SOPHIE GLADE (SMILAR)

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SOPHIE GLADE
(nee SMILAR)
October 14, 1930 - January 3, 2021

After 90 years of joy and pain, and laughter and love, mom, baba, sister, auntie and friend, Sophie closed her eyes for the final time on January 3, 2021. She spent the last two weeks of her life alone, in a hospital, separated from those who loved her most, while battling Covid-19.
Sophie started her life in Musidora, Alberta where she lived on a farm with her parents, Metro and Mary Smilar, and her brothers and sisters - Edward, George, Olga, Josie and Ann. She met and married her husband James after the war, eventually moving, first to Edmonton, Alberta, then Two Hills, Alberta, and finally to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they would live out the rest of their days.
Sophie gave birth to four sons, George (Brenda), Charles (Carol), and twins, Theodore and Terrance, along with one son and a daughter who sadly both passed away shortly after birth - a loss she mourned for her whole life. In the late 1950s, Sophie was involved in a severe car accident. Despite a hospital stay of almost a year, Sophie overcame seemingly impossible odds to recover and return to her old life. She worked hard, sometimes four to five part time jobs at once, to help provide for her family, but she was always the life of the party. Sophie had a love of living and saw the good in everyone. Any stranger she met became her lifelong friend within minutes; she was always up for a laugh, a spin around the dance floor, a rousing game of crib or rummy (which the entire family joked she cheated at constantly) and every now and then, a little bit of white rum on the down low. She was skilled in the kitchen - her ladyfingers, donuts, pierogi, holopchi and meatballs being required eating at any family gathering.
Sophie loved being a baba, a role which gave her a chance to help raise the girls she never had. She had five grandchildren - Karen (Steve), Tracy (Adamo), Sarah (Mike), Laura and Jon (Linsey), and thirteen great-grandchildren. She and James played host to numerous sleepovers, and would spend every Christmas morning driving from house to house to watch all the grandkids open their presents no matter the weather, often getting started at three or four in the morning and going until noon, before hosting a big family dinner in the evening.
James passed away in January of 1985, leaving Sophie to navigate life as a widow. She faced this new challenge as she did with everything else in her life - head on. She may have stumbled a time or two, but she emerged from her grief a fiercely independent woman who wasn't going to let anyone tell her what to do. With the help of a dear friend, she acquired a place to summer her trailer at Hillside Beach, and spent many years enjoying cottage life - days, weekends and weeks at a time. It was one of her very favourite places.
Along with her husband James, Sophie was predeceased by her sons, Charles in 2000 and Terrance in 2016, along with siblings, George, Edward, Josie and Olga.
Cremation will occur, with interment to follow at Brookside Cemetery at a later and safer date.
The family wishes to thank the nurses and doctors at the Grace Hospital who took care of her during her final fight, along with all friends and family who offered prayers, well wishes and offers of help in a time when helping is not without risk.
In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to your favourite charity in Sophie's name.

www.voyagerfuneralhomes.com

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jan 09, 2021