Phyllis Christine passed away in her 98th year, beloved wife of the late Robert Elder, mother of Cheryl, Pam (John), Lisa (Richard) and the late Brent Elder. Phyllis passed away at the Hartney Community Heath Center on February 3, 2025. Funeral service was held at the Hartney Centennial Centre on Saturday, March 29, 2025. Interment in the Riverside Cemetery, Hartney. In memory of Phyllis, donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society.
“TREASURE HER, LORD, IN YOU YOUR GARDEN
Sharon Lorraine Evans was born to Maurice and Joyce (Latimer) Wittevrongel on August 3, 1952 and passed on November 3, 2024. Joyce had polio when Sharon was born and was in an iron lung in Winnipeg until Sharon was 13 months old. During this time, she lived with her aunt Margret Claude.
Growing up on the family farm south of Treherne she attended Boyne Creek school for grade one. She moved to school in Treherne when Boyne Creek was closed. Sharon joined 4-H Beef and Home Ec. Clubs when she was 8 years old. Her participation continued her entire life in multiple different roles, both as a member and leader of 32 years.
In 1966 the high school students from Holland joined Treherne where she met Bruce Evans. Sharon was smitten, and their love story began. After graduating from high school, Sharon went to Red River Community College to take junior accounting while Bruce stayed home to farm with his parents. They were engaged on April 17th, 1971. The big joke was Bruce had to pay for the bull and the baler before he could buy her a ring.
On February 12, 1972 they were married and moved to a trailer on the Evans farm near Holland. Sharon worked at CIBC as a teller while Bruce worked on the farm as they started their family. Darwin was born in 1975 and Keith followed in 1977.
With the selling of the family farm they moved to Elgin in 1978 where Bruce went to work for Keith and Diane Laughland at Underhill and Sharon babysat for some of the families in Elgin. She began working one day a week with Dr. Bourassa at Total Eye Care in Souris, where she remained for many years. They moved to Hartney in August 1982. Sharon continued her job with Dr. Bourassa and at the same time also started working at the Hartney Co-op. Trisha was born in 1983 and Kimberly was born in 1984. As the family grew older, Bruce and Sharon became very involved in all activities in which their children were involved. Many hours were spent at the rink and on the ball diamonds with the kids.
Sharon loved the community of Hartney, which was shown through her volunteer efforts. She always said if you were going to have an opinion, you better roll up your sleeves and volunteer. Sharon participated in many community groups and was the secretary or treasurer for a number of them. She was always happiest when she had something to plan or organize and could be counted on to have detailed lists of what needed to be done.
When the restaurants in town closed, Sharon and Claris Isabey worked together to convert Claris’ flower shop into the Red Door Café, which they ran together with their husbands for 5+ years. Never one to sit still, Sharon opened her home daycare shortly after, looking after dozens of children until present day. During this time, the family was also host to exchange students from Mexico and Columbia. She was fondly known as ‘Grandma’ to dozens of children, and there was always room at the table for more. Her extended chosen family included the Filipino community of Hartney, who she happily helped to gather furniture for as they brought their families to town.
Sharon’s love for her family was as the heart of she was. She had a special bond with each of her children and was proud of their accomplishments.
Darwin married Sharon Rauch, and have two children, Tyler and Morgan. Sharon loved to follow their sports and school events and looked forward to their visits each year, both in Hartney and visiting them in Ottawa when she was able.
Keith always checked on his Mom, and she loved when he would come to visit her and tease her daycare kids at lunch time. She looked forward to having him for supper, catching up on what he was doing at work or with the Elks, Fire Department, Rink Committee or the Hartney Blues hockey team.
Sharon loved her time with Trisha and Ken, welcoming Ken’s children Max and Dominic into the family. She would find projects for Ken to do and would spend hours with Trisha on the phone as she commuted for work.
Kimberly married Fernando Magalhaes, whose children Mia and Nico provided her endless amounts of entertainment. Sharon was thrilled when they made the move from Calgary back to Brandon in January of 2021 to be closer to Grandma and Grandpa. She enjoyed the daily video calls, but looked most forward to the weekends they would spend together camping, crafting, and watching the kids’ activities. She was so proud of Kim when she was awarded a Top 4 under 40 award from the Brandon Chamber of Commerce in May 2024.
Sharon was a remarkable woman who has left a legacy of compassion, caring, and service to others. One of her last acts of service was to create a bursary to be awarded annually to a graduating student of Hartney School who is furthering their education in health care.
The family expresses its gratitude for the care provided by Dr. Cram and the staff at Souris Health Centre, the Home Care personnel, and Dr. Robinson and the staff at Women’s Hospital at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.
Funeral service was held at the Centennial Centre Hartney, Manitoba on Tuesday, November 12, 2024. Interment in the Riverside Cemetery, Hartney. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her honour to the Hartney Swimming Pool or Hartney & Area Arena both donations are to be made payable to the Municipality of Grassland Box 399 Hartney, Manitoba R0M 0X0.
Cathy, 70 years, beloved wife of the late Grant Ewen, mother of Rick and Dave, passed away in Souris, Manitoba on December 6, 2023. A funeral service will be held in the spring of 2024. Notifications will be posted prior to the service. In memory of Cathy, donations may be made to the Souris Health Centre c/o Prairie Mountain Health Box 10 Souris, Manitoba R0K 2C0.
It is with sadness that the family of Margaret Edgerton announces her passing on January 1, 2023 at the Souris Personal Care Home. Margaret Delores was born February 3, 1930 at Vidora, Saskatchewan to Clifford and Reta Wiig. She moved throughout Saskatchewan and survived the hardships that came with the 1930’s. Mom was never a person to say that she could not do something. She always found a way to accept it and move ahead. She joined her family in Rivers and then
David Everett Eastman
November 16, 1952 – March 6, 2020
David Eastman, second son of Joan and Everett Eastman of Hartney, Manitoba passed away on March 6, 2020 in Surrey, BC with his three children Danny, Erin and Neil by his side. David is survived by his three brothers, Dennis, Morley and Shane and their families as well as his three children and seven grandchildren.
