Obituary of Marla Pilkey

Marla Deane Pilkey passed away in the Lloydminster Hospital on Thursday, November 21, 2013 at the age of 41 years. Marla was born in Elk Point, Alberta on April 16, 1972 to Leona and Gerald Fulton. Marla leaves to mourn her passing: her loving husband, Jake; parents: Gerald and Leona Fulton; three sisters: Barb (Kevin) Nelson, Wanda (Terry) Erickson and Sandra (Sheldon) Franklin; one brother: Wayne (Colleen) Fulton; mother and father-in-law: Leonard (Myrtle) Pilkey; Jake's siblings: Kevin (Monica) Pilkey, Colleen Pilkey and Conna (Scott) Jones as well as numerous other relatives. Donations in memory of Marla may be made to the Cross Cancer Institute or to Lloydminster Region Health Foundation. Memories of Marla I would like to thank everyone for writing down or telling me their memories. Also, my wife Barb helped me a lot in piecing the thoughts together. Jake told me when we met to share memories that there are way too many things to write down about his and Marla's life together, and at the same time, there is not near enough. Marla was a wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, aunty and friend. She was a feisty little lady who didn't know she was little with a big voice and an unmistakable, infectious laugh. Jake said that Marla's laugh was one of the things that attracted him to her, and "the shopping girls" could locate her in a mall simply by stopping to listen for her laugh. Sandra said that she always wanted to make Marla laugh. She confesses to being a klutz and said that whenever Marla did klutzy things she said she was turning into Sandra. Marla loved sports. From the Roughriders to the Atlanta Braves she was all for it. She loved cattle, cats, singing, playing cards and board games, friends and green peas. She also loved to read but never wanted to pay the "new price" for books so she went to a lot of used book stores; sometimes the books were hard to find but Marla loved the challenge of it. She always liked to be curled up on a couch with a cat and a book. Marla was also very opinionated and was not afraid to butt heads with anyone. What did she hate? Roosters, brussels sprouts and melons. I found it interesting that even though Marla hated roosters she would sing "My Little Rooster" to her nieces and nephews when they were little. As for the brussels sprouts and melons, Jake said that when filling out food preferences for hospital meals, listing brussels sprouts and melons as "allergies" was not far off the mark. When Marla was a little girl, she had a cat named "Tiger", the only cat ever allowed in the house. Tiger loved Marla so much that she would bring mice and drop them on the doorstep for her. More recently Marla had "Chainsaw" and "Sassy". They loved Marla as much as Marla loved them. Occasionally Sassy ended up in the bathtub with her in an effort to get close to Marla. Even as an adult, after an outing---whether it was a camping trip or shopping---Marla always wanted to go home and "pet the kitty". One of Marla's adventures when she was small (smaller, I should say) was her rescuing Grandma Mathison after she had fallen and broken her leg outside in the wintertime. Wayne recalls that some of the family were away at a hockey tournament, Wanda and Sandra were at school, and Grandma and Marla were the only ones home at the time. Leona told me that Marla was not yet school age. She went and got the toboggan (probably at Grandma's urging), pulled it over to where Grandma was, Grandma got on with Marla's help, and with Marla pulling and Grandma using her hands to push herself along, they made it to the house. I don't know how good Marla was at using the phone at that age, but Uncle Jim Honey was contacted and he came and took Grandma to the hospital. Marla loved sports. She and her Dad went to many Mustang hockey games. Marla always had to have a bath and never got in a rush to get ready to go. Many times, her Dad would be looking at the clock at 20 minutes to 8 and thought that they would not make it for the start of the game, but they were rarely late. After Marla graduated in 1990, she worked on the farm for a while and then took a job at "Heidi's Donuts" where she worked until she left to work on the acreage, feeding and calving out cows. She met many life-long friends there. One of them, Maxine told Barb and me that she considered Marla one of her kids. Our family referred to Heidi's as "Marla's store". Wayne would go in the morning to buy lunch and get a coffee before heading to work. One day when he went in, he noticed a new girl working. When he went to the coffee pot and it was empty, he turned to the front and told Marla that the coffee was all gone. Her response - "well, make some". Needless to say, the new girl was shocked. Even now, seven years later, we still refer to that place as "Marla's store". Marla and Jake met at the Lloydminster fair. She was working with Lori, another one of her friends she met at Heidi's, showing cattle. Jake says that he met her and all of her family but Barb, in the space of 48 hours. It must have been love at first sight. Jessica was with Auntie Marla and "that cowboy", who were so busy looking at each other that Jessica finally told her Grandma that they might as well go watch the dog show. Leona told us the story of Jake and Marla setting off the smoke detector. They had not been dating for very long at the time. Uncle Stan and Aunt Peg from Ontario were at the farm visiting. Marla told her mom that Jake had to go to work very early, so she would be making him breakfast. When the toaster set off the smoke alarm, Leona said that she heard a lot of giggling going on, not only from the kitchen, but from Stan and Peg's bedroom as well. Marla was a rancher's dream wife. She was involved in every aspect of the business---from calving out the cows to fencing. Sandra said that during calving season, Marla would do the night checks "because Jake was hard to wake up". She loved the cattle and did not like to see them sell, so she always worked in the back at the sales. Marla and "the girls" made many shopping excursions over the years, some for the day and some overnight. The "girls" varied from one to as many as there were seats for. Colleen recalls on one such trip, Marla was driving Jake's truck and it seems that as she talked, her foot would get heavy. When