Cecile Olson (Mayhew)

Obituary

Passed on

1937 – 2025

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our mother Cecile Olson at the age of 88 of Winnipeg Beach, MB, after a courageous and feisty fight against Lymphoma Cancer.  She passed peacefully with her daughter by her side at the Gimli Johnson Memorial Hospital in the early morning hours of Monday, December 29, 2025.

She is survived by her two children, son John Mayhew and daughter Maureen Mayhew (Jayson) and grand dog “Stella”, her step-mother Jeanne Jean-Louis of Calgary, her brother Amos Jean-Louis (Mireille) of Georgia, her sisters Marie Orelien (Joseph) of Inwood, Mesida Dolcin of Haiti, Elvina Dorcelus of Haiti, step-sister Guirlene Joseph (Clay) of Calgary and sister-in-law Nancy Chura Louis of Teulon.  She is survived and will be missed by several nieces, nephews, cousins, and many long-time friends near and far as well as her honorary sons Dean and Lindsay.

She is predeceased by her husband Lorentz Olson, her father Jean Jean-Louis, mother Miza Jean, brother Lumenes Jean-Louis, and youngest brother Peter Louis.

Cecile was the oldest of her siblings.  She had the opportunity to leave Haiti and while working for the Holiday Inn in the Bahamas she met her first husband Douglas Mayhew.  They moved to Toronto, Ontario where he grew up and his family resided.  She had her children in Toronto and later resided in a few different cities of Ontario.  She worked for a few companies which included the Holiday Inn Toronto (she made sure she told everyone that this is where she met and looked after Pierre and Margaret Trudeau and their children whenever they were in Toronto on business trips), Tonka Toys and Crown Cork and Seal.

In 1976, she moved with her children from Ontario to Manitoba and purchased a farm in Inwood where she resided for several years.  In the same year, Cecile was one of the first employees to be hired by Donald Salkeld owner of Northern Goose in Teulon.  She worked there off and on for a number of years and made many lasting friendships. 

Cecile also worked for cleaning companies in Winnipeg and then decided to open her own cleaning company (M.P. Cleaning), all while building and operating a dairy farm in Inwood.  Farming life she never feared and loved the bush.  Grampa and Grandma also lived with us until they purchased their own home in the town of Inwood. 

Cecile met and married her husband Lorentz Olson in 1984 and moved to his farm not far away where they would continue farm life of beef cattle until she unfortunately became a widow in 1989.  She continued on with the farm life before she moved to her final retirement spot nine years ago in Winnipeg Beach which she loved thoroughly and made so many new friendships.  For several winters, she would escape the cold here and make the trek back to Haiti to visit her sisters and families.  She was lucky enough to be able to travel right up until 2024.

Mom lived a full life filled with no fear and always said “hard work will never kill you”, and that she held true even up until and during her illness in 2025.  You could pop into her place and either find her on the lawnmower making sure her yard looked pristine, weeding her flowers, or driving around the yard on her quad to make sure the spruce trees she dug up from the side of the back roads were doing well or needed some fertilizer to keep them healthy.   In the winter, if there was a hint of snow on her sidewalk, it had to be swept or shovelled off as her place always had to be looking perfect.  She loved people and treated everyone the same.

Cremation has taken place and a private celebration of life will be held at a later date with family and close friends.

Special thanks to Dr. Adeniyi Adegbesan of Gimli Express Care Clinic for providing the outmost care for Mom over the years.  He treated her with such respect at all her appointments, as if she were his own mother.  We cannot say enough about the nurses and staff at Gimli hospital that provided the most amazing care to our mother, and the true compassion they showed us to help us through this difficult time.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  Huge thanks to the Palliative and Homecare staff that checked in on Mom at home.  Thank you so much to Gimli CancerCare and to St. Boniface CancerCare units.

Heaven has gained a feisty one – You lived life your way! Rest in Peace Mom!

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