Simone CHARTRAND

Funeral services for longtime Hearst resident Simone (née Chartrand) Bubnick, 76, of the Foyer des Pionniers Nursing Home were held June 15, 2002. She died June 12 following a stroke. Born July 19, 1925 in St-Anastasie, Quebec, to Albertine Lambert and Albert Chartrand, she arrived in Jogues, south of Hearst, at age eight. In the 1940s, she worked as a waitress, Hudson Bay Co. clerk, lumber camp cook, and nanny in New York, and later as a full-time seamstress of wedding gowns and for local clothing stores. Having learned to speak English in a lumber camp, “she was the only person we knew who spoke English with a French accent, and French with an English accent,” a son-in-law noted in the euology. She returned to Hearst in 1946 where she married Nick Bubnick in June 1948. An active volunteer with the Hearst Legion Ladies Auxiliary, United Church Women and treasurer for then-St. Paul’s United Church, she enjoyed baking bread and pies, making rhubarb jam, cooking, sewing, knitting, gardening, church activities, overseas travel, babysitting her grandchildren, morning walks, and going for coffee. She obtained her first driver’s licence at age 57, and in 1994 received a town award for her 10 years as a Legion Ladies volunteer. She was predeceased by her husband in a 1980 trucking accident, brother Raymond Chartrand of Hearst, and son-in-law Ted Kates of Alberta in 1986. She leaves daughters Shirley (Isidore) Germain of Toronto, Linda Bubnick of Winnipeg and Phyllis Bubnick of Toronto, sons Allen of Edmonton, Paul (Line Couture) of Hearst and Rick (Kim Schwenker) Bubnick of St. Catharines. Also surviving are three sisters and three brothers, as well as grandchildren David, Sonia, Kristin and Steven Germain of Toronto, Brian and Lisa Kates of Winnipeg, Torny Hansen-Bubnick of Vancouver, Kevin Bubnick of St. Catharines, and Tania Bubnick and Dominic Séguin, both of Hearst. Rev. Douglas Richardson officiated the afternoon service at St. Matthew’s-St. Paul’s Anglican-United Church, followed by interment at the Riverside Cemetery.