- Born in Wolfville August 8, 1924, Shirley Louise Wilhemina (Wallace) Carey, Mom, passed September 9, 2025 in her own home. She was the eldest child of the late William Hector and Mary Bessie (Vaughan) Wallace. She grew up in Wolfville and after high school Mom worked in the Dental office of the Eaton brothers. Mom met our father, Earl Carey of Avonport in Wolfville's Palm's restaurant and they married in 1943. She helped Dad over the years with his several business pursuits while also being kept very busy with five children, the oldest turned five seven days after the youngest was born.
Mom was very proud to be a Life Member of the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia of which she was a member for forty plus years. She was not only a fabulous rug hooker, she was very prolific. She had a wonderful sense of color and placement of the images. Mom loved Indigenous and Northern art, producing many hookings with permission from the artist. She often sent a picture of the finished piece to the artist who was delighted to see how she could capture their art using strips of wool.
Mom loved to attend teas and parties especially dressed in vintage clothes and wearing lots of jewelry. One time the "girls" were going to a Hantsport tea all dressed in their vintage clothing when their car hit a patch of ice and landed in the ditch on its roof. As these elderly ladies were crawling out of the popped out back window the town police who arrived asked if they wanted to go to the hospital. They answered "NO, just get us to the tea!"
Mom's Post Christmas cocktail parties were legendary, spanning over forty years with thirty to forty women in attendance.
Mom was a great home cook. Her seasonal turkey dinners were exceptional. She also made delicious turkey soup and homemade mincemeat for her pies. She made sure her "boys" had freshly made bread (sometimes still warm) and her Dutch relish when going to their hunting camps. All the grand and great grandchildren loved her for all their favorite kinds of cookies.
Mom was a creature of habit, she kept lists - for groceries, things she needed to do, books she wanted to read, things she wanted to ask people, calls she needed and wanted to make, letters she wanted to write (which she did early every morning) and a list for each of her children. For easy access she kept her lists on the corner of the table or in the corner cabinet drawer. The phone number for the local MLA was always close at hand.
Mom didn't learn to drive until she was sixty-five. There was no holding "FLASH" back for local travel after that! With her four-foot eleven stature the drivers lined up behind her would think her car was driverless.
Mom loved her cottage at Evangeline Beach, seeing the tide come and go, looking out over the mudflats to the moods of Blomidon and watching the yearly stopover of the sandpipers. She always found it sad to move home to Avonport in the fall.
She is predeceased by her husband, Earl Embert Carey in 1986, and by her sons, William Earl "Bill" (2003) and Orren Willard (2013), granddaughter, Nicole Carey (daughter of Nicholas), her sisters, Phyllis Sutton and Audrey in infancy, and her brother, Donald Wallace.
Mom donated her body to the Dalhousie Human Donation Program.
A Celebration of Life will be held at the Wolfville Baptist Church on Monday, October 20, 2025 at 10:30AM
Donations made in Shirley's memory may be made to Carey-Me in support of Palliative Care in the Home, a foundation in the Kentville Hospital started by her family in remembrance of her son Bill, Wolfville Baptist Church, Avonport Baptist Church or charity of your choice.
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1924 - 2025 (101 years)
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