Florence HARINGTON

HARINGTON, Florence Katherine "Flo"
December 23, 1910 – Lethbridge, Alberta
March 30, 2015 – Calgary, Alberta
Florence died peacefully, at 104 years, in her bed at Extendicare Hillcrest in Calgary, attended by her son Dick (Dr. Charles Richard Harington).
She was predeceased by her mother Margaret Katharine ("Katie") Shillington (nee Mcleod) 1890-1939, father Dr. Richard Newton Wellington ("Dick") Shillington 1879-1957; her sisters Elizabeth Evelyn ("Ev") Stuart (nee Shillington) 1904-1970, Frances Anna ("Fran") Coulson (nee Shillington) 1905-1999; her brother Dr. Richard Thomas ("Dick") Shillington 1915-2013; and her husband Charles Frederic ("Spud") Harington 1901-1989).
She lived in Calgary for nearly 70 years. Flo attended the University of Alberta for a session about 1928 when she wrote her first poem – a response to Walter de la Mare's poem "The Listeners". She attended Henderson's Business College in Calgary, and in 1930, with her mother, visited relatives in Ontario. She wrote the humorous dialect poem "Mammy Cindy's Prayer" which was published along with "The Dancer" in the Alberta Poetry Year Book 1930. In November of that year she received an award in a poetry contest sponsored by the Edmonton Authors Association. In Lethbridge on May 27, 1932 she married Spud, then a corporal in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They lived in Winnipeg first followed by a move to the Churchill detachment for several years. Dick was born in 1933 in Calgary. During the Churchill years she wrote 13 poems reflecting her impressions of the North. About 1936 Spud returned to "D" Division in Winnipeg. He joined the Canadian Army in 1939, being posted to A-4 Artillery Training Centre in Brandon until 1943 when he was sent overseas (England, Normandy, Netherlands, Germany), and when Flo and Dick moved to Calgary. Spud returned in 1945, taking a position with the British Control Commission for Germany. Flo and Dick moved to heavily-bombed London in the fall of 1946, and later to Detmold and Bielefeld in northern Germany. While in London Flo and Dick regularly visited many art galleries and Royal Albert Hall concerts. Flo also attended the ballet, as well as fine arts auctions (Christies' and Sotheby's) with her old school friend Bertha Grant, who reported on them for several magazines. During this period the family spent holidays in Paris, Brussels, Antwerp and the Austrian Tyrol. Flo wrote at least four poems in London and several more in Germany. Most are marked by deep impressions of the destructiveness of war, as well as the starkness and sadness of postwar Europe. Spud's service with the Control Commission for Germany ended in 1949, and the family returned to Calgary. Spud and Flo travelled extensively (Western Canada, United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia) in the 1960s. After many years of struggle with Alzheimer's disease, Spud died in 1989. During that period Flo virtually became an auxiliary nurse at the Foothills Hospital, visiting and providing care for Spud almost every day. She continued to occupy the family home at 836-24th Ave., NW for several decades prior to hospitalization leading to her placement at Extendicare Hillcrest. She was particularly grateful to her niece Barbara Morin, her special friend Helen Leslie, and Jennie Ligaya for their long-term care and thoughtfulness. Besides a love of horses, Flo loved books, being employed for many years as a librarian with the Calgary Public Library. She had a genius for friendship – her friends crossed the complete age spectrum. She was so concerned and sympathetic that it was suggested she charge for her "confessional services"! She liked crafts and knitting – creating a unique series of Canadian knitted dolls (Coureurs de bois, Mounties, etc.)
No memorial services will be held – she is already memorialized in Spud's book Munoo, the Life of an Arctic Sled Dog; in The Collected Poems of Florence Katherine Harington; with Spud in a bench in Confederation Park; as well as in a "Second Man" award from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for significant services at the Churchill detachment. Flo was a great cook too, and many of her best recipes are published in All Mixed Up!: Family Favourite Recipes of Gail and Dick Harington. According to her wishes, Flo's ashes will be spread at Peyto Lake.
In living memory of Florence Harington, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park.