Coad, Barbara Elisabeth Sarah (Sally) (Price)

Sally Coad - 23 September, 1944 - 20 August, 2008

Barbara Elisabeth Sarah Price was the 4th child of Mary & Ted Price (and thus grandchild of Harry & Muriel Price). Always known as Sally (after the dog as she would tell you) she was the little sister of Greville, Ginny & Tim. All were born in England whilst Ted fought with the Canadian Army in Europe, but returned as soon as peace was declared with Sally sleeping in a drawer in Mary’s cabin.

The family lived in Ottawa but came every year to Tad, where she remembered vividly Grandad Harry taking all his grandchildren for an ice cream at 12.45 - just in time to spoil their appetites for lunch “Oh Harry ...” as Granny Price would say! They came on the CSL boats but also with Ted driving on the ‘washboard’ gravel roads east of Quebec. Mary especially loved Tad and came for three months every year - June through to Labor Day whenever possible.
Ted’s Army career required numerous postings across Canada and in London before Dar e Salaam and finally as Military Attache in Washington. Sally, having been ‘badly educated following the flag’, left Mt Allison University in Nova Scotia to join her parents in Tanzania for two years working as a secretary for the Sisal Board.
On their return she took a job as a medical secretary to a heart research consultant at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. Always expected by her family to ‘marry an English man’ it was in Montreal in 1970 that Sally met Ross Coad. They married in Ottawa 26th June, 1971, and after a honeymoon in New York City and a weekend in Tadoussac (naturally!) they set up home in Somerset, England.
Tori, Jonathan, Gilly and Struan were Sally’s contribution to Ted and Mary’s 16 grandchildren following from Uncle Guy Smith’s wedding telegram:

There was a young man named Coad,
Who took on quite a load
For in marrying our Sally
They’ll add to the tally
For the Prices are prone to explode!

Sally was distinctly a Price - mahogany red hair, a steely will and wonderfully loving. “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” was an adage of Mary’s that Sally took as her own (not that she didn’t have some very clear perceptions!).
Much involved with South Petherton Infants School in England whose governors she chaired, her family and friends endowed the building of Kasenei School in Kenya in her memory.
Sally died 20th August 2008 after nearly 3 years of struggle with ovarian cancer, alert and clear-headed right to the very end.
She left 7 grandchildren when she died, Isaac, Annapurna, Jacob, Dexter, Zara, Verity and Robyn; with a further 7 since: Scarlett, Barney, Eddy, Pippa, Grace, Annabel and Archie.
Tadoussac was most definitely her spiritual home and if you feel quietly relaxed and warmed by the love & friendship in this place - you will understand why!

Photo at left
2003 : picnicking at Moulin Beaude: Ross w Annapurna & Sally

Photos below
1967: The Ted & Mary Price family at the Harry Price house
Grev, Randy Bell, Sally, Tim & Kerry (Grev’s wife)
Ted, Ginny (Bell), Mary w Christopher Bell
1988: Struan, Tori, Jonathan & Gilly Coad
Sally & Ross