Nancy Clouthier

Nancy Somerville was only a teenager when she met Wilfred Clouthier, a corporal in the 21st Division of the Governor General's Footguards of Canada, still himself a young man, in the fall of 1945. The Second World War was nearing completion and Wilfred's armoured division had been stationed in various places across England to escape detection by the German air force. They met by chance in High Wycombe and quickly fell in love. Not long after, on December 29th of 1945, the two were wed at St. Mary's Star of the Sea Church in Hastings.

When Wilfred's deployment ended in early 1946 he returned home to the Ottawa Valley, and on June 11th of that year Nancy, now six months pregnant, stepped aboard the Queen Mary in Southampton to begin her long trip across the Atlantic to join her new husband in Canada.

The five-day crossing aboard the Queen Mary seemed like an eternity for Nancy, as she battled sickness aboard the crowded ship before it finally pulled into Halifax's Pier 21 on June 15th.

Nancy made her first step onto Canadian soil as an 18-year-old expectant mother, a war bride and an immigrant in a strange land. She knew no one in the country that was to be her new home, aside from her husband.

Still on her own, Nancy and her unborn child boarded a train in Halifax destined for the nation's capital and, at long last, a reunion with Wilfred. She was welcomed into the home of her new in-laws in Arnprior, Ontario, where she gave birth to her first child, a son.

Nancy was married to Wilfred for 61 years, until her death on January 14th of 2007. During that time she gave birth to eleven more children. At the time of her passing, she was a grandmother of 22 and a great-grandmother of 13. It was Nancy's wish that she be cremated, so half of her ashes remain buried in a cemetery in Arnprior. The other half made the long journey back to England, where they were buried along side her mother in a cemetery in Hastings at the Hastings Borough Cemetery. Her ashes were carried there by Wilfred.

Family was always the most important part of her life. And despite the many challenges she and Wilfred faced throughout the years, she was never one to complain, but chose instead to count her many blessings. Her soft strength and relentless courage were always inspiring to her children and all those who knew her. Although God chose to take her from this earth, she will always live on in the hearts and minds of those she held so dear - her family.

In loving memory,

Wilfred, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren