Edna Currie

Edna May Halliwell

Passed away peacefully on April 11, aged 93, in her wonderful room at Colonel By Retirement Living, with its view of the Rideau Canal. Until the day she died she remained aware of her surroundings and able to converse about what was happening. Her last two weeks were spent with continuous visits from children and daughters-in-law, with wonderful care from the staff at Colonel By and her CCAC palliative care team. Until near the end she was able to keep up her life-long interest in the news, via The Citizen and Peter Mansbridge. Fittingly, the last thing she ate was ice cream. Edna was born September 30, 1920 in Turtleford Saskatchewan to Lawrence and Hilda (nee Jantunen) Currie. She had three brothers: Roy, Ralph and Neil, all of whom predeceased her. She received her primary and secondary education in Turtleford. She went to Ottawa during the war, becoming a Lieutenant in the Canadian Women's Army Corps. After the war she got her BComm and BA at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. There she met and married Harry McKnight Halliwell, who predeceased her in November 2006. They lived initially in Regina, then London England in the early 1950s while Harry pursued his studies at the London School of Economics. They then lived again in Regina, then Winnipeg, Toronto and finally moved to Ottawa in 1968. She stayed in the Ottawa house, in the Dow's Lake area, until late 2012 when at the age of 92 she moved into Colonel By. She had four children: Clifford Alexander Halliwell (married to Veena Singhal), Patrick Lawrence Halliwell (married to Kayoko), David Harry Halliwell (married to Michele Williamson) and Kathleen Margaret Halliwell. Although she sometimes worked, in particular in spring at the Taxation Centre, she was mostly a stay-at-home Mom. But, she did keep busy. She did considerable volunteer work. She was an avid amateur taxi driver, always available to drive (at high speed!) friends and children to various places, including long canoe trips for the boys and picnics in the countryside for her daughter and her friends. She was an intelligent and wonderful and caring person, always worrying about others. Even in her last days, her first question when meals came was whether the person feeding her had eaten. She was a devout Christian, a member of the congregation at Glebe St. James United Church. Friends may visit at the Garden Chapel of Tubman Funeral Home on Saturday, April 26 from 2 p.m. until service time in the chapel at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Canadian Lung Association.