AGNES HUBERT

1909 - 2012

Agnes Hubert, a resident of Coaldale for eighty five years, passed away in Taber on Sunday, August 26, 2012 at the age of 103 years.
A private burial service for immediate and extended family will be held at the Coaldale Mennonite Cemetery prior to the funeral service on Saturday, September 1, 2012.
The Funeral Service will be held at the Coaldale Mennonite Brethren Church, 2114 - 18 Street, Coaldale on Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 2:00 P.M. with Pastor Rudy Heidebrecht officiating.
To cherish her memory, Agnes leaves sons John Hubert of Bow Island, Frank (Emma) Hubert of Regina, Saskatchewan, Dave (Martha) Hubert of Edmonton, Henry (Elsie) Hubert of Kamloops British Columbia, Ben (Linda) Hubert of Calgary, daughter Agnes Hubert (Barry Nolan) of Winnipeg, Manitoba and daughter-in-law Helga (George) Loewen of Edmonton. She leaves numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren. Remembering her fondly also are her sister Lydia Toews of Abbotsford, British Columbia and brothers John Janz of Coaldale, Ben (Pauline) Janz of Edmonton and numerous nieces and nephews.
Agnes was predeceased by her parents Jacob B. and Aganetha Janz, husband Jacob F. Hubert, son Jacob Hubert, daughter-in-law Annie Hubert, brother and sister-in-law Jacob (Tina) Janz, sister Helen Janz, brother-in-law Peter Toews, sister-in-law Helen Janz and great granddaughter Katherine Loewen.
The eldest of six children, Agnes was born to Jacob B. and Aganetha (nee Wiens) Janz on July 28, 1909 in the village of Fischau, southern Russia, now Ukraine. After WWI, her parents tried to shield the growing family from the political turmoil of the times, but in 1924 the continuing revolutionary unrest led her parents to join the migration of many other Mennonite families to Canada where the family with five children initially settled in New Hamburg, Ontario. Two years later a move west to Coaldale followed.
For the next two years Agnes worked as a domestic in Lethbridge, where she showed some of the ingenuity for which she was always known. She would recount that the first family she served observed Jewish traditions. Therefore anytime the family received ducks or chickens not killed in the kosher fashion under the rabbi’s supervision, as unclean they were given to Agnes, who took them home to her parents, who enjoyed them very much. After two years as a domestic, she enrolled in high school for a year, followed by Normal School in Calgary. This led to her teaching in rural schools in southern Alberta for two further years.
She married Jacob F. Hubert on November 25, 1934. The young couple settled on what became the family farm north and east of Coaldale. Here they raised six sons and a daughter, all of whom eventually left the farm for careers throughout western Canada. Meanwhile, tragedy befell the family in early December 1960, when in a hunting accident, Jacob, the eldest son, drowned in Chin Lake, leaving a young wife and infant son.
A decade later, when her husband died, Agnes sold the farm and moved to a home in Coaldale, where she stayed until retiring to Sunny South Manor, then to Sunny South Lodge and most recently to the Linden View facility in Taber. In her first decades living in town she continued to serve both her church and her community in various capacities. Another brief anecdote reflects how community and church often came together. One day the development officer for Concord College, a forerunner of the Canadian Mennonite University, came to Coaldale to meet with donors, but with the meeting about to begin, Agnes wasn’t there yet. She finally got there, apologizing that she had been delivering Meals on Wheels. A similar story is told about her coming late to her eightieth birthday, when she was still delivering Meals on Wheels. Given her friendly and gentle disposition and her deep faith, she brought joy to all who knew her throughout this time, which she enjoyed in good health.
The family wishes to thank the Good Samaritan Society’s Linden View facility in Taber for their care of our mother in the last months. As well, the family could never express sufficient thanks to the management and staff of the Sunny South Manor and Lodge in Coaldale, where Agnes spent more than twenty very happy years.