Obituary of Muriel Lucille Isaman

Muriel Lucille Isaman

1922 ~ 2024

Muriel Lucille Isaman was born in Consort Alberta to Marion and Ethel Kelts on December 15, 1922. Mom was the third of eight children. She passed away in Leduc hospital on May 16, 2024 after a short time in hospital.

The story was that the name Muriel proved troublesome for her father to pronounce and as she was a small baby she acquired the nickname of "Tiny” which remained with her for her entire life.  She was seldom called anything else by her family.

It is definitely a challenge to sum up a life of 101 years and keep it from being too lengthy!

Mom grew up in 'the good old days' and lived through a lot of history full of many challenges and changes in her life journey. Mom's family lived on the Kelts homestead until 1936 when they moved into Consort.  Two years later they moved one mile north of Consort where some of Bud Kelts family still lives today. Mom attended Willow Brook school starting at the age of five.  A story that was often brought up was of the big run away.  Viola being the eldest was the driver of the team of horses. When pulling back on the neck yoke to slow them down it broke causing the team to take off at a gallop with children falling or bailing out.  Nobody was seriously hurt, though Mom hit her head and ended up with a headache for days so she probably had a concussion!

Mom took a shining at a young age to Lester Isaman, a neighbor (their homestead was next to the Kelts homestead).  When they first started dating, her older brother Donald had to go along as a chaperone.  They were married on January 30th, 1941, in Consort.  For the first six months they lived on the old Kelts farm (which became Donald's farm and now is owned by some of Donald’s sons).  They then purchased 10 acres of the Noble farm which is now owned by their grandson.  They rented and moved to the Redel farm, then moved into town where they lived until building a house and moving to Stettler in 1959.  In 1967 they built a house on the farm and moved back to Consort.  Mom and Dad moved to Red Deer in 1975 where they lived for four years before moving to Edmonton.  Mom resided in Edmonton until 2012 when she sold the last home she had shared with Dad and moved to Consort with Betty and Ron.  Mom was only in Consort for four years before returning to Edmonton where she lived in Chartwell, a seniors retirement home.  Mom lived there until covid hit in 2020 and Chartwell was moving towards lock down.  At that time Betty loaded her up and took her home to live with her again and she remained there until she went into hospital eight days before her passing.

Mom spent her life as a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, great great grandmother, sister, aunt and friend.  Their union was blessed with eight children with the eldest being born in 1942 and the youngest in 1962.  Mom had 21 grandchildren with the first one being born in 1962 to the youngest in 1995.  She became GREAT in 1989 and welcomed her newest little great in 2023 for a total of 37 great grandchildren.  She became a great great grandmother in 2016 and her youngest great great grandchild was born six days before her 100th birthday in 2022.

She always enjoyed seeing family and friends, but particularly seemed to have a soft spot for the grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, who without fail brought a smile to her face.  She delighted in sharing how sweet they were and just about always had a cute story to share.

Though Mom seemed very quiet most of her life, her fighting, determined, maybe you could even say stubborn nature really came to light after Dad had his stroke. It became even more evident over the last few years. Mom had the attitude that you should always be the best that you could be, whether it was your appearance or something you were doing.  She shared her thoughts if she didn't think you were doing a very good job and let you know that she thought you could do better!

Mom was a fabulous cook and baker in her day.  If you were just there for a coffee, there was an endless supply of home baked goodies.  I think her raisin tarts could have competed against the very best anywhere!   If there for a meal, she always put on a feast.  She hosted many holiday celebrations for her large and continuously growing family. She sewed a lot over the years making many outfits, dance costumes and costumes for her children and grandchildren. She always grew a big garden, freezing and canning many fruits and vegetables, making jams, pickles etc. As kids we got pretty sick of picking and shelling peas, picking beans (sometimes we would just pull out the odd plant hoping it would make for a little less picking the next time around), raspberries etc.  However, we certainly always enjoyed the end products.

Mom and Dad travelled as long as they were able.  They spent a lot of years going to Hawaii to get away from the cold in Alberta.   Their last trip was a very short time before Dad suffered from a stroke in 2002. Mom was an avid reader until the last few months when her failing eyesight made it difficult for her to see well enough. Mom had a bit of a competitive nature.  She spent many hours playing games with various family members and was a real whiz at scrabble, crib, boggle, Tri Ominos and tile rummy.  She also played a lot of solitaire and spent many hours bent over a puzzle.

Mom was fortunate to have had an amazingly good full life. This "Tiny" woman's family that were her entire world has extended to five generations and has reached the magnitude of the number of years she lived!  Her family will cherish all the wisdom we have gained from her and treasure all the memories we have made.  We are so very grateful that we were blessed to have her share our lives for over 101 years.  We will miss her and are sad to no longer have her physically present with us, but we are very thankful that she no longer has to suffer with her struggles and pain that got increasingly worse in the last few months.

  Farewell - Our last game of scrabble Mom.

FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS!  WE LOVE YOU MOM, (MOTHER, MOMMA, MOMMY,) GRANDMA, GREAT GRANDMA, GREAT GREAT GRANDMA.   REST IN PEACE!

She is survived by her children Jack (Denise), Betty Flanagan, Lorence (Joan), Nora Hutchings, Jim (Yvonne), Don (Marie), Carole (Bruce) Gill, and Jo-Ann (Tony)Peters; 21 Grandchildren; 37 Great Grandchildren; six Great Great Grandchildren;  siblings Lorna (Gil) Roth and Eileen Hobbs as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

Predeceased by husband Lester; Grandson Jordan Peters; sons-in-law Jim Hutchings and Ron Flanagan; parents Marion and Ethel Kelts; brothers Donald, Bud and Arley Kelts; sisters Viola Schooler and Jean Deagle; sisters-in-law Dot Kelts, Irene Kelts, Rosemary Kelts, Avonne Kelts, Reva Scaffrick, Lucille Bailey and Violet Isaman; brothers-in-law Loyal Schooler, Ted Deagle, Bob Hobbs, Cecil Isaman, Art Scaffrick and Bob Bailey.

The Families of Muriel Isaman would like to express many thanks to:  everyone who visited, called, sent cards and texts, reached out through social media and sent flowers; to Stettler Funeral Home; to Pastor Darrel Durksen for officiating her service; to the UCW for going above and beyond preparing, organizing and serving the lunch; to the people who brought food and to anyone we may have missed. Thank you everyone for your support and comforting words!

Memorial donations in Muriel's memory may be made to the Lake Road Cemetery c/o Box 490, Consort, Alberta T0C 1B0.