PEGGY ANN STEWART

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PEGGY ANN STEWART
December 16, 1928 - June 18, 2020

Our mother, Margaret Ann (Peggy) Hooper was born in Ottawa on December 16, 1928, a child of the depression who came of age at the end of the Second World War.
The second of five children, Peggy was like another mother to her youngest sister, and called 'Little Mother' by the family. In her early teens, she spent a year confined to her bed, developing a rich and varied inner life and a life-long love of books in the process. Peggy had a lovely coloratura soprano voice which was professionally trained and which won her recognition in Ottawa Kiwanis music festivals for several years. Much later, her children got to hear that wonderful voice when she sang to them before bed.
Mom was at Notre Dame Convent for high school and then began a degree at Carlton University, where she met and married Bob Stewart, a dashing Second World War veteran. Over the next three decades, Bob, Peggy and their five children lived the kind of gypsy existence typical for armed forces families. They packed up and moved every three years, living in Ottawa, Kingston, Edmonton, Whitehorse, Shilo, London, Thorndale, Soest Germany, Camp Borden, Chilliwack and finally, Winnipeg.
Mom crossed the Atlantic on an Italian ocean liner while hugely pregnant with her final child. The family was mistakenly sent first class. Mom and Dad never forgot the exquisite luxury of the voyage which included dedicated stewards to look after the kids while they enjoyed sumptuous feasts at the Captain's Table. In the three years that followed, the Stewart family toured most of Western Europe with five kids and an old canvas tent crammed into a white Ford Falcon that could barely make it over the Alps.
Being an army wife, Mom was left to fend for herself at times. As a young mother, she was left alone with two small children and an infant during the Whitehorse winter while Dad paid troops working on the Alaska Highway. Much later, she had to wrangle four teenagers while Dad went off to Cypress as a Peacekeeper in 1966. Many pizzas were made that summer and the Beatles were on the radio. Again she was alone at the helm when Dad did peacekeeping duties in a still-dangerous Vietnam in 1973.
As her children grew, Peggy used her sewing skills to economize and clothe her family in style. Along with many outfits , she created all the costumes for the whole troupe every Halloween. Mom also created many magnificent gowns for Officers' Mess parties and fancy-dress occasions.
Peggy and Bob loved nature. When the kids came along, the gang went camping. Peggy kept the camp ship-shape, the tent well-ordered, and prepared meals on a cookstove or fire to feed her pack of hungry kids. Warm bannock with homemade jam, and pan-fried fish fresh from the lake were always popular.
Mom was a brilliant cook, and nowhere was this more evident than at the infamous Stewart Sunday dinners to which many of us returned each week for years after we left home. The tablecloth was white, the roast was bloody, the discussions animated, with an out-of-date set of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias close at hand for instant fact-checking. As kids we sat on backless benches to encourage the good posture we all enjoy to this day. Her Christmas pork pie was nothing less than legendary, but she never gave up that recipe.
For much of her life, Peggy pickled, bottled and preserved all manner of things, dispatching her small children to pick whatever was in season. There is likely a jar of pickled beets, rose hip syrup or wind-fall apple jelly stashed away somewhere.
Peggy and Bob's last stop was Manitoba, where Bob retired. They stayed for the sunny days, the people and the culture, and regularly enjoyed the symphony, ballet and the opera. They took up cross-country skiing, and with the faithful family dog, they would head off to Beaudry Park or Assiniboine Forest to ski and enjoy the birds and deer.
When their children were grown, Peggy and Bob went on canoe trips in Northern Manitoba. They dropped the canoe into waterways like the Grass River system, and let the lakes and rivers carry them along, portaging where they needed. They rested and ate lunch on rocky shores and when they found a spot they liked, they simply set up camp. Peggy and Bob were avid paddlers well into their 70s.
Peggy always had an active mind and an informed opinion. In her 50s, she went back to school to finish her Political Science Degree, making the Dean's Honour list for good measure.
Mom loved to play cards, or more accurately, to win at cards. She and Bob played in a raucous, no-holds-barred bridge club for 30 years. She loved to play Gin and Whist and even Go Fish with a young grandchild. Her real favourite was a game of cribbage with a cup of tea, at the kitchen counter, with one of her kids after school.
Peggy was a caring and active volunteer. Through the Children's Aid Society of Winnipeg, she provided loving support to a young Metis child for over 10 years. She also volunteered at the Nearly New shop, managing the shop for a time, raising money for the Children's Hospital.
Peggy lost her dear husband, Bob, in 2008. She is survived by sisters, Maureen and Penelope; children, Ian (Kerry), Cathy (Michael), Margaret (Buddy), Frances (Dan), and Jim (Anne); grandchildren, Meghan (Duncan), Lizzie (Dan), Liah (Tarek), Aiysha (Theo), Yusof, Paul, John, Grace and Katie (Steve); great-grandchildren, Talia, Ziad and Cate.
Mom passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of Thursday, June 18 at the age of 91, while in the expert and compassionate care of the wonderful people at Bethania Mennonite Personal Care Home.

She lived a life filled with love and giving, and was greatly loved in return.
We will miss her always.

If you could make a donation to the Bethania Mennonite Personal Care Home or Doctors Without Borders, Peggy would be very pleased.
A celebration of Peggy's life will be held at a later date.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jun 27, 2020