Helen Mary Cook
1921-2008
Helen loved cooking and sewing and had a passion for gardening. She was an avid CB’er whose handle was “Grasshopper.” She will be sadly missed by all her family and friends.
Resting at the St. George Funeral Home & Crematorium (755-3533), 26 Portage Street, St. George, NB from where the service will be held from The Gary E. Waycott Memorial Chapel on Tuesday at 2 pm with Rev. Gordon Cooke officiating. The interment will take place at the St. George Rural Cemetery in the spring. Visiting at the funeral home on Monday from 2-4 and 7-9 pm and on Tuesday from 10:00 am until noon. In Helen’s memory, donations to the charity of the donor’s choice would be appreciated by the family.
CB radio fan always there for family
MARY-ELLEN SAUNDERS
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
Published Tuesday March 25th, 2008
Appeared on page C8
BACK BAY - Helen Cook was always there to listen when anyone in the family needed to talk.
She was a wife, mother of five, grandmother of 10 and great-grandmother of 10.
"She was a loving and giving person, very generous," said Helen's daughter-in-law, Lois Cook.
"I will miss talking to her, just going down to see her. She was always interesting to talk to. She talked about a lot of different things."
Helen died on Sunday at the age of 86 at the Charlotte County Hospital after a long battle with osteoporosis.
Her husband, Carroll Cook, said Helen grew up in New York. The couple met when their train was derailed on its way to Prince Edward Island. Carroll said he was in the army and was on his way to training camp and Helen was on her way to visit family.
When he met Helen on the train that first time, Carroll said, he thought she was beautiful and they just started talking and he gave her his address.
"She just kept on writing," said Carroll.
Carroll said while he was away at war, he and Helen wrote back and forth to each other until the war was over and she moved from New York to Back Bay to get married and start their life together. The day they were reunited, Carroll said Helen was just as pretty and wonderful as he remembered her. They were married 62 years.
"She had five kids, so that kept her busy," said Carroll. "She cooked, did things around the house, planted flowers, picked berries. "¦
"I will miss everything about her. We got along good."
Doug Cook, eldest of five children, said as a stay-at-home mom, Helen was always there for him.
"She was a great cook. Everything was homemade and she was a real good seamstress," said Doug.
Doug said his favourite food was his mother's bread, but the list of favourites was long.
Helen Cook was known to make beautiful quilts and needlepoint work that she often gave away to friends and family.
Doug said his mother was a great listener and was an avid CB (citizens' band) radio enthusiast with the handle Grasshopper. He said for years, when the house was quiet, she would go into a small room off the living room and talk to people all over the world.
He said she was always getting lots of mail, post cards, pictures and letters from friends she had made on her CB that lived in different corners of the world.
Although his mother was from New York, Doug said she never talked about missing the city and never expressed any desire to go back. He said she graduated from a Catholic high school there and sometimes brought out her yearbook to show pictures of her youth, and people she graduated with that went on to become actors or actresses.
Her funeral will be held today at 2 p.m. at the Gary E. Waycott Memorial Chapel in St. George with Rev. Gordon Cooke officiating. Interment will take place at the St. George Rural Cemetery in the spring. In Helen's memory, donations to the charity of the donor's choice would be appreciated by the family.