Obituaries

JOAN MARGUERITE SNEESBY
(nee FIDLER)
April 16, 1920 – September 19, 2016
    Peacefully, on Monday, September 19, 2016 my Mom passed at the age of 96.   Left to cherish Mom’s memory, her only child, Charlene (Horst Erb). She was predeceased by her husband, Cecil Robert Sneesby, in 2004; and by her sisters Evelyn (Lil) and Renee (Babe).   My Mom had a very colourful life. She was conceived just outside of Paris, France where her father met and married his French war bride in 1919. Mom’s parents travelled by ship to Canada, and she was born in Middlechurch, and raised in Selkirk, Manitoba. Her first job in Winnipeg was at The Hudson’s Bay Company, in the cosmetics department. When the male employees went to war, Mom was one of the first females to be allowed to operate the elevators, which in those days was a coveted job. She would tell me how the seams in their nylon stockings had to be just so, and they had to be well groomed for this position. During that time, Mom also modelled for the Eaton’s catalogue, and sat as a model for the Winnipeg Sketch Club. Later, she went to work at Eaton’s as budget supervisor.   At 46, Mom began a new career. She was invited to train as a florist and open the newest location of Tic Toc Florist in the newly built Courts of St. James. Within the year, she and my Dad purchased the flower shop, renamed it Joan’s Flower Court, and built a very good business relationship in the City for over twenty years.   Many people will remember Mom for her very kind, caring and giving ways with friends, relatives and strangers alike. She was always known for her many hair styles, from a snood to her signature bouffant, which only Mom could wear, long after it was fashionable to do so.   For those interested in history, my Mom was the great-great-granddaughter of the explorer, map maker, fur trader, and surveyor Peter Fidler, who came to Rupertsland from England to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1788. He was the first European to see the Athabaska tar sands and discovered coal in Drumheller, Alberta. He surveyed and mapped the area from Hudson’s Bay and the Red River Settlement to the Rocky Mountains. He and his country wife Mary Mackagonne, with whom he had a lifelong marriage, raised ten children to adulthood. My Mom was the last child to die who was born with the Fidler name in our ancestry line. All of Peter Fidler’s papers, maps and books along with his sextant and other tools of his trade are stored in the Hudson Bay’s Archives in Winnipeg.   In compliance with Mom’s wishes no formal Funeral Service will be held.   Flowers are gratefully declined.   Wojcik’s Funeral Chapels & Crematorium, Winnipeg, 1020 Main Street, 204.586.8668 www.wojciksfuneralchapel.com 
 “Thank you Mom for raising me so strictly and teaching me to know my place in the world; I love you for that!”