Thelma Toovey

Memorial Service

Saturday, May 2nd

11:00 a.m.

Kelvington Community Hall

Thelma Katherine (Bjorgaard) Toovey was born on March 4, 1923, on a farm near Kronau, Sask., to Oliver and Rachel Bjorgaard. At this time she had one older brother, Russell. Shortly after Thelma's birth, the family moved to Bracken, Sask., where they started farming. In 1934 the drought became so bad that they decided to head north to the Kelvington area where things looked somewhat better. By this time brothers Cecil and Gerald had been born. The family of six headed out with a team of horses and a hayrack along with a few head of cattle and a few chickens in a crate. Along the way, Russell rode his horse and herded the cattle while the others rode on the hay-rack. At night the hayrack became the roof over their heads as they made their beds and slept under the rack. This trip took them to a piece of land north of Perigord, which they claimed as their homestead. Two more brothers, Keith and Mervin, were born there.
Thelma and her five brothers all took their schooling at Bells Hill School, south of Greenwater Lake. They either walked or drove the horses to school, depending on whether the horses were needed at home for field work or not. At age 14, Thelma quit school and went to work for various families in the Kelvington area, doing housework, cooking and looking after children.
During the second World War, Thelma boarded the train to Ajax, Ont., where she worked in the munitions factory for Defence Industries Ltd., making anti-aircraft shells and later as a riveter on the aircraft wings.
When the war ended, Thelma returned to Saskatchewan. This is where she met Bob Toovey, who was from the Kinloch area, and they married in November 1946. They made their home at Kinloch and this is where they raised their three children, Janice, Garry and Sharon.
Thelma was a great gardener and would spend most of the daylight hours of summer out working in her garden. She always managed to grow the best garden in the worst soil. She always insisted on planting twice as many potatoes as the family needed, and ended up either selling the remainder of them or giving them away to get rid of them.
Thelma and Bob spent many years milking Holstein cows and selling the cream to help pay the grocery bill.
After Bob's passing in 2001, Thelma bought a little house in Kelvington and moved off the farm. Here she became somewhat of a social butterfly, going to all the teas and walking to Fran's or the bakery everyday for afternoon coffee.
As time passed, she moved into the Villa, where she was happy to have the company of the other residents living there and always had somebody with whom to visit. She insisted on making lunch for Sharon everyday from the first day she moved into town right until the day she went into the hospital.
Thelma was admitted to the Red Deer Nursing Home in Porcupine Plain, where she passed away on March 2nd,two days short of her 92nd birthday.
Thelma was predeceased by her husband, Bob; her parents, Oliver and Rachel; brothers, Russell and Cecil; sister-in-law Doris Stocks, and brother-in-law, Alvin Toovey.
She is survived by her children, Janice (David) Salmond, Garry (Helen) Toovey, and Sharon (Mark) Fletcher; grandchildren, Sherry (Dean) Ryhorski, Ken (Keisha) Patenaude, Donna (Brad) Wolstenholme, Paul Miller, Eric Toovey, Ronald Toovey, Erin (Shaun) Cairns, Crystal (Murray) Giesbrecht, Amber Fletcher (Nick Carleton); eight great-grandchildren and three great, great-grandchildren; brothers, Gerald (Mary), Keith (Frances), and Mervin (Diane); sisters-in-law, Angela Bjorgaard, Leapha (Don) Goodman, and Elsie Bellevance, and brother-in-law Glen (Shirley) Toovey.