Patricia Parker

Patricia Janet Parker was born on May 9th, 1931 in Edgeworth Saskatchewan, and passed peacefully from this life on January 20th, 2015 In Kelvington Saskatchewan.

She was the first girl born to Walter & Elsie Moerike. She had an older brother Carol, and had three younger sisters named Leona, Ila and Kay. She left home at a young age as many did in those days. She met and married Howard Parkinson (Howie to all that knew him) only to be widowed and left with two young girls Margaret & Irene to raise on her own.

Pat met her second husband Paul Klatik in B.C. She had their oldest son Ken in B.C., then they moved back to SK where they lived with Paul's parents until their house was built. Their family expanded to include daughter Judy, and son Tracy. Pat suffered health wise in the following years and it put a strain on the young couple. The marriage ended in divorce and Pat moved to The Pas Manitoba.

Pat met and married Clinton Parker in The Pas. While living there, Pat worked at several jobs. She was a cook at the Bus Depot where Clinton worked as a bus driver. She moved on to become a security Guard at KCC in The Pas where her mother Elsie worked in the kitchen. She then changed jobs to become a taxi driver for Cal's Cab, which she enjoyed as it gave her the opportunity to meet new people on a daily basis. She eventually moved on to work at the RCMP detachment where she felt she was able to help other people.

Pat & Clinton moved to Alberta where they rented an acreage, but they missed the north country, so they moved back to The Pas. Once back in The Pas, they both worked at whatever jobs that appealed to them. She even tried her hand as a Flag Person on a road repair crew for awhile.

Pat loved to spend time with her family and friends. She loved her grandchildren, and spent as much time with them as she could.

For those who knew Pat, they knew a lady who was always looking for a new hobby, craft, recipe or friend. She had an incredible sense of humor which made for some hilarious times in the household, as well as getting her into trouble on occasion. She had an infectious smile and laugh, and was never afraid to use either one.

Pat was a very understanding person. She had the ability to see past the darkness in people. She was always focused on their brightness instead. She was a sweet, generous woman who was never content to sit and watch life go by but rather preferred to go out and meet life head on.

She is predeceased by her father Walter, her mother Elsie, her brother Carol, her sister Ila, her daughter Margaret, her granddaughter Juanita, her grandson Terry, and her husband Clinton.

She is survived by her sisters Leona and Kay, her children Irene (Monty), Ken (Monica), Judy (Jay), Tracy (Bev), her grandchildren Twyla, Cristine, James, Weylon, Warren, Carolyn, Sabrina, Angie, Ryan, Brandi, her great grandchildren LaDonna, Faira, Veronica, Jesse, Damien, Logan, Jayden, Adaya, Nick, Angel, Brinn, Aurora, Hailie, Lucas and Kyla, as well as nieces, nephews, and cousins, other relatives and many friends.

She will be missed.

Things we remember about Mom (Grandma):

Carolyn

When I was growing up, I had the most amazing parents. They were exactly as parents should be - they worked hard, took care of us in all conventional ways, paid bills, fed and clothed us, taught us morals and values and encouraged us to develop into the people we were meant to be.

I also had the most amazing grandparents. My Grandpa Klatik thought nothing of sneaking me a shot of whiskey at family gatherings, feeding me chocolate when no one was looking, and generally being a devoted and truly admirable man with a heart full of laughter and love. And Grandpa Parker was this big gentle giant of a man (to a child) who always took the time to play with us. He was the anchor to my grandma's fireball personality. He was such a warm and loving man who also loved to laugh, and would do anything asked of him by his kids and grandkids.

Then there was my grandma.

She flew in the face of convention in every way known to man. She taught me that if you break a rule, you can live to tell the tale. She taught me that there were more ways to live your life than always colouring inside the lines. She taught me that everyone is a bit different in some ways, and some of those differences can disconnect us from each other, but only if we let them.

She taught me that sometimes, all you want to do is take off on a moped through a stubble field (and learn a painful, bloody lesson) and that forcing yourself not to just because you shouldn't do it is a boring and cold way to live life. Ice cream is meant to be eaten at 3 AM right out of the bucket if the alternative is crying in your sleep, getting the mail in your pajamas is perfectly acceptable as long as it is dark outside, and who cares if your car is new and shiny, as long as it takes you on a few adventures.

When confronted with difficult choices, most of us will always choose the lesser of two evils. Grandma was never that boring. When forced to choose between two evils, she was exactly the sort of person to pick the one she'd never tried before.

