EDMONTON (CP) - Of all the great gardens Lois Hole has grown, perhaps the most bountiful is the one the beloved Alberta lieutenant-governor has left behind as her legacy.
Hole, Alberta's 15th representative of the Queen, died Thursday of abdominal cancer. She was 71.
Gardening expert, author, philanthropist, passionate advocate for education and the arts - Hole was all those things. But without exception Friday, she was remembered most of all as one of humanity's best.
"A completely unique human being, a remarkable combination of compassion and caring and with absolutely not one tiny bit of pretentiousness," said Mel Hurtig, a close friend for nearly 45 years.
At Hole's Greenhouse in St. Albert, where she and her husband Ted turned a struggling farm into a hugely successful nursery business, customers remembered Hole as a woman with dirt on her hands and a smile on her face.
"Even the flowers are crying," Sharon Mavko said as she pointed to a tiny teardrop of water on the petal of a bright yellow bloom.
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