MARIE ANNE ARMANDE HORTENSE WILCOTT

Hortense peacefully passed away on September 27, 2023 surrounded by her children; Susan Dugard (Grant), Lucille Canart, and Evelyn Dutka (Kirk) and she is now in the arms of our Lord.

She is also survived by her grandchildren:  Michelle, Garret (Erin), Melanie and Scott Dugard; Paul (Val) Oakes, Genevieve (Mark) Bobyn, David, and Colin (Jana) Oakes; Joshua (Stacey), Sarah, and Rebecca (Graeme) Wilcott; Stephanie (Monte) and Jessica (Warren) Dutka.  Her great-grandchildren: Julien; George, Tom, and Nora; Olive and Evonne; Ava, Tavin, and Hope; and Sophie.  Her siblings Germain (Rose) Jeanson, Rita Johnson, Marcelle Dupont and in-laws Louise Jeanson, Ken Olson, and Marie Jeanson.

She was pre-deceased by her husband Julien, her son Rene, her great-granddaughter Sydney, her parents Antonin Jeanson and Anastasie Savoie, her siblings Bernard and Philippe in infancy, Clovis, Roland (Anna), Alice Olson, Philippe (Rita), Arthur (Betty) and Gerald Jeanson.

Born and raised in Lorette, mom enjoyed her formative years with her large and extended family and the community in which they lived.  The love and support of family remained a corner stone of her life until her passing. 

Following high school, she attended Maison Chapelle and soon after attained her teacher’s certificate at École Normale.  This was the start of a life-long teaching career; starting with one-room school houses in rural Manitoba, onto St-Georges and Great Falls Schools and eventually retired while at Powerview School.

Mom was a bit of a historian and knew many layers of her family tree.  She was fiercely proud of her French Canadian and Acadian roots.  Where ever mom traveled, a trip to the local (old) churches was a must and anyone who traveled with her would join her walking through graveyards in search of ancestors, relations and even familiar names to expand her knowledge of family history.

She loved playing cards, singing and crafts, and in her later years took up painting.  As children and adults, we all loved to hear stories of her childhood.  Somehow, even without a TV, mom would always keep us entertained.  She enjoyed travelling and took courses in France one summer, travelled throughout Canada and the states to visit family. Mom and dad took working vacations to buy sheep in Australia, New Zealand and visited Fiji.  It was while obtaining her first passport that mom realized that her name wasn’t Hortense at all, she joked that she would have gladly used one of her other names instead of Hortense.

She followed dad to the farm in Broadlands in the summer of 1975.  While dad was “living the dream”, mom would have preferred to live in town and wasn’t comfortable with the bountiful wildlife walking in our yard but made a home there.  She travelled with dad attending sheep shows from British Columbia to Quebec on many occasions and they made several friends within that circle.

When dad passed away, she took an apartment at Foyer Vincent, and would stay at both homes – mom sure liked the city.  Eventually, Foyer Vincent became her permanent home; close to old friends, siblings and family and she lived there independently into her 90’s.  Though we all knew that Lorette would always be the home of her heart.

She was immensely proud of all her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and celebrated each of their accomplishments.  She loved spending time with them, tried to bring them joy, and tried to feed us all constantly.

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Cremation has taken place, a celebration of life will be held on October 16, 2023 from 2-4 pm at 603 Wellington Crescent at Academy.

Au revoir Maman.

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ETHICAL DEATH CARE

Cremation & Life Celebrations

530 St. Mary Avenue - Winnipeg

204-421-5501 - www.ethicaldeathcare.com

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