Beatrice Coupland
1928 – 2021

At 93 years of age you’ve lived a lot of living and longer than many of your friends and family. This brought more days to welcome and enjoy the next generations in the family trees. So it is without sadness and with great respect and memories that we write this obituary tribute to our mother, a very gentle and caring lady. Her heart of love now at rest, we watched her getting weaker, her exercises and outdoor walks shorter and her joy of reading and writing diminishing- we see it as a gentle closure to life when tired hearts get to rest, and we as her children, grandchildren, family and friends, get to treasure all the times we had together.

Some deaths are of the young, in tragic, sad and unfair ways, others ending of life is after years and years of simply putting in the time and attention to the little details of family life day by day. We feel our mother was blessed with this good life and many a friendship and family surrounding her. She loved people and she loved God. Our mother was very intentional in connecting to others by time spent visiting & volunteering. She spent daily prayer time and also communicated to many of you encouraging words through cards, phone calls, and emails. Her life was spent finding ways to extend her caring, and together with Earl they shared heart, hands, and finances to make their world a better place. So please celebrate life, and death, and strive to live life fully devoted to what is important to you. Each person our mother met helped build a lifetime of memories for recollection and reflection.
Some of you know her as a neighbor and others as auntie, sister, long-time friend, or a smile at church, volunteer work around Red Deer and beyond with charities like the Lending Cupboard, ADRA, A BETTER WORLD, and many others. A fun one she looked forward to until last year was the Christmas Red Kettle Campaign, ringing the bell for donations in the malls each year. She liked the joy and stories shared by those who stopped to visit or tell their young children what the Salvation Army does each year to help others and the importance to share their money to help with that large and ongoing task. Our parents’ heart was in loving and helping both their families and the larger needs of the world we live in, and the belief that, when each of us does a little bit, great and amazing benefits can be gathered for the betterment of this big beautiful planet.

In lieu of flowers, please simply find a way to “pay it forward” by sharing your heart, time, skill or resources with others. Many of you have already been more than generous in giving of your friendship, smiles, snow shoveling, lawn mowing, phone calls and mailbox deliveries! Many thanks for these kind gestures. Let’s all continue to share kindness in our days by simply calling a friend, sending that card, giving that hug or lending a helping hand to any of the charities in Red Deer or your corner of the world. As a personal family way to honor our parents we may also start a ‘bike budget fund’ to keep the wheels of giving as part of their legacy. My parents liked sharing their heritage of bike riding by often enjoying the trails in Red Deer, as well as repairing and sharing bikes both for family and sending refurbished bicycles overseas. Let us know if this is something you may want to contribute towards.

To honor her life and love and wishes, rather than a formal memorial service, we want to make a memorial card in honor of how much she valued giving and receiving cards for all occasions. We hope with words of thanks and this small collection of photo memories you can see her last years were enjoyed. By connecting with friends and family both in person and by email these were cherished times for her and us. May each person reading this, no matter your faith or belief, feel a renewed desire to love your people while you have them, whether that is but a moment or for a hundred years almost!

The real Celebration of life that she focused on is the return of Jesus when all things are made new, all tears and sorrow are wiped away and eternity will be spent the way the Creator of the universe planned it in the beginning. 1Peter 2:17 1Thess 4: 13-18, 5:9-24 John 3:16&17 Psalms the whole book!!!

Parkland Funeral Home and Crematorium (Red Deer)

6287 – 67 A Street (Taylor Drive), Red Deer. 403.340.4040.

ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED FUNERAL HOME/CREMATORIUM

IN THE CITY OF RED DEER.

• Date : 2022-01-10
• Location : www.ParklandFuneralHome.com & www.HeartlandFuneralServices.com