Obituary of Margaret Theresa Hemsworth

Margaret “Marge” Theresa Hemsworth (nee Fortune), 87, passed away peacefully surrounded by her favourite things – family, music and love.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl with long flowing blond hair. She attended the school for the blind in Halifax. There she met her first friends and that was the beginning of an interest in others that led to a life-long passion for collecting friends, country music and storytelling. Marge had a complex childhood that included several foster families – the Frasers, Maxners and Tompkins, and foster sister/life-long friend, Ann Marie.

Ann Marie’s family lived in the Halifax Town Clock and Marge lived there with them for several years. It was Ann Marie who bravely accompanied Marge on her first pilgrimage. According to a newspaper clipping, the “two Halifax girls who are interested in western music got a chance to meet some of their idols when they vacationed in Nashville.” This first trip marked the beginning of a long friendship with Hank Snow and his wife that changed her life. These many trips, and their friendship, were adapted into an award-winning Halifax Fringe Festival play in 2017. Many of the showings were sold out which is no surprise if you consider that her numerous friends would fill the venue many times over.

Marge had a fascination with people and a gift of connection that came from a patchwork of jobs and a variety of interests throughout her life. It was through these experiences that she collected stories and friendships that would last a lifetime. She started her career as a fourteen-year-old shampoo girl at a beauty salon, eventually graduating to hairstylist, and later going on to teach hairdressers once formal education was required for stylists. She owned a wig shop for a time, and when her children went to school, she worked in a nursery school. When money was tight and hair dressing was not earning her enough to make ‘ends meet,’ she worked at a jewelry store. She was an original MLM queen selling toys, makeup, and was a very successful crystal salesperson – it was like a sport for her and one where she excelled. While she was not athletic and never learned to ride a bike or skate or swim (even though she taught her children to swim), she was able to sell crystal like an Olympian – and inspire others to do the same. This success earned her various awards, including a cruise that fueled her love of travel. She always said she wanted her children to live all over the world so she could travel to visit them. They did live across the country, but her curiosity led her beyond the borders of Canada to Florida as a snowbird when she and Jack retired, and later to Hawaii and New Zealand when she was invited to visit friends and on and on.

Marge loved to tell stories and people loved to hear them. She had a magnetic and disarming personality, and people were drawn to her. She had a fascinating life, which she enjoyed sharing through stories and photographs. Her love of country music helped connect her with what others might consider strangers, but she considered everyone she met as a friend. She loved to both connect with people and find ways to connect people with others, thus growing her circle of friendships.

Marge was a gypsy in the most wonderful way. She picked up card reading from hanging around the kitchen tables of Cape Breton as a child watching her mother and her many aunts do readings for each other. Card reading, along with handwriting analysis, palmistry and astrology were methods she found to utilize her intuition to connect with new people and spend time with friends. She and ‘the girls’ would make squares, brown-sugar fudge, and Tea Biscuits (if you’re confused by the capitalization, then you never had one), don their colourful scarves, and spend their time reading cards, playfully complaining about their children, and drinking bottomless pots of tea. Some special family members and friends may even have decks of card ‘marked’ by Marge for card reading.

Besides music, travelling and her gypsy spirit, Marge loved to knit, paint and write. She journalled and wrote stories and letters her whole life. Marge had a pen-pal that she had been writing to for almost 70 years, right up until she was no longer able. She had many knitting projects, some of them she even finished. She attended painting classes throughout the years where she collected friends and painted in both watercolour and oil. Her family will cherish her artwork forever.

Her friends were important to her, but her family was first. She was the ultimate grandmother. Her connection with each of her grandchildren runs deeper than the ocean and her ability to connect with each grandchild and make them feel loved and special to her is unbounded by time or geography. Anyone who knew Marge heard about her remarkable grandchildren and the funny things they said.

Marge was most proud of, and will be missed by, her loving children, John (Gaylene Macdonald); Karyn (Glen Herbert); chosen daughter Bobbi Lynn Simmons-Beauchamp (Michel); Jylene (Alan Heighton); and Jason (Tiffany), her beautiful grandchildren, Lauryn Bates (Mathew); Jylene Johnston (Corey); Ashley Oliver (Mike); Tristan Simmons (Miranda); Sydney Herbert; Jack; Isabelle; Kelden; and Tyren, her extraordinary great grandchildren, Lemma Johnston; Chase Johnston; Miranda Simmons; Lennen Simmons; Amelia Mills; Carter Oliver; Kasen Simmons; Karson Oliver; Poppy Bates; Penelope Simmons; and Edward Bates, her loving husband since 2019, Douglas Robertson and his children, Craig (Kate) and Scott, her siblings, Marie Fortune and Donnie MacDougall (Annedore); and many cousins and countless friends.

Marge was predeceased by her mother, Mary Ann MacDougall; brother, Jackie Fortune; son-in-law, Sean Simmons; husband, Jack Hemsworth; and many special friends who became family.

Cremation has taken place, and arrangements are in the care of the Maritime Cremation Centre, 67 Temple Terrace, Lower Sackville, where you are welcome gather to share stories and, of course, tea biscuits with friends and family at a visitation on Friday April 25 from 4-8 pm. A Catholic Mass will be held at Saint John Vianney Church (Holy Trinity Parish), 4 Beaverbank Road, Lower Sackville on Saturday, April 26 at 1:30pm. Father Yves Marchildon Officiating.

In true Marge fashion, everyone is welcome to join a reception and celebration with music and sharing to remember Marge and celebrate a life lived to the fullest on Saturday April 26 from 5-8pm in the Mezzanine of the Steele Wheels Motor Museum, 66 Otter Lake Court, Halifax (Bayers Lake). Please bring your best wishes, and a guitar if that ‘tickles your fancy,’ to see Marge off in style.

A private gathering will be held at a later date to fulfill Marge’s interment wishes, near the water, naturally.
Anyone wishing to make a donation in her memory should contact the Hank Snow Home Town Museum 148 Bristol Ave, Liverpool, NS B0T1K0 https://hanksnow.com/donations/

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Margaret Hemsworth Funeral Mass