Penelope (Penny) Iola Hooper

It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Penelope (Penny) Iola Hooper on September 4, 2024.

Born at the Grace Hospital on June 3, 1951, she was a native Calgarian where she resided all her life. She was predeceased by her parents, Edward Theodore Hooper and Margaret Mary Peters and her dear nephew Troy Ryan and her beloved Boxer dogs. She is survived by her sister Maureen Ryan and Niece, Kelly Ryan.

“Elegy for a Wild Flame”

She walked like the wind with a knowing grin,
A rebel soul stitched in untamed skin.
No leash of custom, no softened tone—
She carved her truth in granite stone.

The world she met with narrowed eyes,
Suspicious of masks and sweeter lies.
She'd laugh at pomp, at rigid pride,
And leave convention high and dry.

She spoke in sparks, her tongue a flame,
No trembling pause, no hint of shame.
Opinions sharp as a raven’s beak,
She said what others feared to speak.

Yet in her arms, the creatures came—
Stray dogs, lost birds, the half-wild, lame.
To beasts unloved, she gave her grace,
A sanctuary, a quiet place.

She wouldn’t kneel to what was “right,”
She chose the crooked path through night.
And though alone, she never lacked,
For nature’s choir sang at her back.

Now silence sits where thunder rolled,
The fire banked, the ashes cold.
Yet still we feel her, fierce and kind,
In the snapping wind, in the free of mind.

She did not pass with whispered prayer,
But like a storm that cracked the air.
And in her death, a truth remains—
The wild don't die, they slip their chains.

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