MACDONALD, Reginald “Reg”

The funeral for Reginald “Reg” MacDonald of Charlottetown was held on Monday, July 18, 2016 from the Hennessey Cutcliffe Charlottetown Funeral Home Chapel where the funeral service was conducted by Allan MacKinnon, friend of the family, who also gave the eulogy. Psalm 23 was read by Leonard McGuigan, friend of the family. During the service, special musical selections were The Dance by Garth Brooks, Old Man by John McDermott and Be Not Afraid by Robert Dufford. Soloist and guitarist Danny MacKinnon, godson, performed Hallelujah. The committal service was performed by Allan MacKinnon in the funeral home chapel. It has been one year since our Mom passed away peacefully after a brief illness at Souris Hospital surrounded by her loving family at the age of 92. Born in Chepstow, she was the daughter of the late Syl and Belle (MacKinnon) MacDonald, wonderful mother of six children, twelve grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. After growing up on the family farm, she completed her education at Prince of Wales College, Charlottetown in 1943. She began her teaching career in East Baltic, Souris Public and Fortune schools. In 1949, she married Pius Andrew Campbell from Campbell’s Cove. As was the custom at that time, she stayed at home to raise their family and to help with their mixed farming operation in Little Harbour. She returned to teaching at Little Harbour School in 1966, just one year after the death of their youngest daughter, Lynn. Later she moved to Souris Consolidated School where she completed her teaching career. When Dad died in 1988, Mom sold the farm and moved into a new house in her daughter and son-in-law’s yard in Souris. Mom was a teacher of life and a teacher to all. Through her committed approach to the importance of education, Mom left a legacy of strong minded youth, both in her family and the community. Teaching to her was a high priority, whether it was teaching her students for 23 years, helping a 4-H member put the trimmings on a speech (as she used to call it), showing a grandchild how to play a game of 45’s, or telling us about the newest food known to lower your cholesterol. It was her love to teach about life. Mom was always passionate about volunteer service. She served the 4-H program for 40 years with Souris Line Road Yaks and Chepstow-Little Harbour Clubs. She had 30 years service with the Women’s Institute of Little Harbour. She volunteered for 22 years with “Home Care and Support” doing friendly visits and providing transportation. For 20 years, she served the Canadian Cancer Society - PEI Division as Campaign Chairperson for Eastern Kings unit (Midgell to East Point). She was on the “Board of Governors” for Holland College. She taught religion for St. Mary’s Parish in Souris for 20 years. In her parish, she was also a lay minister, member of the Parish Council and served as a rosary leader. When anyone passed away in the community, she was there with her pan of biscuits. Mom had an infectious desire and sense of responsibility to lobby for causes such as the new Manor for Souris or re-surfacing the roads to Eastern Kings. Over the years she was the recipient of many awards including “The Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal” in 2002 and the Town of Souris recognized her in 2006 as the “Volunteer Citizen of the Year”. She was chosen in 2000 to be one of the women in the book,” Growing Strong Roots”, a book written to recognize women who have contributed to agriculture in PEI over the previous century. She was also selected as one of the women for the book, “Making History: A Celebration of Prince Edward Island’s Outstanding Women of the 20th Century”. She received the award called, “Women in Support of Agriculture” for outstanding contributions to the 4-H Program on PEI. Mom loved her family very much and was most happy when they were all around. She loved family gatherings and playing cards. The cookie jar was always full of her molasses and sugar cookies. She had a great love for people, birds, horses, cats, genealogy, politics, and the beauty of the land including her flowers, roses, trees and vegetable and berry gardens. Mom loved to travel. She made eleven pilgrimages to St. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec. She referred to the trip she made to the Dominican Republic at the age of 85 with nine other family members as, “The trip of our life!”. She enjoyed entering many varieties of their seed potatoes in the Toronto Royal Winter Fair and the Maritime Winter Fair where you had to dig the potatoes by hand, let them dry, polish them with a woolen sock and wrap them in tissue to ship to the competitions. They received many prizes for their potatoes at both fairs. Her sharp memory, sense of humor, need to see things done properly and pride in the accomplishments of her children and grandchildren carried her through life. Each grandchild holds a special place in their hearts for Nan. She was one to never give up but when the time came, she embraced it with grace. Her life was centered around her faith. It was that faith that helped encourage and sustain her many times during her life, including her last days when she accepted what was imminent. Apart from her teaching career and volunteer work, her greatest accomplishment was that of wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend. She is greatly missed, not only by her family, but by all who knew and loved her. Mildred Campbell’s family extends a sincere thank you to all who offered their caring support. Thank you to the Home Care & Support team and to those special individuals who showed kindness and compassion in caring for Mom. We sincerely thank the Island EMS, Dr’s Bradley, Larkin, Henbest, and Bronaugh, nurses and staff of Montague and Souris Hospital for their excellent care, and the ladies who made the Prayer Shawl. Thanks to Gary and Robin at Dingwell’s Funeral Home for their guidance and professionalism. Heartfelt thanks to Father Raju Chebattina for his daily visits to the hospital and for the beautiful homily. Thanks to Bill Matthews and St. Mary’s Choir for sharing their musical talents. Thanks to all those who served at the funeral as pallbearers, flower bearers, readers, alter servers, lay ministers and bulletin distributors and to The Supply Cupboard for doing up the Church bulletins. To all those who attended the wake and funeral, travelled to provide support and comfort, sent flowers, brought food to our homes, offered Masses, gave charitable donations to Souris Hospital and the Canadian Cancer Society, phoned and sent cards and on-line condolences, your kindness was much appreciated. Thank you to the C.W.L. for saying the rosary at the wake and to the Parish Community for the lovely reception following the funeral. Finally, a special thank you to all those who helped in any way during the past year. For our families and friends who continue to help and support us, we are extremely grateful. Thank you does not seem like enough to say, yet it comes from our hearts. God bless you all!