Obituary of HOBKIRK – Bertha Helen

April 21, 1909 – June 30, 2011 Just ten weeks after celebrating her 102nd birthday, Bert got her wish to go to sleep. Bert was ahead of her time. As a girl, growing up on a farm in Claresholm, AB, she was a trick rider and a jockey. She graduated with a BSc. from the University of Alberta in 1931, a time when few young women attended university. That old saying, “When God closes a door, he opens a window” certainly applied to Bert. Due to the depression, she was unable to obtain employment in her field as a dietician, so she returned to Claresholm to help her recently widowed mother on the farm. Here she met her soul mate, Bill Hobkirk, who for the next sixty-seven years was her partner in business and in life. Together Bert and Bill worked hard in the restaurant business, first in Claresholm and later in Banff. They were each others best friends. Retirement in 1971 brought thirty years of travel, cards, hobbies, new friendships and enjoyment of grandchildren. Life was good! When Bill passed away in 2002, Bert seemed lost but soon found her way. She moved from the condo they had shared for so many years to a retirement home just a block away. There she made new friends among the residents and staff and took advantage of what that community had to offer. She enjoyed excellent health until very recently. She was as “sharp as a tack”. However, congestive heart failure was sneaking up on her and in August of 2010, she began her latest journey. Poor health necessitated a lengthy stay in Rockyview Hospital and finally a move to Mayfair Care Centre. Here, she befriended the staff and residents and made the very best of her situation. Bert will be remembered by all who knew her; perhaps for her sharp mind and often sharper tongue, her passion for shoes, her gingersnap cookies or her generous heart. She is survived by the family that she adored; son Ted (Judy), daughter Billie (Rick Livingstone), grandchildren Jennifer Morand (Charles), Adam Hobkirk, Brad Livingstone (Cindy Chung) and Aaron Livingstone and great-grandchildren, Spencer and Paige Morand and Callum Livingstone. We will miss you Nana. Funeral Services will be held at McINNIS & HOLLOWAY’S Park Memorial Chapel (5008 Elbow Drive S.W.) on Monday, July 4, 2011 at 2:30 p.m. Forward condolences through www.mcinnisandholloway.com. In lieu of flower’s, memorial tributes may be made directly to the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Alberta, 200, 119 – 14th Street N.W., Calgary, AB T2N 1Z6 Telephone: (403) 264-5549, www.heartandstroke.ca. The family would like thank the staff at Mayfair Care Centre for making Nana’s final days comfortable. In living memory of Bertha Hobkirk, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McINNIS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES Park Memorial Chapel, 5008 ELBOW DRIVE S.W. Telephone: (403)243-8200.