“A good 101 years”

Mary was born during a snowstorm in Scott, Saskatchewan 25 miles from her first home in Rockhaven where she lived until the age of 11.  At 100 years old she could still name and place all of the families and businesses in that little town where her father, the local blacksmith is buried.

The Lazenby family moved to North Battleford and it was there that she would eventually meet and marry her RAF sweetheart, Henry. When their first daughter, Carolyn was 6 months old, Henry shipped out to India and Malaya for 3 years and Mary returned to live with her father in Rockhaven.  Arthur built a huge dining room table and Mary opened the kitchen to cook for the railway crews and other transient workers until Henry returned.

After the war, during a few years spent working in the mines in Coleman, Alberta the family gained two more daughters along with the start they needed to buy their first home for a whopping $750. When the mines started to go slack a few years later they returned to North Battleford and the eventual arrival of a son. It was in the ’60s when all but the eldest daughter left the prairies to relocate to Abbotsford but those years in between were filled with Mary and Henry working hard at several jobs to slowly save and build themselves their first new house.

From early childhood spent tenting at the lake she had always been a camper and even through the hard years, time was always made for Sunday hot dog roasts at the river or the springs and annual round trips through Yellowstone and the states up to Vancouver and back through the provinces. It followed that well past retirement the years were filled motorhome memories interspersed with European tours and cruises.

Mary was very gifted. She played the piano, had a beautiful singing voice, and was a talented artist but it was her accomplishments as a seamstress that added to the coffers for the new home and beyond. She sewed for many people for over 60 years but her real love was designing costumes…from wedding gowns and square dance outfits to period dresses and ‘just-for-fun’ Halloween outfits.

Mary lost Henry just 12 days after celebrating their 75th anniversary. It has been a lonely 5 years without him and with Covid separating her from friends and familiar activities, she was more than ready to join him. As our family historian, we are grateful that before she left us, she spent many years compiling the past for all of us to learn from, to remember and to share.

Mom lived a long and healthy life and it was only the last three weeks that would cause her distress with the discovery of advanced pancreatic cancer. She left this world peacefully and painlessly at 3:40 on New Year’s Eve with her good friend Diann and daughter Dianna by her side.

It is with mixed emotions that we celebrate the end of her long journey here on earth and the joy of her reunion with her beloved Henry and still yet we are saddened by the silent closing of the door on this generation of our family.  

She will be dearly missed by daughters Dianna Ponting (Dan Sloggett), and Iris Slootweg (Jake), son Derek Lloynd, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and a great, great-grandson. Mary was predeceased by her brother Frank, eldest daughter Carolyn Zulynik, granddaughter Melissa Lloynd and Henry, her loving husband of 75 years.

The family would like to thank the wonderful staff at Holmberg House Hospice for the gentle care during her final days. A donation to BC Cancer Foundation would be appreciated in lieu of flowers. A graveside memorial will be held in the summer sunshine.

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