Obituary of Valerie June Bridge

Valerie June BRIDGE (formerly Mullett)

Her family are heartbroken to inform that Val passed away at her home in Saskatoon, surrounded by family, on December 30, 2023.

Val was born on September 24, 1957 in Wilkie, Saskatchewan to Harold and Doreen Mullett (formerly Love).  She was raised on the family farm in the Narrow Lake district.  Almost from the time she began to talk, she would remind her four siblings, Bob, Vicki, Clare and Lois, that she was the only one who never got a birthday party as a child, because her birthday was at harvest time.  Big birthday parties were ‘a thing’ at the time.  Between the Risling, MacIntosh, Barker, Cornish, Hochbaum, Phelps and Latimer families less than two miles away, there were always lots of kids to attend birthday parties.  We siblings should acknowledge here, at long last, that Val maybe did miss out on that front.

We should also acknowledge that she was unique in our family.  She was unique in a number of wonderful ways, but notably as the only one who was left-handed, and we never let her forget it.

A second lifelong peeve was that our Mom always had her wear green, because green went so well with all that red hair, and especially if the hair had a matching green bow in it.  Val could not escape the green bow.  For Christmas this year, Lois gave her a lovely basket of oranges, each one neatly tied with a tiny green bow.

We rode the bus to school in Wilkie.  Val graduated from high school in 1975, and promptly moved to Saskatoon to attend Robertson Business College.  On graduation, she accepted employment at the University of Saskatchewan, College of Commerce where she met Lavonne, who became one of many lifelong friends.  During this time she also worked part time as a server at The Station in order to fund her budding passion - travel.

Val’s trips during this period were legendary.  There was Europe with Arlene.  There were several winter trips to Hawaii, one being a memorable month in Honolulu with Lavonne and Brenda.  We thought she had lost her mind when she decided to leave after work on Friday and drive her Toyota Celica to Kelowna, for the weekend, to ski.  But, she was back to work on Monday morning, without fail.  She was, from the start, a dedicated, hard working and highly respected employee.  

Her second passion was country music.  She was a regular, with any assortment of friends, at the Craven Country Music Festival and the Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose.  She never missed a country music concert in Saskatoon.  Country music was always playing while she was cooking, or baking, or lounging on the deck.

On June 29, 1985, Val married Tom Bridge at the Bridge family farm near Battleford.  They purchased a house on Mitchell Avenue in North Battleford.  After working at a number of short term jobs - at a law office, at North West Regional College - Val settled into a job with what became known as Service Canada.  Tom shared Val’s travel-bug.  In the winter of 1987/88 they motorcycled and camped around Arizona and California.  

Shyla Dawn was born in 1988; Rylan William in 1991.  Val and Tom continued to travel with their kids: South Padre Island, Lake Havasu, Kihei, Maui, with Uncle Bob and Auntie Sweetie.  

In 1996, there was consolidation in the federal civil service.  Val took the opportunity to move to Saskatoon where she accepted a promotion within Service Canada.  The travel continued:  to Cabo with Vic; to Puerto Vallarta with Barb; to Las Vegas with niece Shannon; to Nashville with Shannon; to Nashville again with Shannon, Barb and Shyla; to Cuba for Shyla’s marriage to Tanner Grieve in December, 2015.   

Val continued to work for Service Canada until her retirement in 2018.  In retirement, she continued to travel somewhere for a warm weather break in the winter (but for the COVID years).  The summers were spent at her happy place which was the family cabin at Aquadeo Beach on Jackfish Lake, with her constant companion Koby, a shihtzu that Val adopted in retirement.  It was an especially happy place in the company of her family, of whom she was immensely proud:  Rylan, now a lawyer working in Regina, with fiancee Betty, and Shyla, now a nurse in Saskatoon, with Tanner and their three children, Bria Dawn (soon to be 6, and with Val’s signature red hair), Theo Blake (soon to be 3) and Elodie Mae (9 months).

The last trip Val organized was for six of us to Nashville.  As always it was a very good time and true to form, Val did not miss a night; Thomas Rhett, Ronnie Milsap, The Time Jumpers, Little Feat at the Ryman.  We returned on October 4th.  Then a relentless, without mercy, cancer really took hold and consumed her within three months.  Val was 66 years old.

So how do her extended family and friends remember her?  She was the spark plug of our family, always organizing something.  She was the Blue Jays' biggest fan.  She was a self-declared introvert who had too many friends to count.  She was ‘my right arm’.  She was a wise confidante, steadfast and loyal and the one most of us turned to when we needed to talk things through.  She was cheeky, easy to laugh, and made anyone comfortable in her presence.

And to her children and grandchildren?  She will be remembered for her fun-loving spirit, and for always being there when needed.  Her grandkids were her world these past 6 years.  She was the proudest “Gram Gram”, and the grandkids wholeheartedly loved nothing more than spending time with her - whether it be at the lake, downstairs at “Gram Gram School”, or exploring a new playground for the afternoon.  She loved everyone in her circle fiercely.  The void that is left is indescribable.

For those who wish to contribute to a charity in Val’s memory, the family suggests either the Canadian Cancer Society, or the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.