Jean Card: March 5-1921 – April 9, 2019

March 6, 1921 - April 9, 2019

Mike Card’s grandmother died.

Of course Richard wanted to go to the funeral, since Mike’s grandmother had talked to him the same way she talked to Mike: frankly, giving lots of good advice.

I came to the funeral pay my respects and Alice wanted to go to the funeral as well, so her mom got her dressed up in church clothes and away we went.

Jennifer Logan gave the biography for Jean and her granddaughter, Caitlin Logan gave the gospel message.

LtoR: Arta Johnson and Mike Card

There were some take-aways which Richard and I discussed long after the funeral was over.

Take away number one: Jean like a good funeral.

The criteria was a short programme and lots of good food, so that was the intention of those who spoke.

After some funeral biographies I am left feeling, I wish I had known this person better. 

Mike told me we would look better in black and white
so he took an alternate picture.
Fewer skin blemishes, he said.
I think Jean would have laughed at that.

This was the case for me at this funeral.

Jean was a brilliant woman, graduating from school at the age of 14, but they had to wait until she was older to give her a diploma.

Jean was a child born during the depression and knew well the phrase, “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

She married a career military man and so she became accustomed to moving her children and her household, sometimes at a minutes notice and she did this for the course of his career.

I think I was touched by two things.

When they moved back to Calgary, she taught at Van Horne, a school that gathered together teens with multiple problems.

She taught in the Home Economics room – training people to make beds or simple meals. Many students kept in contact with her long after they had graduated.

The miracle of her room was that often there were people sitting in class who were not registered to be there. Jean gathered everyone in.

While she was teaching there, she also went back to school since she her training had only been one year at the Normal School back in the 1930's.  Jean got her degree while teaching and still taking care of her family.  Once at church a man spoke on the evils of working mothers.  Jennifer remembers her mother approaching the man and letting him know that a woman could work, take care of her family, take courses at the university and still have time to crotchet the yellow dress her 9 year old daughter was wearing that day.

The other outstanding sentence for me at the funeral came from the talk by her grand daughter who said, "I lived with my grandmother for four years. I love her.

Alice wondering how long the funeral will be.
She doesn't know the answer is short and good food.

Caitin’s words reflected how she treasured this woman who had to have been at least 60 years her senior. I consider that some small feat.

Although good music was not a criteria for a good funeral, there was that also for Jean Card: a professional string quartet – 2 violins, a cellist and a pianist – all of whom were her relatives.

... Alice's hair finished off with a white ribbon...

Richard did like one other phrase that Caitlin reported Jean would use with people, a phrase from Thoreau: by wasting one’s time, one does injury to eternity.

Thus, Jean’s knitting needles were always moving, doing projects for others.

As I said, an acquaintance for me, a distance relative for Kelvin and a person I wish I had known better.

Arta