Obituary of June Venetta Hamilton

June Venetta Simpson, passed away peacefully on Saturday September 30, 2017, just 2 weeks short of her ninetieth birthday. She is survived by her three sons, Glen Douglas, William Keith, and Richard Alan, and grandchildren Austin, Sterling (Isabel) and their mother Susan, Sander and his mother Vilena, Charles (Elly-Jean), Joseph, Will and Julianna and their mother Jocelyn, Liam (and his mother Olya), Jordan (Ivanna) and Lauren (Jordan) and their mother Nancy, and great-grandchildren Zahara, Llewyn, Beau, and Layla, as well as her sisters Isabel, Verla, and Marion, and her brothers Barry (Linda) and Jim (Tina), and their families. June was born on October 13, 1927, the third of eight children, to Thomas and Daisy Simpson at Tisdale, Saskatchewan, and was predeceased by her siblings Gerald, Bill, and Gail. She grew up and was raised on the family farm west of Tisdale. Her tales of riding horses the 3 and 1/2 miles to school in town every day in the Spring and Fall and of traveling in the covered sleigh with a fire going in the small stove in the Winter were legendary. Whenever her kids might consider complaining about the 2 or 6 blocks they had to walk to school in a snowstorm, out would come her stories about what a real trek to school meant, just to give us some perspective. At 16 she moved to Melfort where she took a job in the Post Office and also worked nearby at Braithwaite’s Furniture store. A couple of years later, she met William Hamilton at a Saturday Night Dance at Star City and they were married shortly after on August 23, 1947. She worked off and on in retail in Saskatoon in order to support Bill as he completed his Teaching Certificate and later his B.Ed. They also lived a year at Golburn before returning to Saskatoon which had been her home ever since excepting the two spectacular years she spent in her paradise of Accra, Ghana where Bill was posted with CIDA in the early 70’s. After raising her three rascal boys, June worked in the printing services department at the U of S before joining the family in their retail tuxedo business until Bill passed away suddenly in April, 1991. She loved travelling in the summers to camp in Coeur D’Alene and to the cottage at the Lake, but most of all she just dearly loved people. And, they could not help but love her. Her home was always everyone’s home away from home, whether it was for a night, a week, a month, or even a year. The focus of June’s long life was looking after and giving to her husband, children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and their extended families, and friends. June was the kindest and most generous person in the lives of so many. She never questioned a grandchild’s sudden onset of abdominal discomfort that by its nature absolutely necessitated a morning and afternoon for them away from school seeking solace and refuge in her big soft bed where they were treated to never ending cartoons and more delicious treats than any child could be expected to possibly consume, especially with such a sore tummy. She only ever had an optimistic view. She never knew exactly how to give advice, though many of us sought it, because it all depended on what the seeker wanted, or needed, or was looking for. But, she would listen. She was a good listener. She taught us to figure things out for ourselves, what it means to put others first, and she surely hoped she taught us how to listen. After suffering from 3 small strokes in her later years leaving her with an aphasia that sometimes made it difficult for her to speak, whether in her kitchen or confined to her hospital bed with a broken hip, the one phrase she could never forget and repeated at every visit was “Is there anything you need?” May we never cease from learning from her example of simple humility and generosity. The family would like to thank the staff of Luther Care Home for their wonderful care for June during these last months, and we would also like to extend a special expression of sincerest gratitude to Dr. Andy Harrington for his selfless and exemplary attention to June for so many years.