April 2, 1917 - July 7, 2022
In loving memory ~
It is with sadness and gratitude that we announce Ann's passing. She had a most peaceful death and was surrounded in her last week by her loving family and the wonderful Cerwydden Park Place staff.
Predeceased by her husband, Arnold, in 2001, she is survived by her daughter, Marcy Green (Jim), her grandchildren, Stuart Green (Dana) and Kristen Fibich (Rob) and four great-grandchildren: Taylor, Katrina, Anika and Curtis. She also leaves her two sisters, Marlene and Mary, sisters-in-law, Gina, Eleanor and Ann, and many nephews and nieces.
We remember and honour her great kindness and ability to make friends with so many. Considering she was all her life a modest and self-effacing woman, she was one of the great listeners, genuinely interested in everyone's story and able to remember the details long after hearing them.Her motto was, "Bloom where you are planted", and, oh, she did. She lived in Nanaimo almost all of her life and was devoted to her husband and family.
It is amazing to think of her long life of 105 years. She survived the Spanish Flu, the end of World War One, the great Depression, World War Two and, finally, the Covid epidemic.
While she outlived most of her contemporaries, she very much enjoyed the friendship and company of the younger generations.
Hitchhiking from Alberta with a girlfriend in the 1940's, she arrived in Vancouver to get a job working in a Boeing factory, making airplane parts for the war effort. She was the original Rosie the Riveter, working with her friends in coveralls and bandanas. How proud she was to have made this contribution.
She married her RCAF sweetheart at the end of the war and started a family. She was a loving and firm mother, and was famous for her jams, jellies and pies. She had a beautiful flower garden, enjoyed classical music and was a lifelong avid reader.
She was very brave, learning to drive in later years, and took her vocal backseat driver husband all through BC, Alberta and the northwest, bringing home harrowing tales of steep gravel mountain passes and moose on the highway.
She had always wanted to see Europe, and so went several times, usually on Catholic pilgrimages, which gave her great satisfaction and enjoyment. She was a woman of deep faith, quietly living her beliefs.
The stories that are pouring in are of love and affection for her generous nature and gentle sense of humour. We are all holding her as an example of how to be a good human being.
A Memorial Mass in Nanaimo will be arranged in the early fall.
Many thanks to her kind caregivers at Cerwydden in Duncan, and for her younger friends who always kept in touch with her. Special thanks to her nephew Don and his wife, Margaret, who kept a close, loving eye on her, especially during her later years.
Rest in peace, dear Mamma.
You're with the angels now.