Mrs. Isabella Hutchings from St. John’s, Newfoundland, was the 1993 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother. During the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa on November 11, 1993, she laid a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on behalf of all mothers who have lost a child in military service to Canada.
On Oct 10, 1945, her son, Able Seaman Samuel Grenfell Hutchings, was killed while on duty when he was swept off the deck of the HMS Sainfoin while returning home following the war.
Mrs. Isabella Hutchings, née Flynn, was born in Forteau, Newfoundland in 1895. She moved to Birchy Head, Bonne Bay Newfoundland upon her marriage to Samuel Hutchings, a resident of there. They were parents to seven children Samuel, Jean, Leslie, Hattie, Mae, Shirley and Netha.
Early in their married life, Mrs. Hutchings and her husband worked in logging camps near Deer Lake. They eventually moved to Cornerbrook where they raised their children while working at the mill. Mr. Hutchings served as cook, while Mrs. Hutchings was responsible for the baking--making up to 75 pies a day often on a wood stove. She continued to bake and share up to ten pies at a time well into her 90s. Mrs. Hutchings, who was widowed in 1967, lived until 1996.
