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Georgina M. Hume (nee Rivet)

October 9, 2014

GeorginaHume

26 April 1925 – 9 October, 2014

After a lifetime dedicated to the care of others, a beautiful, spirited, intelligent and adventuresome woman completed her final journey at almost 90 years of age on October 9, 2014 in Trail, BC.

Georgina was a devout catholic with an abiding sense of responsibility to help and care for others. She lived ahead of and outside of her times, and she had a highly unusual and complex life living amongst diverse cultures across many continents.

Throughout her lifetime she was a courageous, hardworking, independent woman who always sought to help others. She had a remarkable determined and resilient spirit.

She was born into a family of early French Canadian Pioneers who had settled in Vimy, Alberta. Her earliest ancestors arrived in Canada in 1671. In 1891 her own grandparents arrived in St. Albert, Alberta by covered wagon and then cleared land near Morinville for farming. She grew up in a poor farming family during the Great Depression and knew much hardship, but never learned the art of complaint. As a child herself, while her mother worked on the farm, she cared for her three younger brothers and the household. She attended a one-room school at a distance from her farm, often living by herself in a shed with a woodstove near the school and travelling home to the farm by horse and buggy in the summer and by cutter in the winter. A teacher, recognizing her intelligence, encouraged her to attend university. Attending university and having a career was, for a woman in the early 1940s, especially one coming from her circumstances, very unusual. It is a testament to her spirit that she received a Bachelor of Arts from The University of Alberta in 1947 and a Bachelor of Social Work from UBC in 1951. She then went on to have a career as a Child Care Social Worker.

In 1955 she married her husband John Hume and moved to be with him in Flin Fon, Manitoba where they started their family. In 1959, with a two year old and a newborn in arms, she followed her husband to live in a remote, isolated copper mining town in the high Andes in Peru where John worked in copper milling. She had her last child in Peru, and the family lived there for 10 years during a time of great political and social turbulence in South America. In 1969 they returned to Canada and lived in Sorrento, BC, where they had a summer resort on the Shuswap Lake. In 1972, the family departed again for another overseas adventure this time to the wild highlands of Irian Jaya, the other half of Papua New Guinea. There they experienced even more extreme isolation and exposure to one of the most unknown indigenous cultures in the world and lived in the mists of a mountainous rainforest. It was an uncommon, indescribable life experience where grass skirts, bows and arrows and nose bones were commonplace, as was also the brutal force of the suppressing Indonesian armored troops.

The family returned to Canada to settle in St. Albert Alberta in 1976. Thereafter she resumed working as a Child Care Social Worker for Alberta Social Services in Edmonton until her retirement in 1987. She then helped care for and enjoyed her grandchildren for years.

In 1996 she moved with her husband John to join their daughter Cheryl Ann Hume in Trail where she continued to be a loving and supporting grandmother to many of her grandchildren. She also cared for and supported John until his passing in 2005.

Even at the age of 89 she remained determined to help and care for others. Equally though, she was deeply grateful for the kindness and affection given to her by the staff of Poplar Ridge Pavilion. She always wanted to thank people and tell them how “wonderful” they were - which they were. She will be remembered by the smile that lit her face and her great spirit. She is greatly missed and will remain lovingly in the heart of her family.

Georgina was pre-deceased by her husband John Hume, her parents Mary and Alexander Rivet, her brothers Leo and Roger Rivet. She leaves behind her loving daughters Cheryl Ann Hume (Ralph Behrens), Arlene Marie Hume and Juanita Mae Leahy (Chris Leahy). She also leaves her three grandsons Dylan, Christopher and Andrew Hume, and her three granddaughters Annaliese, Adrienne, and Simone Behrens. She also leaves her brother Lucien Rivet (Nola), Sister in law Connie Rivet, and numerous nephews and nieces.

The family wishes to express their gratitude for the excellent care given to Georgina by Doctors Michael Hjelkrum, Susan Benzer, Seth Bitting, Len Scotland and Libby McCoid, also to the compassionate, dedicated and hardworking surgical and medical nurses who cared for her, and to all the kind staff of Poplar Ridge Pavilion.

A Funeral Mass will be held on Monday, October 20th at 10:30am from Holy Trinity Parish at 2012 3rd Avenue, Trail. Gwen Ziprick of Alternatives Funeral and Cremation Services has been entrusted with the arrangements. You are invited to leave a personal message of condolence by visiting the family’s register at www.myalternatives.ca

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in Georgina’s name, in memory of her love of animals, to The Trail Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Expressions of sympathy for the family may be sent to trail@myalternatives.ca.



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