she reached about 120 or so, Colleen noticed the back end would be shimmying and Wanda, who was sitting in the front, would tell Marla that maybe she should slow down. Then Marla let out her famous laugh and lightened up on the gas pedal. Barb looked forward to the phone calls after the trips. She didn't go with the group of girls, but she got to hear all about where they went, what was bought and, of course, how "no one would make up their minds and just tell me where they wanted to eat". Inevitably, there was a stop at at least one used book store, and out would come the list of books that Marla was hunting for. Happy she was when she could strike off a book from that list. She enjoyed going places. Whether trips to the city, going to Aunt Dorothy's to get perennials, trips to the greenhouse, taking "the girls" for pedicures, going to chuckwagon races, checking the cows, drives to find wildlife, looking for country roads to drive down, camping with her family, the trip to California for Scott and Conna's wedding, and the road trips she made with Jake, she was up for it. Barb recalls that many times before coming to Marwayne, Marla would detour through Lloydminster so that she could get a "Timmie's" coffee to go. Jake says that he could hear her from the top of the hill coming home when she had her sunroof open and Brad Paisley turned up full blast. Marla told her Mom recently that she knew where she was going but the path from here to there was hard. It was not her desire to leave us and she fought a valiant fight. Towards the end, Marla took great comfort from reading or listening to the Bible. Her Bible, a gift from Grandma, is full of notes and cards and book-marked places. She believed in Jesus and we who share the belief that she had, have the hope and the assurance of knowing we will meet again. The words of the nieces and nephews: Jessica - remembers playing with Barbies at Marla's friend's house. She will always remember watching Jaws with Aunty Marla and how much it scared her. She also remembers Marla painting her nails, her very first Tiffany cassette tape and going shopping with her in Edmonton. Brian - remembers Aunty Marla taking Jessica and him on rides at the fair in Vermillion and betting pennies on the pony chucks. They chose them by color as he was too young to read the names on the chucks. He and Travis could always count on Aunty Marla to come out to their hockey games to cheer them on. Travis - remembers a time this past spring when he went out to Grandma and Grandpa's for a half hour visit which turned into a five hour visit as he was visiting with Auntie Marla and Uncle Jake. He also remembers, like Brian, betting on the pony chucks at the Vermillion Fair and playing games. He also remembers her always getting mad at him for wearing any baseball gear that was not the Atlanta Braves. Alisha - her fondest memory of Aunty Marla was all the road trips to Edmonton to go shopping and to get pedicures. As well, she always will remember bringing out the board games at Christmas time as well as her joyful laugh that you could pick out in a room. Carah - remembers camping together, playing games together, and Marla watching her soccer games. She also remembers Uncle Jake calling her "Carla" after going through all the "C" and "K" names while fishing. Alyssa - remembers spending time together playing games, and Auntie Marla always cheering her on at high school games and at grad. Landon - remembers Auntie Marla driving out to South Saskatchewan to watch his football team get slaughtered on a cold day in October (2 years ago). Keyla - remembers her joy of working with her 4H steer and learning the ways of clipping and leading. Koen - remembers the weekends with Auntie and helping with chores, 4H steers and playing "Risky Business". Auntie Marla always made sure he did his own adding, and they played fair. Keanna - remembers the special times of having spa day with Auntie Marla and attending the tea party at Dewberry every year. Kade - will always remember helping Auntie Marla in the garden or doing odd jobs for root beer as payment. Taylor, Jeremy and Jake - remember Auntie Marla's laugh and the family times spent around Jake and Marla's fire pit. Said in the words of Jake: "For a girl that easily inspired everyone that knew her, not only in the words she spoke, it was her smile and laughter. Oh what a laugh it was. I knew the first day I met Marla that she had a warmth in her heart and the sincerity glowed. It was never Marla first when it came to anyone of us. If it was trips to the city with the girls, watching nieces and nephews play sports or looking for wildlife. When I guided I would ask how many geese were in the field. She would say 'more than two!' and continue to look over all the birds as some were settled eating and some were flying over." "My girl, my wife, my soul-mate, my best friend. A girl that had a certain determination to be involved in all we did. We succeeded and failed together. I am fairly certain there was no individualism in our relationship. We pulled the same cart together. Marla made our house a home with her cross-stitch and decorative touch. Marla never ran out and bought anything. It always took months of planning until she found the exact item she was looking for, and that was only if it was on sale!" "The pride Marla showed in everything she did if it was gardening, calving and feeding cows or painting Easter eggs. When branding came along Marla would get ticked off if you tried to take 'her' job away which was pushing up calves. All 5ft ¼ inches of her made it look effortless. After the calf was tipped you would look up to her smiling everytime." (Kevin's interjection---Just this past spring at Gerry and Leona's, Jake and Marla and Travis and I came over to help brand calves. She told her dad to "get out of the chute and find another job to do". I only know of two exceptions to this rule. Marla allowed Brian and Koen to work in the chute with her.) " To my loving wife, I am going to greatly miss you and everything you stood for. I also know you will continue to work beside each of us with your soft touch and inspiring words. You are my angel guiding and shaping me. I will find the strength and ability to carry on your tradition. Until we meet again. Your love will be with me always and forever." Jake