She was never willing to accept the way things were, or the way they "should" be. She was the first and most non-conforming feminist I ever met. At one point, she had more power tools than half the men I knew, and for a while she even had an entire woodworking shop set up in her garage.

After losing everything in a fire, she came out swinging and in typical Grandma style, found a new obsession and was sewing entire wardrobes. If something was worth doing, it was worth doing with enthusiasm, going completely overboard, and in her own unique way. The same thing happened with her movie collection - wall to wall racks of VHS tapes at a time when not everyone had a VCR.

She would take us for rides in her car, and she would be howling with laughter and we would be squealing. She always knew the best roads for them too, to be able to get the zero gravity moment. She was an expert thrill seeker and was able to do it on a budget. She seemed to know all the grid roads better than the highways.

She's gone now, but her impact never will be.

Judy

In a lot of ways, I never really knew my mom. As a child, I was separated from her, but I had the opportunity to reconnect with her as a teenager. She was an unconventional mom compared to what I saw growing up. My friends moms were all older than her, so it was different to have a mom who understood how important it was for a painfully shy girl to be allowed to choose clothes that fit and looked like the clothes her friends were wearing. Growing up on the farm with my grandmother as my maternal figure, I never really had those options until just shortly before I left home to live with my mom. I remember going to the store with mom to buy clothes the first time. It was such a shock, because I figured I was going to have to fight for blue jeans, and instead she walked right up to them and asked me what size I wore. Talk about knocking the wind from my sails! It was awesome!

I can remember when I asked for a cat, and we got one. It was a typical cat, and it did typical cat things, like climbing inside of empty paper bags. One day mom came home from buying groceries and an empty bag was left on the floor. I asked mom if I could go out for the evening, and of course, after a few questions, she said yes. That's when the fun began. as I ran across the floor to go to my room, I kicked the paper bag, not knowing my cat was inside. The cat came out hissing and dancing like a Halloween cat, I was dancing around with a very sore toe, and mom just about keeled over from laughter. I'll never forget the look on her face, it was priceless. She always reminded me to not kick paper bags laying on the floor for fear I could hurt something.

Mom bought Tracy and I each horses, and we loved riding them. I outgrew my horse, so mom bought a bigger horse for me to ride. Mom also loved to ride horses, and one day she took that new horse out to ride. She had an accident and wound up in the hospital with a shattered heel. It took close to two years for her to get rid of the cast. She had several cast changes of course, and after the first couple of times, she figured that I was old enough to learn how to drive the manual transmission car we had, and that's when the fun started. We jerked all the way out of the hospital parking lot and down the street. Once we were out on the grid road it wasn't so bad.... until I was supposed to gear down to make the turn into the yard. I didn't quite make it, and stalled the car. I was humiliated because I thought it would be easy. After all, I had managed to get us home without stalling it once. Mom laughed and made me try again and again until I managed to actually get us in the yard without stalling. I'm sure she went to bed that night with a sore foot and an even more sore head from all the jerking. "Good thing we had seatbelts on" is all I remember her saying. She taught me the value of repetition with that lesson, and I used her method of teaching when I had to teach my daughters to drive a standard transmission. Thank you mom!

I also remember one time when she came from Alberta to visit. It was in February, and I was pregnant with Angie. We had been over at Tracy & Bev's house the evening before and had watched a horror movie. We came home and went to bed, not knowing mom was coming with a gift for my birthday. She arrived in the early hours of the morning, and because we didn't hear her knocking on the door, she came to the window and knocked there. I had been dreaming and of course the sound became part of my now nightmare. The movie we had watched was a Stephen king vampire movie, and in it they knocked on the bedroom window late at night to get you to open it and ask them inside. I woke up a bit, and woke Jay up to check outside because I was too scared to look. It took him three tries to focus and realize it was mom, and by the time he said "It's your mom!", I was down the hall to the front door and yelling at her to never do that again because she scared the crap out of me. She thought it was hilarious and never let me forget that she spooked me so badly.

Mom used to bring me all kinds of craft things, and material, and I inherited her love of crafting and sewing. She taught me to sew, and just about anything else she had tried as a craft. She sewed everything from wedding dresses to baby blankets, and wasn't afraid to pass on her knowledge. She was also a great cook. I remember the one cake she used to make. It was a double whammy, because she had been making a carrot cake, but the wind blew the pages of her recipe book, and she wound up adding the ingredients for banana bread. By the time she realized what had happened, she figured she may as well finish it, and it turned out to be one of the best cakes ever. She was lucky like that.