Obituary of Margaret Elizabeth Pennington

Margaret Pennington’s Eulogy Good morning everyone my name is Duane Trytten for those that don't know who I am, I am Margaret Pennington's, son. It is with a heavy heart that I'm here to mourn the loss of Margaret with all of you. Although, we are all hurting in our own ways we are here to talk about and celebrate the life of my dear mother, Margaret Pennington. Unfortunately due to the time that we're living in right now, covid restrictions have limited our service to only 30 people in the province of Saskatchewan so I know most of you will be watching online. Margaret Pennington was born on June 21, 1945 in Drumheller, Alberta to William & Elizabeth Simpson. Mom was the middle of 9 children, she had 5 brothers, Bill, Eddie, Chuck, Allan, and Robert, and 3 sisters Jane, Annebelle and Edith. Margaret was predeceased by Mother Elizebeth and Father William; her late husband, Morley Luverne Trytten; siblings, William Simpson, Charles Simpson, Edward Simpson, Jane Simpson, Annebelle Murray, Robert Simpson, Allen Simpson, Edith Wallace; nephews, Robert Simpson, Lee Simpson; and niece, Mary Anne Lund. Margaret Pennington is survived by her Loving Husband, Ernie Pennington; Children Chad Trytten and spouse Kim de Jong, daughter Roberta Amadori and husband Rhys, son Duane Trytten and his spouse Tracey, Lori Pennington, Kayla Smyl her husband Peter, Kyle Pennington and his spouse Cassie; 17 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, as well as her 3 sisters-in-law, Elenor Simpson’s wife to her oldest brother Bill, Debbie Simpson wife of Edward, and Barb Simpson wife to Allen; and many many dear friends. Margaret's Journey Begins on a little farm just outside of Drumheller where she was raised and attended Drumheller High School. Although 2 Margaret didn't have a formal college education she was an extremely intelligent woman. After high school Margaret entered the workforce going through numerous jobs, human resources and accounting, retail and of course your most important job of all, motherhood. On June 2nd, 1966 Margaret’s greatest challenge of all time came in the form of being a mother to Chad James Trytten AKA her favourite, the golden child, in his eyes. Not long after on August 28th, 1967 she got her precious little girl Roberta Alice Trytten. Margaret was left to raise these children on her own until she met a young strapping Easterner, who would take the three on as his own. His name was Morley Luverne Trytten my father, who she was married to until he passed from a terminal illness. While married to Morley Margaret's greatest blessing of all time, came on November 30th, 1973, that would be ME. Chad may have been her favourite but she loved me the most, sorry sis. After my father's illness tore our family apart, my older siblings left to start their lives. It was just my mother and myself. I was the number one man in her life and she was my best friend until she met this blue-eyed, guitar wielding, heavy-duty mechanic from Morrin AB, Ernie Pennington. Margaret was smitten instantly by Ernie and his big blue eyes and soon started their life together. In the late 80s, our families came together as one Giant Dysfunctional Family, and Mom couldn't be happier. Some people don't get a chance to experience true love in a lifetime. I would witness my mother receiving it twice. As is in any story one chapter comes to a close and another one begins. Margaret’s next chapter of her life would begin with being a Grandparent. Ernie and Marg who married in 1992 truly embraced being grandparents. (ITHINK THEY LIKE BEING GRANDPARENTS MORE ). Living in Morrin Alberta there they were blessed by the pitter-patter of many of their grandchildren's little feet that would visit starting with Melissa then Korissa followed by Cassandra, Ashley, Jasmine, Kendra, Katie, Cody, and Travis. A few of the grandchildren lived close by and were lucky to be in their day to day lives. In Morrin, they operated an oilfield maintenance company out of a small farm just outside of Morrin A.B and when they weren't working or spending time with their family they were with some of their close friends. In 2003 Ernie and mom loaded up everything and left for Flaxcombe Sask. I remember when she first told me I said where? and I asked why? and she said to get away from all the hustle and bustle of Morrin Alberta, that always made me chuckle. So off to Saskatchewan, they went. There they bought a shop in Alsask to run their business and purchase their first home together in Flaxcombe, Sask to where they still now call home. During this time the grandchildren kept coming. I believe next was Emma, Jackson, Charlie, Hanna, Hayden, Blakley, Sara, and Jessie who entered their lives in no particular order. In Flaxcombe they would expand their oilfield company by bringing Kyle, their son, into the business and adding some staff and service trucks and opening another branch in Consort, Alberta. Experiencing the highs and lows of the Alberta-Saskatchewan oil industry came with a lot of success as well as some tough times. In 2005 the great-grandchildren started to come and are still coming. Who Margaret was Those who knew Margaret best witnessed her many amazing qualities. She was very kind and generous sometimes to a fault with her time and with her gifts and always willing to have a listening ear for anyone that needed to talk. For those that did not know Margaret in her younger years, as she was bringing up her children, working full time, taking care of her dying husband, suffering a heart attack in her late 30’s, and on top of it all she renovated the whole entire house, one room at a time. Learning all types of skills: plumbing, electrical, finishing work, she painted, and she laid down carpet. Mom was a very capable woman. She wore many different hats. As a child growing up