Hazel Winifred Fulford

Hazel Winifred Fulford died on June 12, 2019 at the venerable age of 96. She was an extraordinary woman.

Born to Daisy and Archie Wright in Winnipeg on September 7, 1922; she spent her childhood and adolescence growing up in Dinorwic and Wabigoon. During the Dirty Thirties, she and her family “helped to feed the tattered men who rode the rails from coast to coast”. During World War II, she worked in factories in both Thunder Bay and Toronto, wiring and installing radios on the Hawker Hurricane airplanes. 

In November of 1945 she married Donald Fulford and went on to raise two daughters, who went on to marry and engender much-loved grandchildren and great grandchildren. In the interim she had worked as a medical receptionist at a Dryden Clinic and subsequently moved to Thunder Bay.

In 1979 she returned to school as a mature student at Lakehead University and earned a degree in English Literature. In her early sixties she began to write and in 2010 she received NOWW’s Elizabeth Kouhi Award for outstanding contributions to the literature of Northwestern Ontario. Charles Wilkins, who presented the award, described her as “the foremost and most eloquent spokes-person for the forests and the lakes and people (as well as the temperament, spirit and history) of a hard-working and yet magical area of the north).” In her acceptance speech Hazel responded as follows: “When I reached a certain age, I always opened the newspaper to the obituary page. All too often, this was the final line, “Her main interests were her home and family’’. Of course, My family has always been central to my life. However, like the Velveteen Rabbit in the children’s story, I yearned to become real. Certainly, I already had an identity as a wife, mother and grandmother – roles I have cherished. Nonetheless, I wanted a role in the wider world beyond the family circle. I registered for my first course in creative writing. And – here I am.”

Hazel Fulford developed progressive blindness due to her macular degeneration but continued to write with the help of her ZoomText computer program.

She is the author of Trains Stopped in Dinorwic, Yellow Brick Roads to Gold Rock, The Gold Rock Letters, A Sign From Above, A Red Lake Mystery, The Morrisseau Papers, and Wabigoon Burning. Her work is also represented in two anthologies, The Wolfe’s Eye and Flying Colours; and various periodicals have published her articles and stories.

She developed a significant left hemiparesis due to a major stroke in 2014, but was able to still continue to access her computer programs using only her right hand.

Hazel was predeceased by her husband Donald, her great grandson Reilly Fors, and her sister Nora VanHoek.

She is survived by her daughters, Judy Peterson (John), and Jennifer Fulford (Eugene); Grandchildren Calvin Fors (Jennifer), Ben Fors, Tegan Sacevich (Kaspar), Nathan Sacevich (Judith), Brennan Sacevich (Amy), and Calen Sacevich (Robyn); Great Grandchildren, Liam, Ireland, Travis, Noah, Daphne, Marco, Lukas, Ellia, Gwenyth, Vivienne, and Maxwell.

The family of Hazel Fulford would like to thank the staff of Hogarth Riverview Manor for their dedicated care and their help over the past several years.

A remembrance gathering for family and friends will be held on Monday, June 17, 2019 at 12:00pm in the Georgian Room at St. Joseph’s Heritage. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or the Canadian National Institute for the Blind would be appreciated.