Obituary of RITA AGNES HAY

Our Mom, Gramma and Great Gramma peacefully passed away on September 4, 2018 at St. Boniface Hospital.

Rita Agnes Hay (Gallagher) was born on September 17, 1922, the youngest child in her family of 11 children. Her parents were J.Q. Gallagher and Mary (Fitzpatrick) Gallagher. She had 6 half- sisters and one sister, Mary Quinn (Jack) and three brothers, James, William (Eileen) and Francis (Sarah). All of them have preceded her. Her remaining sisters-in- law are Eileen Gallagher (Maple Ridge, B.C.) and Elspeth Hay Ward (Winnipeg). Her loving husband of 49 years, preceded her in 1993. Her daughter Joan Leslie died at 7 years of age in 1958.

She leaves to mourn her passing her children, Teresa, Patricia, Joseph (Maureen), Susan, and Rita Ward (Bob, deceased), her grandchildren James (Laura), Justine (Devyn Rolke), Jacqueline, and Bob Ward, her great grandchildren, Marcus, Ava and Arthur, and nieces and nephews and great nieces and great nephews from the extended Hay and Gallagher families.

Mom was a loving person, who enjoyed raising her family and practicing her faith. She was a good cook, a fine seamstress, and a physically active person, swimming and cycling into her 80s and walking until last year. As an active learner, while working and raising her family she earned a Business Administration Certificate from Red River College and she engaged in Bible Study into her 90s. In 2017 she received a 60 year membership pin from the Catholic Women's League of Canada. Mom loved to play cards and looked forward to Wednesdays with her Leisure Club friends. She was a strong willed person and a survivor, a role model for her family.

Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on September 14,2018 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 250 Burrin Avenue, at 11: 00 a.m. Prayers will precede the Mass at 10:15 a.m. with  Father Dominic Yuen presiding.

Our family thanks the doctors, nurses and aides in Emergency and on Ward 4B of St. Boniface Hospital for the compassionate palliative care they provided.

lf friends so desire, donations may be made in Mom's memory to a charity of their choice.

A private interment will occur at a later date in St. Mary’s Cemetery.