Eva Norma Mason (nee Abel)

Eva Norma Mason (nee Abel)

September 27, 1928 – June 12, 2021

With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of our mother, Eva Mason, on June 12, 2021, at Central Haven Special Care Home in Saskatoon, SK where she had lived the last four months.

Mom was born to Gustave Abel and Olga Schmidtke the 8^th child in a family of 15, in the Strawberry Valley School district east of Sutherland, SK.  She grew up on the Abel farm on a hill which overlooked the valley north and west, Burke Lake to the east and Patience Lake to the south.

Mom left school in grade 8 to help at home with the younger siblings and the farm work.

At the age of 17, mom went to Saskatoon and worked as a housekeeper. After a short while, she started working at McGavins where she met dad. Mom worked in the cake department and dad delivered bread door-to-door with horse and wagon.

They were married April 17, 1948 in Saskatoon. They lived on Ave J. North where Glenn (1949) and Karen (1950) were born. The family moved to 29^th St. West and again to Ave E. North, next door to grandma Mason’s.

Dad had the desire to go farming, so in the spring of 1953, we moved 8 miles north west of the city in the Virtue School District on SE-1-38-6 W3. Five more children were born on the farm; Larry (1953), Lyle (1955), Arlen (1957), Janice (1959), and Kevin (1961).

Our parents worked hard providing our needs on the farm. In 1975, they sold this farm and moved to a new acreage two miles north.  Dad passed away in 1995 and mom sold this home and moved to her condo in the city for 10 years. She moved to her new apartment on 5^th Avenue for 15 years.

Mom was predeceased by her husband Harold, daughter Karen Lepp (1986), grandsons Blane Lepp (1982) and Chris Mason (2012), daughter-in-law Pat Mason (1992), sons-in-law Dennis Harmsworth (1998), Allan Friedenberg (2018), her half sisters Emma and Martha, sisters Wanda and Dorothy, brothers Oscar, Martin, Paul, Louis, Gordon, Roy, Clifford and Murray.

Surviving mom are son Glenn (Karen), grandson Curtis (Mardi), great-grandson Josh and grandson Kelly; Karen Lepp’s daughter, Kim (Andy) Haag and children Kalaina and Steven; son Larry (Jean), grandson Evan (Michelle), children Kira-Eva and Amelia, granddaughter Lara, great-granddaughter Mackenzie; mother of Larry’s children Barbara; Arlen’s daughter Alexis Buchanan; daughter Janice Friedenberg (Harmsworth), grandson Kirk Harmsworth and children Dustin, Devon and Hunter, granddaughter Candice (Blake) Tancowny and children Mika and Easton, grandson Cory Harmsworth; son Kevin (Kelly), estranged sons Lyle and Arlen; surviving siblings sister Berna and brother Wesley (Helga) and sister -in-law Barbara Abel.

Memorial donations for Central Haven’s “Backyard sidewalk project” can be made through the Sherbrooke Foundation, 401 Acadia Drive, Saskatoon S7H 2E7 or online at www.sherbrookefoundation.ca.

By invitation only, a private family interment will be held at Strawberry Valley Cemetery at a later date.  Arrangements entrusted to Katrina Funk at Dalmeny Funeral Home 306-254-2022.