Remembering Sophie
I’ve written thousands of stories during my career.
In this line of business, you write many tragic stories, you write happy stories, and you also write quirky stories. Those last ones can stick with you years after you write them.
It’s very rare when the same person is involved in two of them.
That’s why it was with a bit of sadness that I saw theobituary for 103-year-old Sophie Nemislast week— but I also chuckled.
You see, it wasn’t the first time Sophie had been declared dead. But I will explain that later.
I first met Sophie on Sept. 15, 2014, when her son, Dan, called us to say his mother, then 97, had just received documents from Manitoba Justice saying she had to go to the Law Courtsto sit in a jury poolwith the possibility of sitting on a jury of someone’s peers at a trial.
“I thought it was a joke—I couldn’t believe it,”she told mewhen I went to her North End apartment within a stone’s throw of the historic Ukrainian Labour Temple.
“At my age? About 20 years ago it would have been good. My mind was quite a bit clearer then.”
At the time, Sophie used a wheelchair and had hearing aids. She needed people to speak clearly and slowly. And she needed frequent bathroom breaks.
Not surprisingly, the scales of justice tipped in favour of excusing her.
Then, two years later, Sophie’s son called again—his mother had been at the Seven Oaks General Hospital for a few weeks, being treated for a sprained ankle, when a nurse called him with the news he feared: his mom had just died.
“She said it three times: ‘Daniel, your mother has passed’. After the third time she says, ‘Whoops, wrong person,'”Dan said.
Sophie’s son might see the humour in it now, but at that time Dan said he had already fallen to the floor overcome with grief. The hospital apologized several times, but Dan said he would never forget how he felt taking that phone call.
“Now when I get the phone call in future, my five siblings will cry, but I won’t,” he said at the time. “My mother has already died.”
I don’t know whether Dan cried or not when Sophie passed on May 9, but I will always remember Sophie—and her matter-of-fact attitude to learning she’d died on that day in October 2016.
“I thought it was terrible announcing my death,” Sophie said, then adding, “They’d already done nothing for me for three weeks.”
How They Lived
You could say Carol Billett was the original Ms. Purdy— or at least one of them.
Billett, who died on April 4 at 71, was one of the three women who started Ms. Purdy’s, which became one of the longest-running gay and women’s clubs in Canada. Billett didn’t stop there: as a passionate environmentalist she was a founder of the Save Our Seine Project, and as a strong feminist she was a chair of the Women’s Health Clinic.
She was also proud of the work she did with the Mincome project, a federal-provincial project to see what the social impacts would be if residents in Dauphin and parts of Winnipeg were paid a guaranteed annual income. Read more about Carol.
Norman James (Jimmy) Johnson grew up in Tyndall with family, friends— and hockey.
He made his NHL debut with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1967, and finished playing with the Los Angeles Kings, before switching to the World Hockey Association and skating with the Minnesota Fighting Saints and Indianapolis Racers. He opened Jim Johnson’s Sports Centre in Transcona and continued to play and coach.
Tragically, his 19-year-old son, Kyle, an up-and-coming junior hockey player with the Melfort Flyers and the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s leading goal scorer, died while on a wilderness adventure in northern Ontario in 2000.
The family asked that donations in memory of Jimmy be sent to the Kyle Johnson Memorial Foundation at The Winnipeg Foundation. Read more about Jim.
Rudi Engbrecht must have had a high-school English teacher who didn’t like him. He grew up in Boissevain and, after repeatedly failing Grade 12 English, he completed a BA at United College and was taking English as part of his MA when his English teacher said he should go to Harvard to get his PhD in English.
He decided instead to teach English, and he taught it for a year at Aberdeen Junior High, six years at Kelvin High School and 19 years at Grant Park High School. He then became the school division’s English consultant and a faculty advisor for teacher candidates at the University of Manitoba. Read more about Rudi.
When nurse Stella Locker moved with her husband and three sons to the new mining community of Thompson in 1963, she was told she couldn’t work as a registered nurse there because the Inco-owned hospital only hired single women.
So she left nursing and went into real estate. Before she died on April 29 at 87, Stella had been a realtor, the province’s first female certified property manager, and a city councillor for six terms over 25 years. She established both the Thompson Chamber of Commerce and the Thompson Festival of Arts, and served as president and on the executive of the latter for two decades. Read more about Stella.
Abellardo (Billy) Tamondong had 11 children with his first wife before she died.
He remarried and it was thanks to the sponsorship by his second wife, who had two children of her own before marrying him, that both he, and all 11 of his children, were sponsored to move to Canada from the Philippines. He was 86 when he died on May 3. Read more about Billy.
You may have recently readthe tragic story of Kim Kotelo, the young woman who died of COVID-19 after working her entire nursing career during the pandemic.
In her obituary, her family describes how Kotelo, who had Type 1 diabetes, helped and supported patients who also had diabetes. Kotelo died on April 30 at just 26 years old. Read more about Kim.
Stanley Martin served in the Second World War and came back to work at Canada Post. But after two heart attacks, a bout of cancer and continued ill health, Martin retired in 1979 to relax for however many years he had left.
Turns out, retirement was good for him. He helped the local scouting movement, the Canadian Polish Athletic Club, and the Fraternal Aid Society of St. John Cantius, and he lived another four decades until dying at age 99 on May 1. Read more about Stan.
A Life’s Story
SUPPLIED
Kipp Kocay died April 7 at the age of 34.
At only 34 years of age, Kipp Kocay had a short life but it was filled with music. His music journey began when he was only two and could sing notes perfectly. Later on he could quickly pick up and master new instruments and he went on to create five self-produced albums.
But there was more than that and that’s why Free Press reporter Eva Wasney profiled Kocay’s life in our A Life’s Story feature. You can read it here.
Until next time, I hope you continue to write your own life’s story.
