In Memory

 

Ruby Phyllis (Chase) Mason
21 April 1925 – 18 November 2003

Passed away Tuesday past at her home in Bridgewater. She is survived by her husband of fifty-four years, Elmer, her younger sister Sarah Butler (Shelburne, NS), and children Peter (Mahone Bay, NS), Juanita (St. Philips, NF), and Michael (Lower Branch, NS). Her immediate family includes Peter’s wife Christine (Lohnes) and their daughter Emma, Nita’s husband Chris Stevens and their daughters Jennifer & Ngaire and son Robin, and Michael’s wife Maureen Duffy-Mason and their daughter Gwynhyfar. Her extended family includes brother Freeman’s children Christina, Edwin (deceased), Phyllis, and Nellie, and sister Sarah’s children Louise, Randall, Kendall, Heather, and Marilyn. Those who knew Ruby well understand that her family extends much farther to include many who shared her home and love even though they didn’t share her surname. She was predeceased by her older brother Freeman and her faithful companion Tai Ching the Pekinese dog. Ruby grew up in Shelburne County and Colchester County and upon graduation from High School and accreditation as a certified nursing assistant she worked on the staff of the old Dawson Memorial Hospital in Bridgewater, where she met her husband-to-be. For several years Ruby worked as a private-duty nurse in Montreal while she waited for her sea-faring fiancé to come home to marry her. She and Elmer married in 1949 and settled in Bridgewater, and Ruby took on the full-time occupation of wife and mother. She became involved in various facets of community work, volunteering her spare time to teaching Sunday School at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, working with the Anglican Church Women’s Auxiliary, and staffing at the South Shore Regional Hospital gift shop, but the primary focus of her volunteer work was with Girl Guides of Canada. Guiding was a very large part of her life. Like many, she joined “for a year or two” to help out while her daughter was involved, but stayed for the friendships and rewards she found working with other children and volunteers. Over the twenty-four years of her involvement she was a Tawny Owl, Brown Owl, District Commissioner, and ultimately founding president of the local Trefoil Guild chapter, of which she remained an active member until failing health curtailed her involvement. Ruby’s favourite Girl Guiding activity was her helping to take – over the years of her involvement – many hundreds of Brownies, Guides, and Rangers camping. She enthusiastically maintained that everything tasted better cooked over a campfire and mixed with laughter and song. Ruby often said that she took the Girl Guide Promise as her personal creed:

I promise on my honour to do my best,
To do my duty to God, the Queen, and my country;
I will help other people,
And obey the Guiding Law.

In recognition of her selfless dedication to her community, Ruby was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation as a Volunteer of the Year by the Town of Bridgewater in 1986. Ruby also was an integral part of the founding and operation of the canteen at Risser’s Beach Provincial Park, from it’s inaugural season until the late ‘seventies. True to her usual style, she assumed that all of the staff of both the canteen and the park were her family and she treated them with the care and concern that she felt due to her children. In return, she received the affection of the staff that continued well beyond the date that she ceased working at the park. Staffers at the park continued to bring their spouses and children to Ruby’s home to meet her, long after she had ended her working days at the park. Ruby’s children and grandchildren were grateful recipients of her generosity, humour, and goodwill. The friends of Peter, Nita, and Michael still refer to the Mason home as their second home, and Ruby as their surrogate mother. Everybody was welcome at Ruby’s table and a few stayed for a few months or more when necessity required it. We all remember fondly the loud, rambunctious, and side-splittingly funny mealtimes in Ruby’s home. Her Newfoundland grandchildren have spent a large part of their childhood summers with her and she visited them in return every winter. All of her grandchildren have fond memories of crazy eights every night and of the very cool Nannie who played Nintendo. Although sadly diminished by Alzheimer’s Disease in her last few years, Ruby was buoyed by frequent visits by true friends and fellow Trefoilers May Snyder, Francis Hirtle, and Vivian Goddard, and by long-time family friends Ron & Jane Leblanc. Ruby’s family cannot begin to express enough appreciation and gratitude for the care and devotion given by Brenda Slaunwhite in making Ruby’s final few years both comfortable and bright. Brenda, you are truly a Godsend. Many thanks are also extended to the other kind ladies of PLS Homecare who helped make Ruby’s final years as good as they could be. A public memorial service for Ruby will be held at Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 2:00 o’clock. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Girl Guides of Canada (Bridgewater District), the Alzheimer Society of Canada, or to a charity of choice. Ruby has been cremated and her ashes will be spread by her family at one of her favorite places. Funeral arrangements entrusted to Sweeny’s Funeral Home, Bridgewater. Online condolences may be made at www.sweenysfuneralhome.com

 

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