Obituary of Joan Trahan

BIOGRAPHY TRAHAN ~ Joan Margaret Trahan passed away peacefully in St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on Saturday, August 22, 2009 at the age of 67 years. Joan will be sadly missed by her husband Bernard; two daughters: Beverly Trahan of Maidstone, Barbara Trahan of Lac La Biche; three grandchildren: Heather Whitney of Saskatoon, Tessa Trahan & Jordan Wilson of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tony & Natel Whitney of Cold Lake; three brothers: Angus (Mary) Grant, John (Adele) Grant, Ray (Marg) Grant; five sisters: Shirley Torresan, Kay (Jim) Robertson, Lois Ramsay, Ruth (Ray) Vetter, Maxine (Ken) Kimpton as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Joan was predeceased by her parents: Gordon and Bon Grant; infant brother: Jimmy Grant; infant grandson: Robert Gordon Whitney: brothers-in-law: Matteo Torresan and Raoul Ramsay. The funeral service was conducted from Maidstone Legion Hall, Maidstone, Saskatchewan on Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 2:00 P.M. with Reverend Don Retzlaff officiating. Niece Bonnie Bryski gave the eulogy. The hymns sung were "In The Garden" and "Jacob's Ladder" accompanied on the piano by Francis Wright. Honorary pallbearers were Keith & Verna Milner, Bob & Jackie Haight, Bill & Dorothy Kozoriz, Ron & Cora Bodnar, Yvette Young, Denise Newton and All the staff that Joan worked with over the years at Maidstone Union Hospital. Active pallbearers were Dan Filgate, Jimmy Grant, Kevin Grant, Brian Ramsay, David Torresan and Craig Torresan. Interment was held at the Maidstone Cemetery. McCaw Funeral Service Ltd., of Lloydminster, Alberta administered the funeral arrangements. CARD OF THANKS The family of the late Joan Margaret Trahan wish to thank the following: ● The doctors, nurses, and staff at Royal University and St. Paul's Hospitals in Saskatoon for the quality care given during Joan's lengthy illness. ● All those who showed support to us during this difficult time by sending floral tributes, bringing food to Beverly's house, sending charitable donations in Joan's honor, and sending cards, calling and visiting. ● A special thanks to the McCaw family for the care and compassion shown in guiding us through the funeral arrangements. Bernard, Beverly, Barbara, Heather, Tessa & Jordan, Tony & Natel. Donations in memory of Joan may be made to a charity of the donors choice. EULOGY I am both honoured and saddened to be standing before you today. I am honoured to have been asked to deliver this eulogy but sad because today we are saying goodbye to a dear wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin and friend. Joan Margaret Grant was born on October 29, 1941 in Cut Knife, Saskatchewan to the late Gordon and Bon Grant. She started her school days in a little country school in Wilbert in 1947 and I know that she truly enjoyed and cherished her childhood memories. In 1978 the Wilbert district was one of a number of districts that put out a book compiled of stories of residents, both past and present, called Blended Heritage. Joan submitted her story to that book and in preparation for this, I re-read her story. Her memories included her school days in her little country school, walking, riding horseback and being pulled in a sleigh where they picked up everyone on their way. In the spring she recalled skating on the ice that would form in the ditches. Her memories of those days were obviously happy ones as in that book she wrote, and I quote, "We had a lot of good times at our little country school, something, I think, our children really miss." She wrote in her story of her big family with 8 siblings - 3 brothers and five sisters. Her and her brother John shared many exciting childhood adventures - and a lot of them didn't go well! You see the two of them were quite mischievous and managed to find trouble or maybe trouble found them? A lot of these mishaps have become family legends like the time they got caught smoking in the chicken coop and the penalty to their sister Ruth for tattling was that her favorite doll was tossed into a pail of grease. For good measure, they threw in their sister Lois's tomcat too. The cat apparently was displeased and despite Lois's repeated attempts to bring him back home he left to permanently reside with their neighbors the Wismer's. Joan and John went crow hunting and gopher snaring and picked bottles to sell for treat money. One day when bottle picking was not going well, they found some hidden beer in the grain bin and emptied it into the barley so that they could go to the store with the bottles to buy a little treat for themselves. It wasn't until the grain started heating in the bin that the truth came out and the memory of the sweetness of those penny candies was long gone by the time the two of them got their just rewards for ruining the grain in the bin. Joan loved to dance and had some dance moves that were certainly the envy of her sisters and her Torresan nieces. You see, one year we decided to invite our aunties to an introductory and instructional Sister's weekend to show them how to have a Sister's weekend of their own. There was not one of us that could get our feet and hips to cooperate to duplicate what we dubbed as "Aunt Joan's Hootchie Kootchie dance". Her sister Ruth recalls a time when they were young women that her and Joan saw some beautiful red velvet dresses at a dress shop in Cut Knife. It took their last pennies, but they bought the dresses along with the appropriate undergarments in order to appear slimmer than the two girls actually were to wear to a New Year's Eve dance. Ruth recalls that the corsets were so restricting that they had to stand like soldiers all night. Those girdles got thrown into the closet in the guest room immediately after the girls got home - never to be worn by either of them again. Joan loved to sing as well and took to heart her dad's words of wisdom, "If you can't sing good - sing loud". Lois tells me that at Ruth's birthday party she wanted to sing and asked for a song book so she would know the words. Of course, she couldn't see the words in the dark.