Marie Shirley Shaw

March 25, 1940 – July 5, 2024

Marie passed away on Friday, July 5, 2024 at the Leduc Community Hospital. She was predeceased by her father, Percy Shaw, mother, Amy Hough and brother, Bill (William) Shaw as well as grandparents on both side, aunts, uncles and several cousins.

She is survived by her sister Sharon Estell of Edmonton along with her remaining cousins.

Marie was employed by the Bank of Montreal. She started with them in Red Deer where she joined the management trainee program, from there moving to Leduc and then to several branches in Edmonton holding management positions.

Marie retired in 1995 after a long enjoyable and varied career. After her retirement she worked part time with a couple of Bank of Montreal branches for a while. Later, Marie started volunteering at the Cross Cancer Hospital for several years.

Marie was a voracious reader as were her mother and brother during their lifetimes and her sister Sharon still is. She was an avid sports fan, especially following the Edmonton Oilers and also enjoyed watching drag racing along with show jumping. If you stopped in to visit you would often find her jumping between two or three TV channels watching different shows.

She loved plants and flowers, in her younger years she had numerous indoor plants. Upon moving to her condo, Marie enjoyed having flowers in pots on her deck and the railing. She would go to her sister Sharon’s and help make raspberry jam and various pickles with her favourite being dill pickles. They also tried making sauerkraut one year with a recipe they found that called for using glass jars to ferment it instead of a crock. It didn’t turn, they ended up with crunch cabbage that tasted like vinegar. Their cabbage roll making was somewhat more successful except the cabbage leaves were all different sizes. Not realizing the leaves should be cut to the same size they had little, tiny rolls, medium sized ones and some really huge ones that required toothpicks to keep them together.

Marie did not get married however she enjoyed family get togethers especially playing cards or Scrabble. She was a master at Scrabble always coming up with high point words. She would take holidays at Christmas to help her mother with baking pies and candy as well as wrapping presents. When she would spend time at the farm she didn’t have to help out with anything. This was a real ticking point with her much younger sister who didn’t understand that Marie needed to relax because she was tired from working at her job. Sharon thought it was totally unfair.

Marie was an animal lover, especially cats like her mother, brother and sister. She became the owner of a Siamese stated to be a purebred which was doubtful. Samantha or Sammy was cross eyed and neurotic. She only let Marie touch her and even with that she was not allowed to discipline her. Sammy would attack her with her extremely sharp claws if she tried. She knocked things off Marie’s dresser, batted at the bottom of picture frames to make them sway and took up residence on the table. Marie just let her have her way being too soft hearted to try to change her.

A comment I heard from several people over the years was what a beautiful smile she had, it lit up her entire face. I will always remember that smile.

A Celebration of Marie’s life will be held at Memories Funeral Home, 13403 St. Albert Trail, Edmonton AB T5L 4X1 on Thursday, July 18, 2024 at 7:00 PM. The family request no flowers, donations may be made to the Edmonton Humane Society or the charity of your choice. Marie’s wish was to be cremated and her ashes will be interred at a later date.