Hellan Shirley Currie

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Hellan Shirley Currie

(Née: CRAIGHILL)

October 3, 1922 - October 20, 2025

Hellan Shirley Currie passed away peacefully on Monday, October 20, 2025, at West Park Manor Personal Care Home at the age of 103. Left to cherish her memory are daughter, Norma Jean; son, Robert William (Désirée Vanderwel); grandchildren, Sarah, Sammy, and Carolyn; and numerous nieces, nephews (Lindsay, Ed, and Bill DuVal; Syd Denby; Wallace McLean and Noreen Gray; Dianne Genderon, Doorthy Macnaughten, Trudy Taylor, Georgina Curtis) and grandnieces and grandnephews. Hellan was predeceased by both parents, Henry Cyril (Sid) Craighill and Nellie Gladys Stocker; her husband of 27 years, Robert Norman Currie; her two sisters and their spouses, Marguerite Russell (Carl Russell; Glen Denby), and Ethel DuVal (Fred); her sister-in-law, Grace Jones (George Jones, Jack McLean); brother-in-law, Cameron Currie (Ruth Sandborn); and a number of her nieces (Marilyn, Arlene, and Glenda Denby; and Cheryl McLean) and nephews (Gordon Denby and Fred DuVal).

Hellan was born in Dauphin, Manitoba on October 3, 1922, and grew up in Winnipegosis, Manitoba –literally in the era of horse and buggies and before the days of refrigeration and indoor plumbing. After moving to Winnipeg as an adult, she worked at the Bank of Nova Scotia, and in later years, as a Statistics Canada interviewer and district returning officer during elections. While a dedicated “stay at home mum” she was very involved volunteering at Oxford United Church as a Sunday school teacher and at church activities such as the annual fall suppers where the kitchen was her domain. She was a founding member of The Winnipeg Schoolmasters’ Wives Association, and was very active in their activities, helping to manage finances, and raise money for scholarships offered by the association through the Winnipeg Foundation. She loved producing crafts such as Christmas ornaments for sale at church bazaars to raise funds for various organizations, knitting mittens for the Christmas Cheer Board (many of which graced the “Mittens tree” in the narthex of Westworth United Church). She also made blankets for the Winnipeg Humane Society cats in support of her daughter Norma’s passion. She loved spending time playing bridge and duplicate bridge at a high level, gardening, golfing (Breezy Bend and Charleswood), curling (Valour Road), and square dancing (Oxford United Church). She advocated for causes she believed in deeply through letter writing campaigns to newspaper editors and politicians of all stripes that she hammered out on her trusty Underwood typewriter. She loved participating in the lives of her grandchildren and jumped at any opportunity to babysit them. She consistently and enthusiastically attended every one of their school concerts, recitals, and sporting competitions. Gram was always quick to provide praise and encouragement. A favourite annual activity was sharing her love of gardening with them by planting potatoes even though the crop yields of her young protégés were less than spectacular most years. Living in her own house well into her 102nd year, she remained active with house painting, yard maintenance, and resurfaced her own driveway each year well into her 80s. She had a great sense of humour and characteristic, contagious laugh, which she maintained into her final years.

There will be a private family interment. We welcome people to a public Celebration of Life held on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. at Green Acres Funeral Home (just inside the perimeter of the city of Winnipeg). The family would like to thank her Campbell and Borebank Street neighbours, River Heights Home Care, Misericordia Hospital Transitional Floor, West Park Manor Personal Care Home administration and staff, and Green Acres Funeral Home for their thoughtful care. Special thank you to Dr. Lindsay DuVal for her attentive help over the years. In lieu of flowers please consider donations to the Schoolmasters’ Wives Scholarship Fund at the Winnipeg Foundation https://www.mycharitytools.com/gift/wpgfdn/donate?fund=92

Tributes: www.GreenAcresFuneralHome.com

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Nov 01, 2025