Margaret Fern Clement

Margaret Fern Clement was born in a little house straight across from the front door of Adam Robertson Elementary School on September 29, 1934.  She lived in Creston Valley until the last 4 years.  

Margaret came through the ‘30s with 5 other siblings and a single mom.  Her Dad had passed away young.  Margaret and her brother William, at 6 and 8 years old made a garden to support the siblings.  Margaret learned to preserve food and make things ‘from scratch’.  She continued gardening up to the last four years.  Friends, family and neighbours will remember her sitting in her sandy soil on a quarter acre of garden, barefooted in a white plastic lawn chair, trying to weed without falling over.  

Along with the garden, Margaret was an orchardist for fifty years.  She gave fruit, food and clothing to anyone she could who would take it.  She remembers assistance from charities being hard to acquire during the ‘30s and in rural areas.  She never forgot a kindness to her.   

She was known to expound to all excitedly over the size, colour and shape of a freestone peach, an apple, a beefsteak tomato or a flat Dutch broadleaf cabbage.  Visitors and family loved them all but a particular favorite was the cabbage that somehow, with only a little persuasion, turned into scrumptious cabbage rolls.  She worked for years, looking over the shoulders of Russian cooks’, to perfect her borscht.  I think one could safely say she was as excited every fall as if a new baby had been delivered when she contemplated her crop.  Jars of peaches, plums, pears, pickles, boxes of apples, and other produce filled the cars of all who stopped.  Once a traveller was told, ‘don’t tell her you have that hat’.  As they wondered why Margaret asked, ‘Do you have a hat’? and she filled it full of produce too.  She loved her large dinners with the special china.  Everyone left fatter than upon arrival at her house.

Margaret was a sewer and a quilter.  She prowled through all fabric stores.  She provided garments and bed coverings for many family members.  In her last year, she made 28 quilts to give away.

Margaret was also a meticulous bookkeeper for their craning and dragline business.  It was not her favorite role but she did it and as with everything else she put her mind to, did it very well for many years.

Margaret loved the smiles and compared all the looks and features of each new grandchild, great grandchild and great great grandchild that came along.  She would spend hours quietly amusing them and smiling into their eyes.  

Margaret is survived by her two daughters Jo Laree Baber and Margaret L Clement, two sisters, Hazel and Colleen, and many grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren.  She is predeceased by her brothers:  James, Allen, Georgie and William.  Margaret’s husband since she was 16, Martin Junior Clement, passed away on February 12, 2019 and the two will be reunited in a joint grave at a later date.  

Any donations or flowers may be forwarded to those charities of your own choice but Margaret would have loved you to share with your friends, family and neighbors of your largesse and with her thanks! 

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