It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our Mother, Grandmother and sister, Harriet Chase, the afternoon of February 6, 2013, in Revelstoke, B.C., with family beside her.
In the home of Harriet’s birth, Pantyffynnon, Carmarthenshire, in South Wales, her life was filled with love and caring, family and life-long friends, music and chapel. From childhood Harriet would sing; it was expected of her to come home with prizes from the local Eisteddfod, which she did.
While serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service Harriet met Canadian Thomas Grant Chase and a few years after their marriage made the voyage to Canada with toddler Miriam and baby Grant. Tom’s sisters met them, Easter-time, in Vernon, B.C., which would become their family home for over fifty years.
Mam to Miriam Elaine (David) Williams, Andrew George Grant (d Dec. 13, 1993), Thomas Keith (d. Feb., 1948), Pamela Gwyneth Montgomery, Howard Emmett Kent, and Elizabeth (Keith) Hollingsworth; Mam-gu to Keith (Lisa) Chase, Sasha (Michael) Chamberlin, Donovan (Sylvia) and Matthew (Patti) Montgomery, and twenty great-grandchildren; sister of Freda Kathleen (Dennis) Colbourne of Alcester, England. Cousins in Wales, nieces and nephews mourn with us.
In choirs always, enjoying especially the Vernon Ladies’, Trinity Chancel and Okanagan Symphony choirs and Scott Singers; long-time membership with Trinity United Church and their Hi-Lo Unit; piano and vocal lessons; to be home with family, knitting, reading, writing letters, adding a few lines of verse from poems she would collect. Harriet met life’s challenges with determined strength, maintained deep loyalty to her Welsh upbringing, was superbly bilingual. It wasn’t until March 1977 that, with Tom and Elizabeth, Harriet returned to visit family in England and Wales and, after Tom’s death April 13, 1992, traveled alone to her homeland in March 1993.
Harriet was so appreciative of Dr. Molder’s care, the assistance of Queen Victoria Hospital staff during her brief stays there, and staff at Pharmasave. Her family thanks Rev. Ken Jones for his times with Harriet, and Gary and Chrissie Sulz of Brandon Bowers Funeral Service.
Although a formal funeral was not desired, Harriet’s family and close friends will gather in Vernon on March 27 for a memorial service.
Diolch am fod ein Mam a Nain, rydym yn caru ti.
Nos da, Mam, Mam-gu.