Three close friends of a longtime dedicated member of the Morden community shared their thoughts and stories recently about Jane White.
Born in United Kingdom in May 1940, White, most recently of Cochrane, AB after having spent a significant portion of her Iife in Morden, passed away on Dec. 3.
Three of her close friends—Marilyn Skubovius, Catherine Evenson and Pat Gibson—felt it was important to acknowledge and pay tribute to what White did for and meant to Morden.
“She was dedicated to the community, but behind the scenes she was also a very kind woman,” said Gibson.
“As a newcomer [to Morden], she just embraced the community and really became a part of it,” said Evenson.
“She was very involved in everything that she did, and health care especially was kind of her focus,” added Skubovius.
“She really worked at services and services closer to home,” she said, noting White played a pivotal role in helping bring about the Boundary Trails Health Centre. “The government at the time would not expand either Morden or Winkler [hospitals]. It had to be one.”
White and her cousin Maureen travelled to Canada in 1961, planning to work their way across the country. White’s journey ended in Alberta, where she met and married Ed Wiebe.
After some time working in the mines in Saskatchewan, the couple and their sons moved to Wiebe’s hometown of Morden, where they purchased and operated Morden Florists.
White’s list of community involvements was extensive, ranging from the Morden & District Chamber of Commerce, St. Paul’s United Church, Meals on Wheels, and The Company theatre group to the Morden Corn & Apple Festival, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Morden Historical Society, and the South Central Regional Library.
She and Skubovius were the first women ever elected to Morden town council in 1989. White went on to serve as councillor for 10 years and was the first woman to serve as deputy mayor.
Recalling their days on Morden council, Skubovius remembers White always being fully engaged.
“She was active, and she was always concerned about the budget,” she said. “If there was a new project, okay, what was going to be the cost, and she looked into the background of it; not just ‘I Iike that’ or ‘I don’t like that.’
“And she was just always positive,” added Skubovius, recalling when a group went on a holiday to the United Kingdom and White was even then being curious about things such as checking out low-flow toilets and water systems.
“She was always trying to be progressive rather than just going with the flow. Even the width of sidewalks was important,” Skuovius recalled. “The older sidewalks in Morden were very narrow.”
“My overall impression about Jane was that she didn’t just say, ‘I’m in charge’ or ‘I’m a councillor and get on with it.’ She was part of it all,” reflected Evenson.
“As a member of the hospital board, she did whatever was required of board members,” she recalled. “On the library board, she worked at the book sales.
“She was a really active participant, and she knew what was going on,” Evenson added, noting that hasn’t always been the case with all local elected officials. “It was an eye-opener, I think, for some of the committees to have somebody that active and interested.”
They recalled many other examples of White’s dedication and commitment to the community and to other people, wherever she was and whatever she was doing.
While living in the U.K., White worked for the queen’s milliners and had the opportunity one time to deliver a hat for Queen Elizabeth to Buckingham Palace.
And while working in Morden at the florist shop, Skubovius noted that White was always ready to help “any group that needed flowers or decorations.”
Gibson commented on White’s “commitment to the community from an overall perspective … I know that at council, she would always push an agenda, not just for today but thinking for the future.”
White’s approach to service to health care and especially to bring more services closer to home was “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Evenson said.
“That’s how and why the Morden hospital had the first cancer treatment, had the first dialysis, and was one of the first to break away from therapy services being provided out of Winnipeg, and she was there through all of it.”
Finally, on a personal note, Gibson offered an example of White’s kindness to others.
“My son was burned, and a water therapy was required for burn therapy,” she shared. “White had a pool at the back of her house, and usually, for the winter, they turned off the temperature. But that winter, she kept it heated that whole winter so that David could get in there.
“I know for a fact, if he hadn’t done that, he would have required further surgery. So that’s the kind of person that she was throughout her life.”
