August 22, 2020
1932-2020 ~ The Sparkes family is saddened to announce the passing of our Mom, Mary, wife of Brian on Saturday, August 22 at the age of 88. Mary died at home, with family in attendance and was at peace and comfortable during her last weeks of life.
Mary was born in 1932, in Middlesbrough England, and trained and worked as a nurse in London in her late teens and twenties. We liked to hear about her tales as a midwife because back then, midwives used bicycles to attend to the birthing moms in their homes.
She met Brian on a European holiday and after marriage, gave up her urban London life to follow him to several farming positions in England before they emigrated to Agassiz to afford their own farm.
Mary lived on Bear Farm on Kamp Road for the next 60 years, raising four kids and a variety of dogs and budgies. Mom was known as an expert shopper, with a taste for expensive British mail order catalogues.
She was a quick learner and was always up for a challenge, whether it was going for groceries in a three ton farm truck with manual steering, or learning to use a computer back when there was no such thing as an operating system.
Mom was also a prolific reader and chewed through hundreds of murder mysteries. She supplied Brian who could not have found a library (or grocery store) with a map, with all his reading material. They spent many evenings together reading as the farm never did have or need a television.
Mary leaves behind her sister Margaret, husband Brian, sons Martin (Kim), Ian (Maria) and daughters Catherine (Holger) and Laurinda. She was also grandmother to 12 grand children, all of whom affectionately called her Gee.
A prayer service will be held for Mary, and the family requested that you contact us if you wish to attend in order to respect the provincial covid guidelines. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation to the Agassiz Horticultural Association to provide a legacy prize in Mary's name for gardening at the annual fall fair, as gardening was one of Mary's passions.