Shirley Joan Green

April 9, 1931 to January 20, 2018.

It is with deep sadness that we announce that our mother Shirley Joan Green (nee Clarke) passed away peacefully in her sleep on January 20 in Victoria, BC. Born in Moose Jaw in 1931, Shirley was the only child of Lonsdale and Grace. Her joyous stories of growing up were filled with her father's ragtime piano playing, movies, wartime candy, trains, farms, and goofing around with cousins, but were also marred by WW II's impact on Moose Jaw and her mother's battle with cancer, which defeated Grace when Shirley was in her 20s.  In Shirley's childhood years, while her dad spent time with her mother at the hospital, her Aunt Annie and Uncle Earl would entertain and spoil her, giving her the nickname "Mac."
Shirley met David Green while sharing a French textbook in high school. After graduating from teacher's college, mom devoted her working life to early childhood education with particular compassion for kids from disadvantaged families. David became a writer and a radio host. They married in 1954 and started a family, briefly living in Moose Jaw, Vancouver, Calgary and Regina before moving to Saskatoon in 1968.  With David's death from a heart attack in 1969, mom found herself widowed with three young boys aged 5, 7 and 12.  She furthered her education by taking night classes while teaching fulltime and looking after the three of us - singlehandedly.  She taught within the Moose Jaw, Regina and Saskatoon school systems for decades, as well as at the University of Saskatchewan, Simon Fraser University and the Mendel Art Gallery.
An advocate for the Arts throughout her life, Shirley regularly volunteered for organizations that fostered health and wellness, equality and global peace. Mom had a life-long love of cinema and old cars. She had a unique spiritual perspective on life, combined with an intellect and sense of >Mom is predeceased by her husband, David, her parents, Grace (Fysh) and Lonsdale Clarke, and numerous cousins, aunts and uncles. She is survived by her three sons, Christopher (Zenaida), Blake (Rebecca), and D'Arcy (Adrienne), and her grandson and cinema companion, James, whom she adored.

We wish to thank all of the caregivers, nurses and doctors at the Royal Jubilee Hospital and The Heights at Mount View for their exceptional kindness in assisting Shirley.

A memorial service will be held for mom in Saskatchewan at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, we ask that those wishing to honour Shirley make a donation to the Saskatoon Crisis Nursery or the Alzheimer Society of Canada.