ROSEMARY THERESA CONKLIN (BOEHM)

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ROSEMARY THERESA CONKLIN
(nee BOEHM)

Born October 12, 1928, in Archerwill, Saskatchewan, to Ralph and Victoria Boehm. Rosemary was the youngest of four children, and was predeceased by brothers, Stanley, Albert and John.
Rosemary attended high school at Holy Ghost School in Winnipeg in the 1940s, where she formed lifelong friendships with Lillian Kubish and Jean Green. With Lillian, she attended and graduated as class president in 1951 from the nursing program at Misericordia Hospital. After graduation she worked at Misericordia as head nurse of the maternity ward.
She married John (Jack) Conklin in 1951. She married him again in 1952, and a third time in 1976 (long story!). They lived on Rosewarne Avenue in Winnipeg where they had four children: Gail, James, Paul, and Roberta. When Jack retired in 1964 the family moved to Victoria, BC, where Rosemary returned to work as a nurse in a long-term care home. When Jack died in 1978, Rosemary stayed for a few years in Victoria, and then lived in southern Ontario and Winnipeg from 1983 to 1996. She then moved to the Okanagan Valley where she lived until she died.
Above all, Rosemary loved her children and grandchildren, and the family cottage at Victoria Beach, where she cultivated a prize-winning flower garden. She was a consummate cook, and she loved to join in on little jokes and pranks that would bring laughter to others. She was an avid reader, and had her children reading well before they began school, and books and magazines were always scattered through her homes. Rosemary was a quiet person who had deep relationships with close friends, and who loved her many nieces and nephews.
It is hard to put into words what Rosemary means to those who knew and loved her. She had a rare combination of kindness and grit, a quiet but firm sense of justice, and a jolly sense of humour. She volunteered for Amnesty International for many years, and supported numerous charities. People would confide in her because of her seemingly boundless capacity to understand, accept and support. Rosemary listened to and held those who needed help. She stayed with and selflessly supported her husband through his long, sad journey with addiction, and she counseled, supported and helped her children as they worked their way out of the entanglements of an alcoholic home.
Rosemary spent her final years in Cottonwoods Care Centre in Kelowna, where she died in her sleep on August 24, 2020.
She is survived by daughter Gail Hourigan (Karl), grandson Demian Seale, son Jamie Conklin (Susan), granddaughter Emily Rowe (Kris) and great-grandson Leo, and grandson John (Leanne).
We say goodbye to Rosemary with a few lines from John Keats, her favourite poet:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Sep 12, 2020