April 24, 1926 ~ September 21, 2023
The family is having a graveside service for her on Friday, September 29th at 2 pm at Memorial Cemetery. Close friends are invited.
Helen Aileen Neufeld (Barnes) was born April 24, 1926 on the family farm at Elnora, Alberta to Charles Allen Barnes (always known as John) and Katherine Kennedy Barnes (Kirkwood). She grew up with three sisters, Dorothy, Kay (Katherine) and Jean, and two brothers, Allen and Jack (John).
Together they shared many adventures and a lot of love.
School started on horseback to Lakeview School about a mile and a half away. High school was completed in Elnora and then Helen attended University of Calgary where she received a teaching certificate.
Helen taught at several one room schools, but she found it really didn’t suit her well. She really enjoyed retail sales and worked in clothing and drug stores for many, many years. While working in Stettler she met John Neufeld. They married October 24,1956 and shared the next 48 years together until John’s death in September 2004.
An adept seamstress, Helen sewed and did alterations for herself and many others. She also made curtains for Glendale Mobile Homes and the “new” Wetaskiwin Hospital, 1962 edition. Handwork was never far away. Helen did needlepoint, petit point, crocheting and knitting with a least one project always on the go.
Helen had a mothering spirit. She used it to raise her son and grandsons, to keep all her family as close as possible and to give love and support to her friends and to strangers soon to be friends.
Helen is survived by her children, Douglas and Wendy; grandchildren, Johnathan and Meike, Andrew and Hana; sister, Jean Ferguson; sister-in-laws, Lena Boss and Heather Guenther; and many nieces, nephews, cousins and their families.
