Smallpiece, Bernice May

SMALLPIECE, BERNICE then wSMALLPIECE, BERNICE now wMarch 13, 1921 – January 23, 2015
at the age of 93 years

Funeral Service:  11:00 a.m., Saturday, January 31, 2015, Carlin Hall, 4051 Myers Frontage Rd., Tappen, BC
Interment:  Mt. Ida Cemetery, following the funeral service
Reception at Carlin Hall following the graveside service.

Passed over peacefully at Bastion Place in Salmon Arm BC at age 93. Bernice is predeceased by her husbands Bob Smallpiece (Sep 11, 2014) and Wilson Roberts (Sep 14, 1959), her son-in-law Lyle Quigley (Dec 31, 1996), her parents Charles and Rosella Root and seven siblings.

She is lovingly remembered by daughter Eloise Quigley of Watervalley AB, sons Byron (Janice) Roberts of Prince George BC and Ross (Holly) Roberts of Hattiesburg MS, 8 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

Born at home March 13, 1921 in Killdeer SK, the second youngest of 8 children, she grew up and was schooled in Killdeer and Rockglen where she met Wilson Roberts during high school years. In 1941 she moved to Regina with her family, attended Business school, operated a boarding house with her mother, worked for the Dept. of Natural Resources and exchanged long distance love letters with Wilson for 5 years. They married in 1946 and moved to Reid Lake BC to dairy farm and raise a family. After Wilson passed in 1959, she moved to Prince George where she worked as a bookkeeper to support and raise her young family.

In 1969 she married Bob Smallpiece and in 1981 relocated to Salmon Arm where they eventually retired and enjoyed many friends and blessed years together, including travels near and far.

Funeral service will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, January 31st at the Carlin Community Hall (16K west of SA on Hwy 1); interment at Mount Ida Cemetery; a reception will follow at the hall.

In lieu of flowers, donations will be gratefully accepted at the Cancer Society of Canada.

8 Comments

  1. Fondly remembering your mother.

    Sincerely,
    Shirley and Arnold Ballum

  2. D ear Eloise,Byron and Ross and families.thinking of you at this time,we have good memories of your mom,love ,victor,lena

  3. Dear Eloise, Byron and Ross and families.
    Thinking of you these days – and so glad for all the memories of yesteryear we share. Maybe you don’t know this but your mom wrote (hand wrote) letters to me from the beginning of my days in the work (1973); that is 40 years she sat with pen and paper and kept us all connected even though I was over land and sea.
    Thinking of you so much. Love Sheila

  4. From: Warren and Karen McLean

    Message:
    Many, many special memories of Auntie Bernice in the early, but difficult years, of raising her young family by herself until Bob came into her life.

    As Ross and I were always together, Auntie Bernice was a second Mom.
    When one is young, you don’t realize all it took to be a Mom …
    especially a Mom alone. I remember seeing the stresses of having 2 young boys and a teenage girl in the house. Also good memories of Byron and his ketchup; Honeycomb cereal for breakfast (!!); an “out of the world”
    macaroni; sleeping under the stars in the backyard … and I remember Auntie Bernice’s openness to us and her quiet love.

    Then Bob entered her life. Ross and I were young kids then, but I still have memories of the uncertainties of those first courtship times. And then the joy of the certainty when it was clear that it was meant to be.
    Beyond a shadow of doubt the timing was right for Auntie Bernice.

    Then special memories of singing around their piano with Ross playing.
    And the open door when Karen and I, still courting ourselves, stopped by for a visit.

    The abiding memory of Auntie Bernice will always be her sweetness …
    Together with her constancy in putting first things first.

    We won’t be with you Saturday in body, but we will be with you in spirit

    Warren and Karen

  5. Dear Eloise, Byron and Ross and families.

    Sorry to hear of the loss of your dear Mum. I often enjoyed seeing Bernice and Bob at GlenValley Conv. and they always were the same. Hard to believe they are both gone now. When I remember my family living in PG, your family and later when she married Bob are all part of precious memories.

  6. Remembering your Mom and Robert with the fondest of memories.
    With our deepest sympathy,
    Mary Jessup and family
    (Ontario)

  7. We think of you, Eloise, with our loving care. You would find comfort that she is now ‘with Christ, which is far better’.

  8. Ross, I am very, very sorry to hear of your Mom’s passing. You and your family are in our thoughts and prayers.
    Sherree Carter

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