Editor's note: Nancy Cox was a class act! I, and pretty much everyone else who met her, loved her. I was grateful to see her at the reunion in July 2002. Nancy Cox passed away peacefully on January 23, 2003 while living with "family" in Edmonton. Nancy was predeceased by her parents, Walter and Margaret Gowans; brother Bill and his wife Marjorie; her sister Rita Fisher and her husband Jimmy. She is survived by her nephews, David and Douglas (Susan) Gowans; niece Susan Giesbrecht (Richard); great niece Lindsay; her niece Barbara Bodnar (Tom); cousin Eric Perry (Bev) and her Edmonton "family", Gillian Neelands and daughters, Becky (Richard), Christine (A.J. and son Dominic) and Laura (Robert). Nancy was born in Glasgow, Scotland on September 26, 1920. She joined the British Army at the outbreak of the Second World War and served with the No. 1 A.T.S. Clerical Company (East Africa) Command. The friends she made during those years are scattered worldwide and have remained constant throughout her life. She settled in South Africa after the war and married there. She and her husband moved to Winnipeg in 1952 and opened their home as a halfway house for teenage girls. Each of her "girls" was very special and was kept in her heart and prayers. In 1967, she joined the staff of St. John's Cathedral Boys' School at Selkirk and became a second mother to two decades of boys. Through her work with the girls and St. John's Boys' School, she was blessed with the love of many "children". A cremation service was held in Edmonton on Monday, January 27. A memorial service to celebrate Nancy's life will be held at St. John's Cathedral Church, 135 Anderson Ave., Winnipeg on Tuesday, February 4 at 2:00 p.m. Interment will follow at St. John's Cemetery. The Very Rev. Bob Osborne will officiate. A reception will be held at the Cathedral after the service. Flowers are gratefully declined. Donations may be made to The Scholarship Fund, St. John's School of Alberta, R.R. 2, Stoney Plain, AB T1Z 1X5 or to the Winnipeg Humane Society, 5 Kent St., Winnipeg, MB R1Z 1X3. |