Person:Myrtle Shearer (2)

Mom says that, when the Hilson kids were young, Aunt Myrtle's was where they went when they were too afraid to go home and face their mother. Stories of Brenda staying at Aunt Myrtle's once for a week when she died her hair orange are a classic example. Aunt Myrtle was always a peacemaker and actually managed to convince Grandma that Brenda's hair actually looked good on her...well..sort of.. Let's just say that she managed to convince her enough that Brenda survived her mother 's wrath....that time. Aunt Myrtle always had a good sense of humour and somehow managed to accept even the most back handed compliment... The Christmas after my Grandmother died, I managed to wangle a ride to Listowel with my sister. While we were away, it turned really cold.When we returned home I ran in, grabbed my keys, and decided to try and start my car...all the while thinking that perhaps I ought to finally nickname the beast. I opted that, if the car didn't start, I'd call it Agnes(after my dead grandmother) but if it did start, I'd call it Myrtle...(after Aunt Myrtle) My logic was that,although it may be old, it's really reliable and always ready to go some place...which reminded me a lot of Aunt Myrtle. It started on the first turn of the key. I had gotten so used to calling the car Myrtle and didn't really give it a whole lot of thought...until the day I went to pick up Aunt Myrtle... and called my car Myrtle. Rather sheepishly I explained to Aunt Myrtle that I had named my car after her...and why. Aunt Myrtle thought it was quite the compliment! Aunt Myrtle was the keeper of the original family tree records for the Shearer family and generously gave me the bristol board trees that had depicted the family tree for fifty years or more. They are one of my prized items. Aunt Myrtle is a family tree researchers' dream interview candidate even though she always starts her answers with ...Well I don't remember that much.... She says this usually just a few minutes before she launches into a tremendous spiel on who married whom...and when and how many kids they had and who the kids married usually with a few dates sprinkled in. A researcher needs to take a speed writing course to keep up to her! Some people...like my mother...have a knack at getting her started. One of my favorite Aunt Myrtle stories is the time that I'd asked Mom to ask her about the Jones family.... They were her mother's people. Aunt Myrtle starts off with...Well I really don't know that much... but then toddles off to her china cabinet and hauls out three pages of Jones family tree info... complete with dates... for the earliest generations of Jones and McGorman's. She says she had kept it for years "just in case somebody asked for it" I spent a week or so verifying what she had written down...but I could have saved my time...(she was right in each case).... so if I had to choose information sources, Aunt Myrtle is high on my list. I am just SOOO glad I asked! At age ninety two, she decided to move to a local nursing home. To her surprise, one of her best friends followed her there and managed to surprise her with a big kiss on his moving day. Her comment: It was a really good day! Mom has helped Aunt Myrtle with her income tax for a couple of years and says that if her figures don't jive with Aunt Myrtle's she knows that SHE made the mistake, not Aunt Myrtle who definitely has the "Shearer" talent with numbers. At age ninety-three, she still takes care of all of her own business but now allows other people to do the cooking and cleaning. In the fall of 2004, Aunt Myrtle became ill. Mom became a bit concerned when Aunt Myrtle appeared to lose interest in everything and mentioned her concerns to one of the nurses...The nurse laughed ...and told Mom that one of the staff had suggested to Aunt Myrtle the previous evening that maybe trying to play cards right now was not the best idea. It appears that Aunt Myrtle thought the the nurse was trying to tell her she was too old and feeble to keep playing cards....and if Aunt Myrtle couldn't play cards then, to her, life was not worth living...A few days later, once her physical health was on the mend, she regained her usual indomitable spirit. One of the sadder footnotes in Aunt Myrtle's life happened at Christmas time in 2004 when her best friend Elgin Martin died very suddenly.Her indomitable spirit didn't fail her and at age 94, she is still going strong (and still playing cards!)A truly remarkable woman....and one that we will genuinely miss.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Ada Jane Shearer and The Shearer Historians. Shearer Family History. (Created in Elma Township in 1938 and maintained by Shearer Reunion Historians. Information was reported by knowledgeable family members and was well maintained in the early years.).
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Isa Cleland. Information that Isa researched on the Shearers. (This information was gathered by Isa until her death in 1999. Most is copied from the Shearer Family Tree.).