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Betty GILBERTSON
Sunday March 29, 2015

GILBERTSON, Betty Fern (nee Marvel) May 28, 1918 – March 29, 2015 - passed away peacefully at the Norfolk General Hospital, Simcoe, Ontario after a very brief hospital stay.  She was in her 97th year.  She was born in Indian Head, Saskatchewan, to Jay and Florence Marvel, the second of five children.  Indian Head was the home of her mother’s family, the Bells, who had homesteaded in southern Saskatchewan after selling their farm near Collingwood, Ontario.  Betty was very close to her Bell relatives.  Times were tough for many during the drought and depression of the Dirty Thirties.  The Bells struggled but were able to hold on to their land.  Betty’s father left to find work in the US and never returned to the family.  She and her siblings were brought up by her mother in Swift Current and on a farm near Wymark.  Helping her mother gave her extra responsibility at a young age.  She particularly hated the locusts.   To keep them off her, she would hide under a wool blanket when driving in a car full of people on a hot Saskatchewan summer day.  Saskatchewan was always a part of her.  She loved being able to see the horizon and the wide expanse of land reaching to the sky.  After completing high school, she attended Swift Current Business College and worked as a secretary for Cominco in Trail, British Columbia and for the Ministry of Education in Regina, Saskatchewan.  She desperately wanted to go to university but her family could not afford the cost.  In 1945, she married Ferdinand Peter (Ferd) Gilbertson.  They met in Regina where he was the manager of Macleods Hardware.  They lived in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Lacombe, Alberta (where Ferd owned a hardware store).  In 1955, the family moved to Red Deer, Alberta where Ferd became a real estate broker and established Red Deer Realty.  They had many friends and connections in the community.  Betty served as secretary for the Home and School Association and was a member of the IODE.  Ferd and Betty had two children, Joan and Lorne.   When her beloved husband died in 1979, Betty continued to live in Red Deer.  In her eighties, she moved to Simcoe where her son, Lorne, lives.  Betty was a strong advocate for education and encouraged her children to go to university.  She set an example by taking night and weekend university courses in Red Deer and ultimately obtained her B.Ed. from the University of Alberta in 1972.   She loved being at university and talking with the students.  Getting her degree was a proud moment for her.  She taught several courses at Red Deer College and created a course on understanding the gifted child, a subject in which she was intensely interested.  She was active in the University Women’s Club in Red Deer and in Simcoe, enjoying her association and her many friends in this club.  Betty liked to read.  She was good with both numbers and words, a great speller and a wonderful grammarian.  She loved crosswords of all kinds and mind-bending logic puzzles.  Sadly, in her final years, short-term memory loss impaired her facility with words and puzzles.  She was a fastidious person who loved clothes.  She dressed up in her suit and pearls to go grocery shopping and put on a jacket to go to the dining room in the Cedarwood Nursing Home.  Betty was ahead of her time in being health and nutrition conscious.  She was careful about her diet from the time she was a young woman, and cooked healthy meals for herself until she was in her nineties.   She loved to skate and enjoyed it from her youth until she was in her eighties.  She was an enthusiastic member of the Silver Blades Skating Club in Red Deer.  Survived by her daughter, Joan Welch (Howard) of Edmonton, her son, Lorne Gilbertson (Sue) of Simcoe, and her four grandchildren, Mary Agnes Welch (Joff Schmidt) of Winnipeg, Cara Gilbertson (fiancé Michael Boese) of Ottawa, Georgina Welch (Jeff Wright) of Edmonton, and Brian Gilbertson of Calgary.  Also survived by her sister, Jean Whitaker (late Doug) of Vancouver and her brother, Lorne Marvel (late Betsy) of Oakville.  Pre-deceased by her husband, Ferdinand Peter Gilbertson in 1979, her mother, Florence Marvel in 1985, and two brothers and their wives, Jack (Gerry) Marvel of Golden, British Columbia and Neal (June) Marvel of White Rock, British Columbia.  Also pre-deceased by her six sisters-in-law and their husbands, Violet (Les) Musgrove, Gladys (Jack) Cullen, Julia (Earl) Moritz, Teddy (Manlie) Rehill, Lillian (Chic) Miller, and Mickey Jones, all of Alberta.  Special thanks to her caregivers at the Cedarwood Nursing Home and the Norfolk General Hospital in Simcoe.  A private family memorial will be held at a later date.  The JASON  SMITH  FUNERAL  CHAPEL, 689 Norfolk St. N.  Simcoe in care of arrangements.  Those wishing may donate in Betty’s memory are asked to consider the Salvation Army or to the University of Alberta.  Personal online condolences at www.smithfuneralchapel.com (519) 426-0199



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