Obituaries

Violet (Vi) Joyce Gaye (nee Tappin)
April 22, 1927 – February 28, 2024

It is with sadness we announce that Vi passed away February 28, 2024, peacefully, with family at her side.

Vi was predeceased by her loving husband Claude in 2013. She is survived by their three children Alan (Linda), Jeffrey (Sherry) and Beverley (Brent) Mackie; grandchildren Denny, Sarah (Kevin), Scott (Roberta), Emily (Kalen), Carly, Jordan (Victoria), Tayvia (Lee); and great-grandchildren Alayna, Olivia, Ronan, Nathaniel, Parker and Owen.

Born in Summerberry, Saskatchewan, Vi was the eighth of nine siblings. She was predeceased by her parents Percy and Edith Tappin, her brother John and sisters Dorothy, Maud, Pat, Nancy, Bess, Eleanor and Edna. She is lovingly remembered by her many nieces, nephews, and their extended families.

Cremation has taken place. The family will hold a private memorial at a later date.

We wish to thank the following who provided the best care to Mom since Dad’s passing, the staff at Sturgeon Creek I Retirement Residence, Harmony Court at Riverwood Square, and Golden West Centennial Lodge. Thank you all for making Mom’s final years fun and comfortable. She, and we, appreciate all of you.

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her
white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says,
“There, she is gone!”

“Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull
and spar as she was when she left my side
and she is just as able to bear her
load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, “There, she is gone!”
there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready
to take up the glad shout,
“Here she comes!”