- but she still sang despite repeated requests for her to stop. Her granddaughter Heather who is expecting Joan's first great grandchild said that her Grandma sang to her unborn baby on the last day of her life. Her sister Kay recalls with great fondness, the memories that were made at the very first Grant Sister's Weekend that Joan hosted in the summer of 2002. She recalls the gales of laughter and giggling as the sisters reminisced, prepared meals together, tried on old shoes and attended an auction sale that Uncle Bernard was working at that weekend to check out the wares. I've always been scared to ask Uncle Bernard whether he was pleased to see his lovely wife and her sisters that day. Joan left home at a very young age to earn her way in the world. After a short stint as a telephone operator in Cut Knife and working in a store in Lacadena Joan started working at the Maidstone Union Hospital in 1958. It was then that she met Bernard Trahan and they married on February 8, 1961. During their courtship our family lived in Maidstone as well and her and Uncle Bernard spent many evenings at our house visiting. Her and her sister Shirley, (who happens to be my mom) shared many laughs and made many memories during those times. Shirley remembers the help she got from her younger sister when I went off to school and brought home to my 3 younger brothers and sister every childhood illness you could imagine - mumps, measles and chicken pox. The forty-eight years of marriage that Joan and Bernard have shared have been filled with many happy and fun-filled memories. Bernard spent countless hours at the hospital with Joan over the course of the last nine months and never gave up on the hope that she would return home by his side to continue their life together. Joan was the mother to two daughters, Beverly and Barbara. Beverley was born on February 10, 1963 and Barbara on September 28, 1964. During the years of the girls growing up the big yellow school bus that had been converted to a camper covered many miles and saw many camping trips with their family friends as well as with Joan's siblings. Joan's daughters recall all the fun they had on weekends as a family. They used to go to a different lake almost every weekend all summer. In the winter there was cross country skiing adventures and skidooing to friends' places for bon fires or just to visit. Both Beverly and Barbara expressed their love of the times spent with their mom's large family at Wilbert and the enjoyable get-togethers filled with so much laughter and merriment. Beverly recalls her and Barb's teenage years where the adventures and antics of the two of them caused their mom no end of worry and upset. Joan's three grandchildren meant the world to her. She was always happiest when one or all were around. If you look around her house you will see many pictures of her family but the majority or those photos are of Heather, Tessa, and Tony. The mischievousness of her childhood remained with her throughout her life as did her sharp wit. Aunt Joan was a very witty woman -and was known for her quick comebacks and comments in any situation. She would not hesitate to let you know what she thought of your actions. Being the small world that it is, I have the good fortune to work with the mother of one of the nurses named Heather who cared for Aunt Joan in St. Paul's Hospital in the Personal Care Unit. When Heather's mother told her my Aunt's name Heather told her mom that she loved Joan and that she was very, very funny and teased the nurses a lot. I'm sure that Heather's comments and feelings towards Aunt Joan were shared with her colleagues at the hospital. One incident that I found very amusing occurred after Aunt Joan was transferred from RUH to St. Paul's. One of the drain tubes had come out and the doctor from RUH was contacted. He asked that she come back to RUH by ambulance for him to re-insert the tube and then be shipped back to St. Paul's. Aunt Joan's response to that was that she would be pleased to have her husband come and give the doctor a ride there and back if he didn't have a car to come to her. I'm sure everyone here could tell of at least one incident in their relationship with Joan where she told them what she thought and in no uncertain terms. She shot from the hip and you always knew exactly where you stood with her. One of the many memories that Heather has of her grandma was that whenever they played Uno, she always tried to play a 2 whenever...and would say "why can't I do that?" or "it's a two" ....She didn't like to pick up two when there was a plus two to her....but she liked to dish them out to others. The last thing Joan said to Heather was to look after her baby and to tell the baby all about her. She had been trying to feel the baby kick ever since it had started to move but the baby was always asleep. On the last day, she finally got to feel the baby kick and she looked so happy. Joan fought a very long and valiant battle over the past 9 months of her life. From the end of November of last year when she came to the hospital in Saskatoon to have a broken arm reset until last weekend she endured many medical procedures, tubes, testing and surgeries and many diagnosis's that would have sent a lot of people into a deep, dark mood. Throughout it all, she maintained her sense of humor and her dignity and most of all her spirit. Many, many times over the past months I have said to Uncle Bernard that I can't believe how she maintained her positive attitude despite going through set back after set back and bad news after bad news. These months have been particularly difficult for Joan and for all of her family. Bernard, Beverly and Barbara knew that she appreciated all that they did for her over these past months and they have expressed their gratitude for all of the gifts that Joan has brought to their lives over the years. And now, far too soon, her journey in this world has come to an end. And as sad as that is for her husband, her daughters, her grandchildren and all of us here today who knew and loved her - she is at rest and at peace. No more vent - no more feeding tubes just the hope and faith that someday we will all meet again.