Dave
Eissner: Ursula, 70 years, beloved wife of Detlef Eissner, mother of Jan and Thomas, passed away in the Brandon Regional Health Centre on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. A funeral service was held at St. Paul’s United Church Souris on Friday, August 13, 2021. In lieu of flowers, in memory of Ursula, donations may be made to a charity of your choice.
Epp: Erna ElaineAugust 29, 1948 – March 25, 2021
Erna liked to be noticed, yet it wasn’t something she set out to achieve as one of her life’s goals. Instead, she wanted to create a memorable image of herself, and to do that, she broke a few family rules. Following the trends and fads in fashion and cosmetics gave her pleasure, and notoriety, to some degree. The henna in her hair we noticed in the ‘80’s was not dye she insisted. And what filled her purse was something other than make-up, she averred, but she persisted on the fashion path, and made a life helping people look the best they possibly could. Unfortunately, Erna was robbed of that ability in the last years of her life. A prisoner inside her body, she became not only unable to help herself but also to look and be her best. Erna passed from this world at the Souris Personal Care Home with sisters at her side on March 25, 2021.
She has escaped the disease which deprived her of the independence she had enjoyed most of her life.
Erna was fun. She loved the give and take of conversation, the opportunities to create beautiful images and visions with the tools she understood: fashion and cosmetics. Working in retail most of her life, she was gifted in understanding which dress would look best, which gown would enhance the good features and detract the less desirable ones. She could choose appropriate possibilities just by looking at the person. But the best part of finding the perfect fit was that the customer would have a good time finding it. If something looked horrible, Erna would say so, likely causing a great sigh of relief from inside the dressing room. One of the elements of the working life Erna missed was the feeling of accomplishment when the customer felt good about the purchase she had made.
Cosmetics, of course, compliment fashion. Erna studied the images being offered by various companies to understand how she could create those looks for people who were interested in staying current. Expertly professional at creating a natural face that owed its innocent beauty to a few products available from various make-up companies, she built a wonderful customer base who continued to return to her for advice, conversation, and more product. Her enjoyment of work spread to her colleagues. Spending time together after work at the gym or at dinner, Erna loved to include everyone.
A Clinique Cosmetic trainer, she was adept at showing others how a product worked while simultaneously giving them ideas on how to motivate the customer to purchase it. She did her homework. Since the store counters were expected to be pristine and inviting, she would simulate that experience by preparing the training rooms in ways that looked inviting and professional.
Mostly, Erna lived by herself in various apartments in Winnipeg. Her love of plants and gardening became obvious when she and Mike Aysan married and lived in a house in Charleswood. Her joy of growing flowers sparkled on the decks of the apartments where she lived when she returned to her more solitary life in Winnipeg. Planting the pots in the spring was one of the pleasures of her life.
Another was family and friends. In spite of her inability to cook—the only one of the family who had no need of a kitchen—in fact, in one apartment, she turned her kitchen into an office—she enjoyed food that someone else had prepared. That might have been a motivating factor in making sure she was at all the family gatherings, but she appreciated the people most. When nieces and nephews moved to Winnipeg to study or work, Erna would take the time to get to know them. They, in turn, appreciated her as evidenced by the frequent gatherings they had—mostly at restaurants, of course, or on Academy Awards night, when the nieces would gather with Erna to enjoy the show.
Appreciating Erna and showing incredible family responsibility are the two youngest sisters, Anita Somersall and Myrna Wells, who, seemingly tirelessly, made sure Erna was okay: visited and spent time to make sure she knew she was loved; told friends and family of developments and challenges.
And now, we are all missing her, as we have for the last few years when enjoying the last part of her life was stolen from her. It seems strange that the person who was born on August 29, 1948, the fourth in our family, is the first to leave. I’m glad for the friendship we all shared. Now we are left to honour her memory in ways that would make her happy. And that was never hard to do.
Left to mourn are the families of sisters Helen Hillier, Agatha Massey, Rita Button, Myrna Wells, Anita Somersall as well as brothers Philip, Alfred, Ken and Tim Epp.
A celebration of Erna’s life will be held at a later date.
Ewen: A. Grant (Swish), 72 years, beloved husband of Cathy Ewen, father of Rick and Dave, passed away in the Souris Health Centre on Friday, December 25, 2020. A graveside funeral service for family and friends was held at the Elgin Cemetery on Friday August 27, 2021. In memory of Grant, donations may be made to the Western Manitoba Cancer Centre c/0 Brandon Regional Health Centre Foundation 150 McTavish Avenue East Brandon, Manitoba R7A 2B3.
Eissner: Erika, 92 years, beloved mother of Ullrich, Detlef, Birgit and Arne, passed away at the Souris Personal Care Home on Friday, May 17, 2019. Funeral service was held at Kowalchuk’s Funeral Chapel, Souris, Manitoba on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. In memory of Erika, donations may be made to the Souris Personal Care Home c/o Prairie Mountain Health Box 10 Souris, Manitoba R0K 2C0.
Elliott: Marie, 78 years, beloved wife of the late Morris Elliott, mother of Marty and Lori, passed away at the Souris Health Centre on Friday, April 26, 2019. Funeral service was held St. Paul’s United Church, Souris, Manitoba on Tuesday April 30, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. Private interment in the Souris & Glenwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, in memory of Marie, donations may be made to Cancer Care Manitoba.