Tribute

Marilyne (Mom) arrived in Powell River during the 1950s from Medicine Hat, Alberta to help her older sister Dorothy out with her four kids. Dorothy’s husband Peter was the editor of the Powell River News at the time.

She decided to stay and took a job at the drugstore, and while working there lent some money to a newly arrived Scotsman, Jimmy Jones. It was in the retrieving of the money that their story began.

Marilyne and Jimmy married in the church on the corner of Sycamore Street and Ash Avenue and after a series of moves lived in the tiniest house you ever saw in Cranberry. There they had the first of two daughters.

Marilyne settled in to raise the kids. She kept house and gardened, baked bread (the failures Jimmy said would be used as bricks), picked berries to make jam and pies, sewed and along the way expressed her artistic streak through pottery and painting. She was the family ornithologist and knew the local birds by name and habit. The kids were often sent running to fetch the “bird book.”

Marilyne and Jimmy travelled and lived abroad. Turkey, Egypt, Greece and far and wide, no matter where they went Marilyne kept house and did the shopping. Who can say they found cornflakes on the Sidi Bishr (Alexandria) and rode a camel with curlers in their hair? She was the one you wanted along for the trip since she was as adept as Jimmy was hapless at making and following travel arrangements.

They sailed; Marilyne was a fair-weather sailor but as usual she was the one behind the scenes making sure everyone was fed, washed and clothed and that Tantrum was clean and tidy. She loved the steady stream of visitors to the cockpit for “happy hour.” She also loved her grandkids. Gramma was the haircutter, the meal maker, the toy buyer, the fever breaker, the cuddler and ever patient audience to all of the family shenanigans. She was the one you could count on.

Marilyne is survived by her daughters Jeannette Jones (Tim Young) and Shirley (John) Theal, grandchildren Jamie (Loren) Brown, Stuart (Danielle) Bolen, Erinn (Nick) Sherris and Andrew Bolen. She was “GG” or great-grandma to Ryder Sherris who was her little pal. She is also survived by her sisters Dorothy Mossey, Pat McCulley and Carol Skidmore as well as cousin Phyllis Simmons. She was predeceased by her husband of 49 years Jimmy Jones.

Mom passed away peacefully in Powell River General Hospital with family by her side. In lieu of flowers please donate to the Powell River Stroke Club or the Little Sprouts Gardening program (PREP).