watching my mother she was the strongest person I knew as our family would face many deaths and difficulties. I would watch all of the other family members rely on my mother for strength, guidance and direction as well just to take care and take charge of everything. As her body was not performing the way she wished, her lungs were giving out. That was when she was diagnosed with a severe lung condition and had to go on oxygen. Mentally she was still an absolute pillar of strength. Even until the day she went home to her heavenly Father on December 26, 2020, she would carry the load herself and not want to burden anyone else. My mom’s interests and hobbies consisted of playing baseball, bowling and watching her children play sports when she was younger. My mom was a leader. If I had to think of one word that would describe Margaret that embodied her the most it would be the word RESILIENT, my mom was tough. My mom loved knitting, crocheting, cooking, and baking (which she was great at) and collecting all different types of things throughout her life, like mini spoons from the places we travelled or our friends and family would get mom spoons from where they travelled. Elephants were her favourite ornament to collect. If you have ever been to her home, she had a lot of elephants, which made it easy when it came to trying to figure out what to buy Mom for her birthday or Christmas and then of course there were her solar lights, I used to tease her that they could see her yard from space because of so many solar lights. She loved music, and she loved to listen and watch Ernie and Jack play or probably her favourite was just listening to Ernie play his guitar in their home. Also, she loved gardening, tending to her flowers or plants until she no longer could physically do that as well due to her allergies. In the last decade of her life, mom grabbed onto the internet mostly playing her farm games and Facebook, especially Facebook, where she was able to stay connected to extended family & friends all over the world as well as friends and she even made many online friends. Margaret truly appreciated her new friends from Flaxcombe. Some of them became very good friends. Mom looked forward to the time she spent together having their lunches, teas, and playing cards with Bev, Nancy, Cathy & Joyce!. Margaret was a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun together as a family mostly around teasing our mom as she gave us plenty of ammunition, she always was a great sport taking it, and giving back a great dig. Some of you may know this and some of you may not, but, my mother was an absolute competitor, if you didn't know this just play a game of cards or a board game with her, not only did she like the win she actually was good at winning and she even had a 29 hand in Crib. She had the best luck at winning. Our family played a lot of cards together over the years, she never let you win you always had to earn it! In the last few years, I had several conversations with my mother about Jesus and heaven and what's going to happen when we're done this life, not always easy conversations with my mother but good ones she always answered I know Jesus, I know where I'm going, and I'm not afraid to die, plus she would always say that she was going to live to be 100. I know that was her way of deflecting so no one would worry about her. I like most of you, have many fond memories of Margaret but one of the most precious to me was about a month-and-a-half ago, driving from Flaxcombe to our house in Red Deer listening and singing to good old Hymns and worship music from Randy Travis and Alan Jackson. Mom sang along and knew all the words and we even shed a few tears together singing about Jesus, heaven and going home in those hymns. This past week has been extremely difficult for all of us. Losing our mother, Ernie, his wife and best friend, and for the rest of you, a Grandma, a Great Grandma, an aunt, a sister, and a friend, we will continue to grieve but just know that Margaret has touched each and every one of us in her special way and there will always be a part of her in us and with us. Mom you're going to be missed and you were definitely loved and until we see each other again we love you and miss you so much! In Closing My family and I would like to give a special thanks to Margaret's many healthcare workers, past and present, that came into their home and took care of our Mom and for her friends and relatives that also came to take care of her and drive her to various doctors appointments in Alberta. A special mention to Val who has served Margaret & Ernie so faithfully, Nora Palmer a long-time friend that always stayed connected with mom and would also come and spend time helping mom out, as well as Lorell and her daughter Chelsey, they loved my mom and gave her a special last Christmas Day. We would like to thank my dear sister Roberta, who would go to Mom’s and help get her affairs in order and just helped straighten things out at the end, not always an easy task if you knew our mom, and to be here in this tough time to prepare for this memorial. We are truly grateful for what you have done for her. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you so much! As I mentioned in the beginning unfortunately due to the covid-19 restrictions the family will be gathering together (privately) and there will not be a reception after the graveside memorial. We do apologize and hope you understand We hope to have a celebration of life in spring to celebrate Margaret's life after the restrictions have loosened up. Then people can travel and gather together and remembrance of our beloved Margaret. Recording of service is available, please note that the sound quality is very low. We recommend to turn volume up as high as you can go, and if possible use headphones. Recording is in 2 parts.