Gwen Harlow, the recently widowed wife for 68 years of Jack Harlow, died at her home on November 4. Born in Cilfrew, Wales in 1920, the daughter of a serviceman in the British navy who had seen much action in WW1, she was in a sense prepared when she and her husband-to-be weathered the first day of WW2, on a ship bound for Halifax, within five miles of the S.S. Athenia as it succumbed to Nazi submarines. The Welsh lay great store by elocution, and it will come as no surprise to Gwen’s many friends in Quebec to learn that in her pre-Canadian youth she had won many prizes for recitation, in both English and Welsh, at eistedfodds. In her life in Canada, she continued to develop this gift, with her participation in the Quebec Art Theatre as an actress, her presentation of a series of lectures on family life on CJQC, and (of far greater importance) with the offering of her delightfully lilting voice at Anglo assemblies in Quebec too numerous and far-flung to list, and lasting until her final day, as the Holland Centre bridge players could confirm. She was the faithful and unfailingly supportive helpmate of Jack, literally until the day of his death. She is survived by the three children she bore and unstintingly succoured to the last: Jean, Robert and Ann, and by her three grandchildren: Michael, Jeremy and Caitlin, and by Adam, her « step-great-grandson ».
Gwen Harlow, the recently widowed wife for 68 years of Jack Harlow, died at her home on November 4. Born in Cilfrew, Wales in 1920, the daughter of a serviceman in the British navy who had seen much action in WW1, she was in a sense prepared when she and her husband-to-be weathered the first day of WW2, on a ship bound for Halifax, within five miles of the S.S. Athenia as it succumbed to Nazi submarines. The Welsh lay great store by elocution, and it will come as no surprise to Gwen’s many friends in Quebec to learn that in her pre-Canadian youth she had won many prizes for recitation, in both English and Welsh, at eistedfodds. In her life in Canada, she continued to develop this gift, with her participation in the Quebec Art Theatre as an actress, her presentation of a series of lectures on family life on CJQC, and (of far greater importance) with the offering of her delightfully lilting voice at Anglo assemblies in Quebec too numerous and far-flung to list, and lasting until her final day, as the Holland Centre bridge players could confirm. She was the faithful and unfailingly supportive helpmate of Jack, literally until the day of his death. She is survived by the three children she bore and unstintingly succoured to the last: Jean, Robert and Ann, and by her three grandchildren: Michael, Jeremy and Caitlin, and by Adam, her « step-great-grandson ».