Mrs. Barbara Edna Ray passed away Sunday June 12, 2022 peacefully with her husband of 55 years, Victor, by her side. Barbara was born July 22, 1948 to Lowell and Alice Meissner. She grew up in Sundre with six brothers and sisters. She had a sheltered childhood due to rheumatic fever when she was young.
She went to school in Sundre and high school in Red Deer. She worked in the Innisfail Hospital kitchen as a cook and later worked for a short time at the Mitchener Center in Red Deer. Barbara met Victor on a blind date, so the story goes, and married six months later on Nov 12, 1966.
Together Barbara and Victor moved around for a few years before settling on the farm east of Innisfail. They started a family a year after they were married and had three sons, Dale, Craig, and Wade, later bringing home a daughter, Tara.
Days on the farm were always busy. Feeding crews out in the field, tending to the garden, keeping an eye on rambunctious children, riding horses in the Innisfail Parade, and hosting big lunches after Church on Sundays to a lucky family invited out to enjoy Barb’s cooking.
Barbara was a selfless person, always putting family first. She cared for her mother, Alice, and sister, Becky, when they were diagnosed with ALS, as well as moving in with her father-in-law, Harold, when her mother-in-law, Freida, passed away.
Barbara and Victor were always together and enjoyed vacations with the family camping in Radium when they were younger as well as the holidays to Hawaii, North Carolina and Alaska with just the two of them.
She enjoyed sewing (she made her own wedding gown), gardening (huge gardens), cooking and baking. No one went hungry. Barbara’s Faith was strong and loved going to church every Sunday, while she could. She enjoyed the fellowship and made long lasting friends.
She leaves to mourn her loss her husband, Victor, three sons, Dale (Thora), Craig (Penny), and Wade, one daughter, Tara (Greg) Stevens, as well as twelve grandchildren, Demi, Darcy, Chelsea (Dallas), Brayden, Cale, Bailey, Mikyla, Cody, Meaghan, Kolten, Melena, and Colbe and three great grandchildren, Marcus, Lucy, and Nash, she will also be lovingly remembered by her brother, Robert (Dianne) and sister, Lois.
Barbara was predeceased by her parents, Lowell and Alice Meissner, brothers, Ken, Steven and Danny, and her sisters, Becky and Judith. Her father and mother-in law, Harold and Freida Ray, and brother-in-law, Les Ray.
If desired, Memorial Donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Society of Alberta, #306, 10430 61 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T6H 2J3 or https://alzheimer.ca/ab/en. Condolences, memories and photos may be shared and viewed at www.heartlandfuneralservices.com. Arrangements in care of:
Arrangements in care of: Heartland Funeral Services Ltd. 4415 – 49 Street
Innisfail, Alberta Phone: 403.227.0006

• Date : 2022-06-20
• Location : www.ParklandFuneralHome.com & www.HeartlandFuneralServices.com