Obituary of Barbara Wilson

Barbara Ann Wilson of Camrose, formerly of Cochrane, passed away Sunday, November 24, 2013 at the age of 77 years. Barbara was born on September 28th, 1936 in Calgary, Alberta to Muriel and Robin Echlin. Barbara was a war child and had many memories of being a child of a soldier that was away at war in World War II, my grandfather left around 1940 when Barb was only four years old. She always spoke of how she did not see her dad for six years until she was near ten years old. This had a huge effect on her life as her mom road the train to Eastern Canada to work in the ammunition factories. Mom stayed behind and lived in Dewinton, Alberta with her grandma Grant who always meant the world to her. At some point mom did ride the train out East to join her mom and talked often of living in Woodstock, Ontario. After the war her dad came back and Cochrane became home, here she road horses, attended school and eventually met and married Stan. He began courting her at the young age of around 16 and by the time she was 18 they were married and remained together until her last breath, they spent many times together dancing and enjoying life the way they wanted to. During their marriage they had four children and had a dairy farm in the Cochrane area until 1974 when they moved to Camrose to grain farm. Barb was a big part of the farm and an amazing partner to Stan. As a mom she was always loving and caring she seldom if ever raised her voice, and was an angel in life and will be in death as well. Barb was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 12 years ago and began the long journey of this disease. In the past few years she slowly lost different abilities at different points in the disease, but through it all she still had the same love in her eyes and constant joy of her family being with her. Stan stood strong beside her taking care of her better than anyone else ever could have, right up to the end he was always watching over her and caring for her well-being. The staff at Sunrise was often taken aback by his incredible dedication to her, lots of times ignoring his own care, the love that was evident in their eyes moved many to tears over the last few years. Left to cherish her memory are her husband Stanley; children Beverly Wilson of Sherwood Park, Brian (Deanna) Wilson of Camrose, Kenneth Wilson of Dallas and Darryl Wilson of Red Deer; ten grandchildren; eleven great-grandchildren; and brother Ron (Lindy) Echlin of Okotoks. Barb is at peace now and is watching down on all of us, so just smile up to her and say goodbye and remember her as she was such an amazing beautiful person. A Funeral Service was held 2:00 p.m., Monday, December 2, 2013 from the Camrose United Church with Mary Ann Pastuck officiating. Inurnment will take place at a later date. If family and friends so desire, memorial contributions are gratefully accepted to the Alzheimer's Society, or to St. Mary's Hospital.