ANDREWS, Elaine “Eileen”

ANDREWS, Elaine (Eileen) (nee Bullshields) January 24, 1934 – September 7, 2025 Elaine Andrews, beloved wife of the late Cyril Robert Andrews of Calgary, AB, passed away on Sunday, September 7, 2025, in Calgary, at the age of 91 years.
Elaine was born in Cardston, AB, on January 24, 1934. Her father was Edward (Ted) Bullshields, and her mother was Kathleen (Katie) Wolf Plume, both of the Blood Tribe. She was required to attend St. Paul’s Residential School on the Kainaiwa Nation from youth to young adulthood. This experience made an indelible mark on her life.
She moved to Calgary, Alberta, following residential school.
Elaine married Cyril in 1962 at St. Edmund’s Anglican Church in Bowness, where they bought their first home together. She remained in Calgary until 1966, when she travelled to Ottawa with Cyril, as he worked with the Department of National Defence. Elaine, missing the prairies, rolling foothills and the sight of Chief Mountain, returned to Calgary shortly after and was reunited with Cyril in 1970. They remained wed and lovingly committed until Cyril’s passing in 2023.
Elaine’s life was a story of reconciliation and redemption, shaped by the wounds of the residential schools and the scars left by the colonial legacy. The residential school system impaired her social and maternal skills while instilling a disdain for her language and culture; yet she retained her language and spoke “Old Blackfoot”. She did not share it with her children because of her upbringing in an institution designed to eradicate her proud culture. In marrying Cyril, she lost her “status” as an Indian. Still, she was always Blackfoot, and she shared her language with her sisters, Elsie, Doris, and Barbara, often spoken late at night over the telephone. She returned to Kainaiwa, Siksika and Babb, Montana, frequently to visit family and friends. Her family shares many fond memories of these visits with cousins, aunts and uncles.
The absence of kinship and familial affection in residential schools impacted her profoundly, and she struggled with the torment she experienced. Like so many, she turned to unhealthy means as a way to mute her grief and loss. She shared little with her family about her dark days in school due to the pain associated with the recollections. At the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, she bore witness to others’ testimony and held her head bowed in shared sorrow. She would reminisce with her sisters about the misadventures they had gotten into at school, and they would laugh together; she also remarked that the older girls in the school cared for the younger children and sought to protect them, finding small glimmers of goodness and hope in the near-enveloping darkness of their oppression. She was fiercely protective of her children, Pamela, Brenda, Robert, and Lisa, and of her grandchildren, Breht, Jeffrey, and Joel.
As the memories became more distant and the hurt tolerable, she began to show the love she had always felt for her children. She and Cyril shared a special bond with her first grandchild, Breht, and by demonstrating love, taught him to be a caring, loving person. This was repeated with her other grandchildren, Jeffrey, Joel and great-grandson, Ethan.
Memories are filled with the wonderful food she cooked and the treats she baked lovingly for her family. Lemon loaves, apple-sauce cake and butter tarts for sweets; bannock, fry-bread, Swiss steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, stew and dumplings for savoury, and so many more. She enjoyed sewing, crafts, and music, including listening, singing, and playing. Her favourites were hymns and Christmas carols, which she enjoyed singing and listening to year-round. She enjoyed the song Dancing Queen by ABBA. Animals held a special place in Elaine’s heart, and she always had a pet; as a child, she had a badger. Her last was a dog, her puppy, Peanut, who brought her comfort as she was confined to a hospital bed.
She will be fondly remembered for her mischievous, sly sense of humour and her playfulness and teasing. She was particularly fond of saying, “Do it again, dumb ox”. Even in her final days, she smiled, laughed and joked. She whispered, “I love you” and “I miss your Daddy” to her children at the hospital bedside and on video. In her later days, she said she wanted to return home and attend the Sundance again, as she had as a child.
Elaine was predeceased by her loving husband Cyril, and her sisters, Ivy Bullshields, Doris Parker, Elsie Vaile and Barbara Ann Bull Shields – Crow Chief; brothers, Colin Bullshields, Allen Bullshields, and Warner Scout; as well as Aunts Katie Wells and Bertha Davis, Jean Calf Robe, Cecile Russell, Rosie Small Eyes, Annie Crazy Boy, and Jenny Eagle Child; and her uncle Frank Wolf Plume.
She is survived by three daughters and three sons-in-law, Pam Shields, Brenda Andrews Priolo, Lisa Anne Marie Evenson, and sons-in-law, David M. Apelzin, Francis Priolo, Jeffrey Evenson; one son, Robert Andrews, and daughter-in-law, Carol Anne Ferchau. She is also survived by three grandchildren, Breht Damon Clark, Jeffrey Robert Evenson, and Joel Curtis Evenson; and three great-grandchildren, Taylor Marie Clark, Ryan Breht Clark, and Ethan Jeffrey Cyril Evenson.
Funeral Services will be held at St. Edmund’s Anglican Church (8336 34 Ave NW, Calgary, AB) on Saturday, September 13, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Interment and Graveside Service to follow at St. Paul’s Anglican Cemetery (Blood Tribe – Kainaiwa, AB) at 1:30 p.m. Reception to follow at the Tanner Centennial Centre (260 1 St W, Cardston, AB).
Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared and viewed with Elaine’s family at www.MHFH.com. In living memory of Elaine Andrews, a tree will be planted in the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area by McInnis & Holloway Funeral Homes.