were consumed at the Rock House. Our house was second home for some families and their houses were ours, when our parents went "dancing", either in Botha or any other community. The memories our family has had with Edwin and Bernice Kempf and their family would fill an entire book; and of course we have are all been sworn to secrecy over the lemon gin incident. Herb and Helen Nims were a big part of the parties and a large part of our lives at this time as well. As the kids grew, Mom started working outside of the home for Ed Emmett in the Auction Mart Cafe and writing the Botha News for the Stettler Independent as a correspondent. Mom enjoyed teaching cubs and scouts for several years, teaching them everything from sewing on buttons, badges and other simple tasks to becoming decent citizens of our communities, noted some of the kids didn't pay attention. We lived in Botha during a time when we had more that one mother, everyone's mother was ours: Jackson's, Fischer's, Scheerschmidts, Bunka's, Hart's, Temple's, Liebe's, and on... to tell us when we were going off course, because like all Mother's they have that internal ESP connection and our Mom already knew what had happened by the time we got home. After Dad had his stroke in 1973, Mom and Dad moved into Stettler, where Mom started working at the Stettler Nursing Home. She worked 15 years of straight night shift, she would go to work early, get Dad ready for bed at the nursing home, work all night, get Dad up in the morning, dressed for the day, go home and sleep to start all over the next day. As the children grew and brought home perspective partners, she always made room for one more in her family, never complaining about our choices. She had the ability to make a meal out of almost nothing and leftovers tasted like a new meal. Growing up we never knew we were poor, but when we had pancakes or potato soup for supper we were happy. She came up with a special dessert of chocolate rice pudding that we all grew to love and asked her to make it almost every time she would visit. She made holidays and birthdays very special when there was little to be had. After Dad passed away in 1983, Mom married Arnold Stewart in 1986 and again became a second Mom, to his children Russell, Doug, Kathy and Charles and loved them like her own. During their marriage they moved back to Bashaw, where they enjoyed travelling through out Northern BC and Alberta finding great fishing holes and visiting relatives. After Arnold passed away, it was hard to keep up the lawn, sidewalks and the house so Mom moved into Lakeside Senior Apartments where she met several ladies and one gentleman: Gladys, Erica, Ann, Georgina, Ruth and Benny and not sure who else, that all had the same interests. They travelled around the area hitting every Bingo Hall and Casino Bus trip from Ferintosh, Hobbema, Camrose, Edmonton, Calgary and Lord knows where else. We always kidded each other that Mom was out spending our inheritance, but she certainly enjoyed the bus trips from Stettler Travel with all her friends. In 2005 Mom was awarded Bashaw Citizen of the Year which she displayed proudly in her home. She was also an active member of the Royal Canadian Legion Auxiliary and a lifetime member of the W.I. Her family was so important to her, she was so proud of her kids, grandkids and great grandkids. She would cut out the photos in the papers, whether it was of hockey, baseball, ads of the Stettler Funeral Home, every time we made the paper. We have scrapbooks full and she especially loved it when the kids would come to visit or she was teaching Clay to play crib. She instilled in all of us "if you have family you have everything." She moved into Stettler in 2011 and enjoyed making new friends and renewing old ones in Paragon Place, but she always missed her friends in Bashaw, the Happy Gang Centre and the residents at Lakeside. Following hip surgery, her lungs never seemed get better and she started having oxygen full time. She spent the last two months in the hospital. She had many ups and downs but we had many laughs, we cried lots, she gave us all hell, told us she loved us and when the morphine was too much we heard about her visits with God and her family. We know she had things to settle with her brother Randy, cause she spoke about him so much. Her and her sister Leona were fighting over a box of some kind and it was so real, her saying, sometimes yelling, can't you see they are just over your shoulder. We now know she is safe and with her family on the other side, because she told us God was very nice and the girls with him were special. We will all miss her but can't ask her to come back to what she was enduring here on earth, the Lagore Reunion continues on the other side. She leaves to mourn her passing; Donna’s children: Cary (Cher) McGinnis & their children: Kevin, Amber and her children: Davin, Bella Gary McGinnis Colleen McGinnis & her daughter Kelsey (Tristan) & son in law Bob MGinnis Pat’s children Matthew (Kathleen) & their children: Nathanael, Anna, Molly & Meagan Teresa (Chad) & their children: Brendan, Patrick, William, Andrew, Lauryn Clinton (Tannis) & their children: Clay, Hannah, Porter Jodi-Lee (Garry) & their children: Emily, Zachary & son in law Ray (Linda) Herb (Kathy) & their children: Donna (David) & their children: Kayden, Jordan, Ryan Dallas (Joanna) & their daughter Vanessa Verna & her children: Spencer (Lori) & her children: Amanda, Crystal and Wayne & their families Suzanne & her children: Miranda, Haley, Serenity Barry (Robyn) & their children: Kyle Elysa (Dayne) & their children: Sawyer, Sophia Karen Carmen (Charles) & their children: Jorja, Nate, Katie Stephen (Janie) & their children: Clayton (Sarah) & their children: Aiden, Jake, Layla Carson (Jan) & their children: Addison, Brinley Caide (Ashley) & their children: Declan, McKenna David (Laurie) & their children: Aimee (Trent) her daughter Bae-Lee & his sons Jonathan & MacKenzie Amanda’s children Delaney, Kayle & Charlee The Stewart's: Russell (Gloria), Doug (Kathy), Kathy and Charles (Cheryl) & their families. Lovingly remembered by her sisters Doris (Doug) Russell, Joyce (Richard) Donald, Lois (Gordon) Fitzsimmons, Willa Hines & Ada (Larry) Church; sisters in law Mabel Lagore, Phyllis Matilla & Agnes Lagore; as well as numerous nieces, nephews & many friends. Predeceased by her husbands Arthur Rock & Arnold Stewart; daughters Donna McGinnis, Pat Kneeland; granddaughters Rhonda Rock & Amanda Rock; grandson Kevin McGinnis; brothers & sisters in law: Ernest Lagore, Paul (Betty) Lagore, Cathy Lagore, Randy Lagore, Leonard (Betty) Lagore, Ken (Hazel) Lagore; sister Leona (Willie) Paschke