Calgary community comes together to make senior’s creative dream a reality after her passing

Florence Lowry's dream of having her book of poems published wasn't realized in her lifetime but it did come to fruition thanks to her illustrator and staff at her care facility.

Florence Lowry spent her life raising kids and teaching but she also had a passion for creativity.

Jese Stovka, Lowry’s granddaughter, remembers her late grandmother as a master of everything.

“She was so creative.  Everything she did had flair and pizzazz. She was a teacher, a painter, a crafter, a  poet – all things creative,” said Stovka. “I think in the later years of her life is when she became the most creative. I’m sure she would’ve loved to have done that earlier, but I’m so glad that she got to pursue it.”

Florence was born in Treherne, Manitoba in 1929 and moved to Calgary and later to High River.

It was when pandemic restrictions kept her from leaving the Shalem Society for Senior Citizens Care that she finally decided it was time to take action.

“It was very upsetting at first and scary and then one night I thought enough of this I’m going to get doing something,” said Lowry in an interview with Global News in November of 2022.

Florence wrote a book of poems and and together with a Grade 12 student from Calgary Christian School next door, they worked on a final project with student Melissa Pike providing the illustrations.

“I was here to talk about her poems and get to know her more and to show her ideas that I had, ” Pike told Global News. “I learned about her poems and her writing. I learned that she made cards for residents.