Mary Clements

Mary Clements (nee Whitla) passed away on Tuesday, February 25th, 2020 at Louise Marshall Hospital, Mount Forest, at the age of 88. Beloved wife of 66 years to the late Jim Clements. Dearly loved mother of Nan and Jimmy, West Grey; Shaun and Antoinette, Airdrie, Alberta; Kevin and Donna, Edmonton, Alberta; Blair and Diana, Parry Sound; and Mary Anne Kadar, Cambridge. Loving Grandma to 11 grandchildren and devoted Grams to 5 great-grandchildren. Predeceased by her husband Jim in October, 2017, her parents, William and Jean Whitla, sister and brother-in-law Eleanor and Milton McCallum, her grandson James Clements and by her daughter-in-law, Vicky Clements. Mary was born in Galt, Ontario, but spent her early years in Dundee, Scotland. She and Jim met in Northern Ireland and begun married life there before returning to her birth town in 1953 with their baby son. After residing 50 years on Highman Avenue in Cambridge, Mary and Jim relocated to a retirement residence in Mount Forest in 2015. Mary liked writing poetry and short stories and was published in the Cambridge Writers Guild. Her main interests were her family, followed by writing, reading, baking and sewing quilts for her grandchildren. At her request there were will be no visitation or funeral service. Cremation has taken place. A family gathering will take place at a later date when a tree will be planted in her memory. As an expression of sympathy, memorial donations to Louise Marshall Hospital Foundation would be appreciated by the family. Arrangements entrusted to the England Funeral Home, Mount Forest.

Mary wrote the following which was published in the Cambridge Writer’s Undercover Anthology in 1994.

ANCESTRY

It is comforting to know
that when this world is done with me
and like chaff in the wind
my soul is borne aloft,
a part of me shall ever remain earthbound
through my children,
and my children’s children.
What I am is but a repetition
of what has gone before me
and I shall be an echo
to those who follow.