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![\"Bruce](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4382439_web1_2457635_261204-SDP-MARLASOMERSALL-R.JPG\")
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Bruce Bumstead \/ Brandon Sun files<\/p>\n
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Marla Somersall was in her element supporting people and communities in need.<\/p>\n
Kelly Scrivener, client co-ordinator with Meals on Wheels, said Somersall was a very calm and respectful person who led with gentle direction and fostered a collaborative workplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a really positive, wonderful human being who really cared about the community and cared about vulnerable people in the community,\u201d Scrivener said. \u201cAnd I think that came through in everything she did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somersall died March 5 at the age of 61, about two years after taking on the role at Meals on Wheels.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was just a really honest person,\u201d said her daughter, Sonia Gaiess. \u201cWho you met was really who she was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Winnipeg in 1964 and raised in Souris, Somersall returned to Winnipeg to attend the University of Manitoba before deciding to pursue social work. She went on to earn her bachelor of social work at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t even imagine her having worked in a different type of field other than social services, where you\u2019re focused on supporting people in need,\u201d Gaiess said.<\/p>\n
After graduating, Somersall moved to Tunisia, where she spent six years working with government and community organizations to develop social enterprise programs for rural women. The initiatives focused on helping women build income-generating skills through crafts, food production and small business development.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Bruce Bumstead \/ Brandon Sun files<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Marla Somersall, then executive director of the Samaritan House Ministries in Brandon, received national recognition for her work in the food bank sector.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was what she loved to do, and she brought a very similar model back when she came back to Canada,\u201d Gaiess said.<\/p>\n Returning to Manitoba, Somersall became executive director of Samaritan House Ministries in Brandon, a non-profit that supports people experiencing poverty, food insecurity and homelessness.<\/p>\n While in that role, she received national recognition for her work in the food bank sector, earning the Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions.<\/p>\n As Somersall\u2019s other daughter, N\u00f6elle, moved east for school, Somersall also made a move of her own, heading to Prince Edward Island, where she became executive director of the PEI Humane Society.<\/p>\n \u201cAnimal welfare is its own beast, but really at its core, she approached it as a social worker,\u201d Gaiess said. \u201cI think she really added a lot to that organization because of her background.\u201d<\/p>\n Jennifer Harkness, who was hired by Somersall as communications and development director at the Humane Society, saw first-hand how that background shaped her leadership.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Supplied<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Somersall with Smitty, the cat who chose her at the PEI Humane Society.<\/p>\n \u201cShe saw everyone as equal, and that was what was truly remarkable about her,\u201d Harkness said. \u201cI know we worked with animals. But animals are often connected to people that live in poverty and abuse and neglect as well, so some of the problems that we see in animal abuse and neglect are also connected to the other things in our society, and so Marla\u2019s skills, because she had worked in those areas for so much of her life in non-profit organizations, working with people, working with people in poverty, in food insecurity, she understood all of that, how these worlds connect to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the many memories Harkness has of Somersall is one involving a cat who refused to leave her alone.<\/p>\n Smitty arrived at the Humane Society with health issues, and staff decided to keep him at the shelter while they worked on improving his health. He eventually became the unofficial shelter cat.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019d always end up on Marla, on top of her desk,\u201d Harkness said. \u201cAnd she would complain non-stop about Smitty, and would be like \u2018Get out of here, you\u2019re bothering me.\u2019 But at the same time, she was falling in love with him and eventually Smitty became her cat. It just makes me smile thinking about the two of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Somersall later returned to Manitoba, continuing her work in the non-profit sector with the Winnipeg Children\u2019s Access Agency, where she supported supervised visitation services for families navigating the child welfare system.<\/p>\n \u201cShe just had such a fantastic, calm, professional and dignified way of supporting people, even when they were at the end of their options within the system,\u201d Gaiess said.<\/p>\n
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