ROBERTA (RICKY) ISABELLE MAY

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ROBERTA (RICKY) ISABELLE MAY The youngest of six children, Roberta (Ricky) Isabelle Cooke was born in Winnipeg on January 19, 1932. Except for nine years living in Dauphin and one in Thunder Bay, she spent her whole life here. She was married on September 22, 1951 to John (Jack) Henry May until he passed away on August 17, 2009. Awarded a scholarship in Interior Design she travelled to Boston Massachusetts in 1950. Early in her married life she worked as an interior designer, later on leaving her career to raise her family. Ricky will be remembered for her strong personal sense of style and the great amount of energy she brought to anything she was involved in. She actively participated in basketball and volleyball as a young adult and continued to excel at curling into her 60s. She loved to watch and was quite knowledgeable about figure skating and synchronized swimming. She succeeded in teaching and supporting her children in academics and a number of sports. Her desire for excellence combined with her remarkable energy made her successful at almost everything she pursued. One of the things she loved was to grow house plants and for many years she would expand from growing about 500 plants in the winter to close to a 1000 plants during the summer. She held many a plant sale in her driveway and gifted many of her friends and family with special plants. Ricky also loved finding bargains at garage sales and would often hunt down a needed item for family or friends. Her passion for reading and doing crossword puzzles complemented her strong reasoning skills which she would quickly demonstrate when playing cards, especially bridge. She also cultivated many friends with these similar interests. With her health in decline because of dementia, Ricky entered a personal care home when she was 77. She recently developed complications from pneumonia and hip surgery and passed away on July 14, 2011. Ricky is survived by her three loving sons: Kelly of Saskatoon, Patrick of Vancouver and Terry of Winnipeg, and 10 grandchildren. She is also survived by her loving sister Joyce Karle of Thunder Bay. The family expresses their heartfelt gratitude for the devoted care given to Ricky by her niece Beth and for the time her other nieces spent with Ricky the past few years. The family also wishes to thank the many other relatives for all their assistance since Ricky's memory started to fail in early 2009. The family also appreciates the thoughtful and caring staff at Vista Park Lodge. A celebration of Ricky's life will be held at Canad Inn at 1824 Pembina Hwy. on July 27 at 4:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, friends and family who choose may make a donation in Ricky's memory to the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jul 21, 2011