Claudine Watkins

It is with great sadness that the family of Claudine Watkins of Moreton’s Harbour announce her passing at the Twillingate Memorial Health Centre on the 19th of May, following a severe stroke two days previous.

Claudine is predeceased by her parents, Baden Wall (1909–1995) of Moreton’s Harbour and Rachel Rideout (1909–1937) of Whales Gulch; stepmother Violet (Fudge) Wall (1922–2007); sisters Edith Wall (August 22nd–November 10th, 1946), Phyllis Wall (1930–2011) and Gertrude Degeberg (1926–2013); father-in-law Gordon Watkins (1892–1975); brothers-in-law James Granger, Gene Degeberg, Roy (Ruby) Watkins, Frederick (Lucy) Watkins, and Elmo (Rose) Watkins; sisters-in-law Mae (Cyril) Jenkins and Evelyn (Tom) Churchill; nephews Dennis Granger, Sgt. Clyde ‘Rocky’ Granger and Marvin Jenkins; and extended niece Sonya Rogers.

She leaves to mourn her husband of 52 years, William ‘Bill’ Watkins; son Robert and his longtime partner Jacqueline Jones; longtime in-law Gertrude Fudge and the Fudge stepfamily; several nieces, nephews and cousins; and a loyal yet dwindling circle of friends, neighbours and fellow United Church parishioners.

Claudine was born Rachel Claudine Wall in 1937 and raised in Moreton’s Harbour. Never a woman of lofty, unrealistic ambitions, she left school in the early 1950s to run the family grocery store. It was while working there that she met Bill Watkins of Twillingate in 1957. They married in 1968 and reared one child, Robert. Indefatigably devoted and selfless to a fault, she dedicated much of her life to supporting her small family and caring for her ageing parents. Besides running the store and attending to a host of farm animals and crops on the Wall family homestead, she worked as an Avon representative for nearly three decades. Hopelessly nostalgic with a childlike perspective on many aspects of life, she had little time for technology and most modern amenities, and longed for the supposedly simpler days of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. She thoroughly enjoyed gardening, nature, and church matters — avocations she took right into old age. A woman who liked to feel needed and appreciated, she probably never got the credit she deserved or received the attention that was warranted her.

Claudine had been increasingly frail over the past decade, having suffered a heart attack in 2014 and developing dementia in more recent years. After being brought to the hospital with stroke-like symptoms on Monday the 17th of May, she succumbed to her ailments at 11:45 on Wednesday morning. She was 84 years of age.

Simply irreplaceable, Claudine shall be forever loved and missed by those who appreciate the helpful and the harmless. 

Resting at the United Church, Moreton's Harbour with public visitation on Friday, May 21, 2021 from 7-9 p.m. following the Covid-19 restrictions. Funeral service will take place from the church on Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. by invitation only.

Flowers gratefully accepted.

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

            — Cecil Frances Alexander