Obituary of Bernice Constance Scowen

Constance Alice Annie Bernice was the fourth daughter born to Richard and Frances Platte. Quite a lot of names for a small baby! She was born April 25th, 1925 at home on Sec.23-50-15 W2 and passed away on June 3rd, 2017.

Bernice acquired the name “Bunny” when her father fondly called her his little “Bunny”, a nickname which has stuck all these years. When she got older Bunny herself legally dropped a couple of her given names and became Bernice Constance.

Bunny attended Welland school, having a two mile walk through the heavy bush to get to classes. Fortunately, her father had the foresight to see the need for school “buses” and he hired the neighbour to pick up his girls and take them by sleigh or buggy once roads were passable. At the age of 10 Bunny and two of her sisters began going to Regina during the winter to finish off their high school. She then went on to the U of S and received her Commerce Degree.

On January 22nd, 1948 Bunny married Jack Douglas Scowen, a young railroad worker. However, once the children started to arrive they decided that all that moving was probably not so much fun and Jack started to farm while Bunny started doing books for local customers. In 1961 she started her own accounting business which she ran for 10 years. She then worked for Community Clinic in Saskatoon for 6 years and finished off her career as an accountant at the Nipawin Hospital.

Jack and Bunny were blessed with four children, Janet born in 1949, Rick in 1950, Patty in 1951 and Diane in 1957.

In 1984 Jack decided to run for member of parliament and after he won the election Bunny retired and headed off to Ottawa with Jack. Here she had the chance to spend time with her eastern relatives and had lots of quality time with Edna, Laura, Edith, Fred and their families. She also had the opportunity to meet and get to know cousins of Jack’s in the Montréal and Ottawa areas.

Bunny was busy raising children and working and still had time to be an active member of the Kinettes and play bridge with the bridge clubs. After retirement, she and Jack were instrumental in forming a duplicate bridge club in Nipawin and hosted and travelled to many tournaments in and around the area.

Bunny enjoyed travelling and was not afraid to venture out on her own with the children, taking them to Pigeon Lake, Kipabiska and to Expo 67 in Montréal. Later she and Jack travelled to many lakes, fishing and camping and took several trips to places like the Maritimes, Hawaii, Arizona, Luxembourg, England and New Zealand. She loved these trips and often said she’d had the opportunity to see the world. One highlight of their life was when their entire immediate family spent Christmas of 1997 at Kananaskis where Jack and she celebrated their 50th anniversary.

When Jack passed away in 2001 Bunny moved into town to a senior apartment where she lived until 2014 when failing health forced her to move into a nursing home in Carrot River. There she received excellent care and often said the staff treated her like a queen, plus she was close to family and enjoyed many visits with them. She especially enjoyed her 90th birthday when most of the family and some friends were able to be there to help her celebrate. She will live on in our hearts forever.

Bunny was predeceased by her parents, her husband Jack, her son Rick, her sisters Kay, Ruth, and Edna. She is survived by her daughters, Janet (Marvin), Patty (Doug) and Diane (Evan) and her daughter-in-law Judy, her sister Laura, 11 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren as well as many nieces and nephews.

Many thanks to the staff at the Carrot River Health Center for the care for the past two and a half years.