Jean Rattray wrote the following words on March 26, 2006: “Eighty years after the birth of Idella Jean Rattray in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia — announced by a Scottish lady in attendance to the young mother with the words, ‘You have a long-legged lass’– the lass is still long-legged and now living in Oakland, Lunenburg County.”

The lass born to Cora Jean (Rhodenizer) Rattray and Horace Wright Rattray on March 26, 1926 breathed her last at Parkland at the Gardens in Halifax on January 20, 2026. The intervening one hundred years have granted her a rich and fulfilling life.

Her immediate family would eventually be expanded to include her late sister, Vivian, and her brother Dwight. Their families expanded to include her six nieces and nephews, nine great-nieces and great-nephews, and eleven great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews.

The years between New Glasgow and Oakland saw the advent of many Rattray home addresses, a fact occasioned by their father’s employment with the Stedman’s Company as a manager whose responsibility it was to open new stores in towns like Truro, Bridgewater, Wolfville, Summerside, Amherst, Lunenburg, Kentville. Jean’s own employment would take her first to the municipal office in Lunenburg and then to Halifax, where, equipped with a
secretarial diploma from Acadia and a sterling recommendation from her former principal at Lunenburg Academy, Mr. D. H. Collins, she would eventually become lead administrator at the Halifax branch of the federal government’s Fisheries Research Board.

Marriage, though offered, was not what she wanted in her life. Instead, she remained a devoted daughter while at the same time revelling in what her work contributed to the research undertaken by the scientists at the lab. An early adapter of a healthy lifestyle, she made a habit of walking to her place of work on the waterfront. In no small part owing to the medical care she received at the VG Hospital, she became a breast cancer survivor fifty years ago. She loved to dance and play bridge; she golfed and swam and skied when necessary (therein lies a story!) With her family, she picked berries and mayflowers in season; with her friends, she enjoyed the cultural life available in Halifax; as Citizen Rattray, she once accepted an invitation to join a civic committee whose mandate was to protect the view of the harbour from Citadel Hill. As often as she could, she visited her Shaw, Cudmore, and Rattray cousins in Prince Edward Island, many of whom had inherited musical gifts which she could only envy. All along, she organized her finances so as to manage a trip overseas every-so-often.

Retirement saw Jean choose to live on Hirtle Cove Road in Oakland in a house with gardens and the very best of neighbours. There, for twenty-six years, she could enjoy the sea view and play host to her family and walk their dogs. Two further moves were yet to come: first to The Quinlan in Mahone Bay and latterly to Parkland at the Gardens back in Halifax. In both places she was gifted by friendships which sustained her and which, along with the love of her family, she treasured to the end.

Amongst Jean’s late father’s belongings was a copy of a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins which had been cited by King George VI in his 1939 Christmas message — in times which were uncomfortably like our own. After the stroke she suffered in mid-December and as her life was ebbing away, the familiar words gave her comfort …
… I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So be it.

A memorial service conducted by the Rev. Joanne McFadden will be held on Friday, January 30, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. at Trinity United Church, Mahone Bay; reception to follow. Interment will take place at Hillcrest Cemetery, Lunenburg.

In lieu of flowers, friends are invited to make a donation in Jean’s memory to ElderDog Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society (Nova Scotia Division) or a charity of choice. Arrangements have been entrusted to Personal Care Cremations & Memorial Services.

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SERVICES & GATHERINGS

Memorial Service

Trinity United Church

January 30, 2026 11:00 am

101 Edgewater St. Mahone Bay, NS

Celebrant: Rev. Joanne McFadden

Hillcrest Cemetery
Kissing Bridge Road Lunenburg, NS View on Google Maps

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