John Kinnear
Jul 10, 2024
As surely as nature blooms and blossoms each spring, Isabel grew a beautiful life garden...
Isabel Russell’s spectacular English garden is, in many ways, a metaphor of her life. As surely as nature blooms and blossoms each spring, Isabel grew a beautiful life garden, seeded with her daughters and grandchildren, important teaching, prolific reading, volunteerism and commitment to community.
On June 13th of this year friends and family gathered at the municipal library to recognize her life garden in a lovely profound way. Her abrupt passing stunned those of us who knew her well and, while it took some time to try and absorb this loss; those who were such a part of her life came together with a concept.
The event was the initiative of the Book Club she belonged to for years. Judy Cooke and Shirley Blume were the prime drivers in the who, what, where and when planning that went into this important acknowledgement. For Isabel, literature was one of her great loves and this book club was an integral part of her love of the English language. She taught English up until 2008 and is remembered by her students with gratitude as one who could see their strengths and capabilities- often before they could see these attributes in themselves.
The club deemed it only fitting that the focus of this commemoration be centred at the principal repository of literature here, the municipal library. An artistic work was commissioned, designed to capture the essence of Isabel’s growing garden. The unveiling of artist Jan Lloyds’s beautiful stained glass creation that day touched everyone who beheld it. Over 900 individual pieces of glass were meticulously fitted together into this artist’s view of Isabel’s cultivations. It is a richly coloured cornucopia of pieces that depicts going up the staircase from her flower beds to her greenhouse.
I went to visit Peter Dunn last week to see first-hand what had inspired Lloyd’s creation and I found Isabel’s garden to be a stunning blend of walls, steps, decorative fences, structures and an array of annual and perennial plant types and colours.
It struck me as I walked up the steps to the greenhouse, through giant irises and peonies about to bloom, that the steps were symbolic of her journey in life, her vision of how things should be or could be, always moving upward. Step by step she made her way as a teacher, history advocate, quilter and seamstress (also major passions in her life), gardener, hostess extraordinaire, university senator, editor, and golfer. The list of her stairway into life is long and with each step she proceeded with uncompromising commitment and skill.
The monies raised for the artwork were more than enough, so an eye was turned towards what else within the library would speak to who she was. Knowing her love of books and the joy she got sitting and reading them to her children and grandchildren, it was decided to purchase a large cuddler chair. A place for parent and child to sit together in comfort and explore the world of words. With funding still remaining and after once again consulting with Library Manager Diane deLauw, a large IKEA cubed bookshelf was purchased to hold some of the library’s collection. All this was capped off with the purchase of 18 children’s books, from Analog Books in Lethbridge, which were added to the children’s library. Books that perhaps her book club members will choose to read to their children and grandchildren.
The stained glass is permanently framed into a window at the library and the cuddler chair is nearby with a rack of children’s books across the way. The legacy of Isabel’s life garden will stand for all as a reminder of one woman’s remarkable journey and a life well lived.







