Charlene Powlan

A Tribute to My Mom Charlene Powlan

A child of God, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, an aunt, a friend, a Nana and a Great Grandma. Of all the titles a person could achieve in their lives, these were the most treasured to my mom. The love she had for her family and all those around her was motivated most by her love of our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. In addition, all those who were touched or influenced by her benefited from her loving, creative, generous, fun, and spiritual attributes.

When I think of my mom’s life, a “number of things” come to mind: 100’s of notes she wrote to cheer, comfort or thank people; dozens of solos with her beautiful soprano voice; a minimum of 40 trips driving to California to visit her family; 64 years of working in church assignments with the Young Women, Primary and the Relief Society organizations; singing and acting in at least 5 productions directed by my dad and playing the lead role of Marian in “The Music Man”; 1,000’s of business miles travelling with dad across Canada and the parts of USA doing seminars for School Boards; 60 hours spent watching Rick Steve’s travel DVD’s; publishing at least 15 children’s stories; 20 years of preparing fresh crab dinners on New Year’s Day; 100’s of students who loved it when “the story lady” was their substitute teacher so they could hear her dramatic telling of “Deadman’s Cove”; 30 years of being the CEO of “The Nana Banana Club” spanning 2 generations of motivating grandkids to love the scriptures; a lifetime of enjoying special family traditions; dozens of trips across the USA, Canada and her favourite – Europe; 12 years of being asked to sing her “signature song” around the multi-family campfire in Penticton; 60 years of game playing – Oh Heck, Rook, Rummy, Stock Ticker, Dice, Drawing Charades, Acting Charades, Roach, and Dominos; 3,900 hours of preparing to teach early morning seminary for 11 years; over 10 years of service as Parkland Stake Relief Society President making life-long friendships along the way; writing dozens of “Cousin Stories” for her great grandkids; 1,000’s of church related talks and lessons given to 100’s of people with the express purpose of strengthening other’s testimonies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and what that knowledge means to you personally; 10 years of singing in Handel’s Messiah with a 150 voice choir; 40+ years of camping and frying delicious fish dad caught in the Okanagan; 32 years of daily reading the Book of Mormon because she followed the Prophet’s council; 100’s of meals and goodies taken to people who were sick or who simply needed to know someone cared; and 1,000’s of books read in her leisure time or to me, or to her grandkids instilling a love of reading for 3 generations; 745,095 hours (85 years) of being a blessing to all who knew her; and finally, 1 daughter, 1 son-in-law, 4 granddaughters, 4 grand son-in-laws and 13 wonderful great grand children (with one more on the way) that will honour her, think of her, love her, miss her and thank Heavenly Father that we were blessed to call her ours!