October 31, 1922 – January 14, 2011
Unexpectedly, on January 14, in Victoria, B.C. Bernice was predeceased her loving husband of 64 years, Ralph, in 2007.
She is survived by her four children, Richard (Marilyn), David (Angie), Jan (Frank) and Cathy (Rick), nine grandchildren, Kathleen, Christie, Kim, Shauna, Alex, Anne-Marie, Carrie, Dave and Lisa, and seven great grandchildren, Avery, Owen, Hudson, Ripley, Rocco, Taya and William.
Bernie was born in Stettler, Alberta and made her home in Halifax, Regina and Calgary before retiring to Maui and Victoria in 1981. Bernice’s first love in life was her husband and family. She was a talented, passionate writer and photographer with a wonderful sense of humour. She will be sadly missed by all who knew and loved her.
Private family service on Saturday January 22nd in Victoria. Flowers gratefully declined. Condolences may be offered to the family at www.mccallbros.com.
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Garth Lee
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Steve & Bonnie Lee Dear Cathy, Jan, Dick, Dave and all the Williams extended family:
Our thoughts, prayers and, hopefully, some laughs will be with you all on Saturday.
Bernice Williams was a lady that had a special wit and sense of humour. She also had that quality, found in many Burnets, to be interested in almost everything and loved life!
Over the last number of years, during our visits to Victoria with my mother, Aunt Enid, I had several opportunities to visit Aunt Bernice and Uncle Ralph. They were always fun for both of us with something new or interesting that we learned or discussed.
There were always some great stories of the past, or something that was currently impacting Bernice’s or Ralph’s life.
Often, we enjoyed a visit to an interesting site in Victoria, a favourite restaurant for lunch and, normally, concluded with a wonderful Bernice-created, Burnet-style, homemade dinner – and how good they were!
We had many fun afternoons and evening hearing the stories, jokes etc. with Bernice leading the fun and conversation.
We being Eastern Canada residents, spent more time with Aunt Bernice in the 2000’s than we had in the previous many years.
In recent years, we all enjoyed and looked forward to the visits by Bernice and Lisa to the east. Aunt Enid missed her western trips and these were a great replacement, along with their recently developed, regular e-mail communications.
Hopefully, you have some tears followed by some great memories and jokes celebrating the life of a one-of-a-kind, wonderful lady that will be sadly missed by all who were fortunate enough to know her.
Love to you all!
Steve & Bonnie Lee
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Mary-Ann Newton It’s so hard to believe that Granny is no longer with us. It’s also hard to imagine a world without her delightful, shining presence, though there’s no doubt that her amazing spirit will be with us always, as a guide and beacon to all who knew her. She was such a generous and giving person, and I offer her my heartfelt gratitude for accepting me so readily into her fold. I can only aspire to live my life as graciously as she did – with love, dignity, respect and unlimited laughter.
May there by some small comfort garnered from anticipating those future moments when a wonderful ‘Granny / Bamma’ memory will pop up out of nowhere, like a gift, and she will be there with us for a flash, bestowing humour or praise, offering encouragement or insight, or even, in my case, a gentle chiding for some silly behavior. And may champagne bubbles tickling your nose always bring to mind her sparkle and wit.
With all my love,
Mary-Ann
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Chris Neve To the Williams Family,
Please accept our condolences on your loss, from our family to yours…
Chris, Chantal, & Emma
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Ann Burnet Dear Dick, Cathy, Dave, Jan and all your families,
My deepest sympathy to you all. Aunt Benice, aka Aunt Sneezy-go Eazy. or more recently OAB (old aunt bernie) had such a wonderful life force it is hard to imagine her gone.
From my earliest memories of her- visiting you all in Calgary many years ago- to the last e-mail joke she sent I always heard her laughter. At various reunions, especially when she and Aunt Enid would go off in a corner for a chat, or when traipsing after the two sisters in Europe, reading the original (plus the “true”) story of the La, there was always a chuckle or guffaw. A warm caring woman she will be missed by many.
Best love to you all.
Ann
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Betty Lovejoy Cathy – Gordon and I are saddened by the loss of your mother. She sounds like a wonderful lady, and we know you will miss her terribly, Our deepest sympathy to you and the family,
Betty and Gordon
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Jim Neve To the Williams family,
I’m sorry for your loss. Bernie was a wonderful person who was full of life and laughter. She was an inspiration to all who knew her and will be truly missed.
Jim Neve
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Enid Lee Giachino Dear Cathy, Jan, Lisa, and all of the families,
The sudden death of my beloved sister has been a great shock to me. Most of our adult life, she has lived in Calgary, and Victoria, and I lived in the Toronto area. Both of us raising our four children and our contact were mostly through letters, and occassionally through phone. Along came, the new technology emailing, and so we started emailing one another frequently. Its a wonderful way to communicate, and chatting with Bernice was always fun especially with her wonderful sense of humour caused many giggles. Bernice has been always ahead of me in technology, especially on the computer. So, there were several times when she had to ask me nicely, “Please type your message before clicking send, It’s much more interesting that way.” I’m going to miss her very much. I will keep those memories and moments with me always.
P.S. I will be with you in spirit on Saturday.
With Love to All,
Aunty Enid
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Joy Gabel My sincerest condolences to Bernice’s family on her sudden passing.
She was an inspiration to us ‘younger’ seniors, who loved and admired her for her zest for life, love of family and positive outlook. I have been missing her lately because of her knee injury in the summer. Her wry wit will be missed here on earth, but I know she is entertaining all, on ‘the other side’!
With Love, Joy Gabel
To the Williams family.
We were shocked to hear of the sudden passing of our aunt
Bernice. Although we spent much of our lives in various parts of
this country, we visited with her often enough that we will
never forget her. She was warm and kind, had a great sense
of humour and was always a joy to her sister Enid.
We offer our condolences to all of you and will always cherish the
memories of Aunt Bernice.
sincerely, Garth & Colleen Lee