Barbara Louise Stewart died on October 5, 2009 from breast cancer. She was survived by her husband, Neil Roberts; her three sons, Bryce, Malcolm, and Matthew; her sister Audrey; her niece Fiona; and her many friends. A memorial was held at her home on November 8th. This website was created by her family in order to honour and preserve her memory. It presents much of what was on display at the memorial event. The memorial event was a collaborative effort by Barbara's family and several of her friends.
The following is the text of the "Lives Lived" column which was written by Barbara's friend Caterina Edwards, and appeared in the Globe and Mail April 14th, 2010.
| Barbara Stewart's life was full of accomplishment. During her long illness, her joy and kindness made family, friends and caregivers feel that taking care of her was an honour.
Barbara was exceptional from the start: blond, blue-eyed, the first white child born in Norman Wells, NWT. Her parents, William Stewart and Daphne Leake, were from Vancouver. Bill, a meteorologist, ran the weather station. Barbara's sister, Audrey, arrived the next year.
Bill was soon transferred to Edmonton, where six-year-old Barbara fell ill with polio. She spent eight months in an iron lung. Just a year later, her father died suddenly from a hypersensitivity to penicillin. Surmounting these traumas, Barbara grew up resilient, practical and appreciative of life. She asked of every problem, "How can I make this situation as good as it can be?"
This attitude energized her life's work to ensure that people with disabilities were included in all aspects of community life. Barbara graduated in special education at the University of Alberta and did graduate work at San Francisco State University. Her first job, in 1971, was as an itinerant teacher for low-vision students in Edmonton. Indignant that blind students were usually sent to other provinces, she helped set up a program in Edmonton for them and brought the children home. Later she helped teachers throughout northern Alberta develop educational plans for children with multiple handicaps.
In 1972, Barbara married Neil Roberts, a childhood friend who shared her positive spirit and who became a neurologist. They had three sons, Bryce, Malcolm and Matthew. When Bryce was diagnosed with autism, Barbara reinvigorated the Edmonton and Alberta autism societies and served for years as president of Autism Society Canada.
A gracious hostess, Barbara loved nice clothes, fine china and good wine. She supported CKUA and most other arts groups in Edmonton, and expressed her own artistic impulses in her beautiful garden. With her family Barbara travelled the world, hiking many a long trail. Even with post-polio syndrome, she summited Mount Kilimanjaro and finished the Inca Trail. On her last adventure, a trip to the Galapagos Islands in 2008, she snorkelled despite her frailty and the chemo port in her arm.
Barbara never lost interest in the people or events around her. On oxygen and barely able to speak, she insisted on being wheeled out to the garden to give advice on which trees needed trimming. At the end, Barbara was in her four-poster bed, surrounded by her family. She left all who loved her a model of how to live and die. |
Donations in memory of Barbara can be made to The Edmonton Autism Society or The Canadian Cancer Society.
Please explore this site more to remember and learn more about Barbara. Please consider writing in the guestbook as well.
If you would like to contribute to this memorial website in some way, or if you have any comments or suggestions relating to the website, please contact Matthew Roberts at matt@mattroberts.ca.
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