August 16, 1924 - March 18, 2020
Born August 16th, 1924, to parents Walter and Mary Brock, Edna Lillian was the 8th of nine children. She was called Lillian, after an aunt. The family lived on a farm in the village of Wyevale, Ontario, in a home built by her father.
After graduating a year early from high school, Lillian enrolled in nursing school, then trained at Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto. With the end of WWII, she headed west with a friend, to help fulfill a need for medical professionals. After nursing in Edmonton for a year, they accepted employment offers at the hospital in Chemainus, B.C., where Lillian met and subsequently married John Harris Maxwell, in August of 1949.
They had three sons within four years...Grant, Ian and Bruce. Five years later, a daughter, Mary, was a welcome addition to the family.
Concerned early in their marriage about maintaining a family-supporting income, in light of recurring strikes in the forest industry where John was working, Lillian used her Mensa-level intelligence to help John re-enter the Royal Canadian Air Force, and train for the emerging cold war NORAD programs. Over the next seventeen years, they criss-crossed the continent to eight different military postings in Canada and the U.S. Near the end of 1970 John retired from the Air Force, and the family moved to Nanaimo, B.C.
As their children grew older, pursuing educations, work careers and families of their own, Lillian re-entered the work force. She busied herself in one of two new and challenging positions at the Children's Treatment Centre in Nanaimo (now the Child Development Centre). These were teaching positions, requiring a nursing background, dedication and patience. Lillian's focus was largely on working with newborns to three-year olds, which had previously been unable to participate in the centre's programs and services. She was quietly very proud of her time there, and what they'd been able to achieve for the families involved. Lillian believed, and put into practice, that children deserved your time, effort and attention, as well as your love and guidance.
When Lillian retired from teaching at the centre, she volunteered in the community for a number of years, working again with children and their families. She then shifted her focus to volunteering many hours of her time as a senior's advocate. During those years and after, Lillian's other great enjoyment was helping with caring-for and nurturing her grandchildren as they came along.
For recreation, Lillian participated in the Seniors Bowling program at Brechin Lanes, right up into her nineties. Also a dedicated watcher of the Jeopardy television program, and a keen jig-saw puzzle, crosswords and word search solver, she kept herself mentally challenged.
Pre-deceased by her husband John on April 9th, 2007, Lillian later moved into the Nanaimo Senior's Village. She suffered a major stroke on March 9th, and passed away quietly in her sleep on March 18th, 2020, with family members at her side.
Lillian is survived, and will be dearly missed, by her four children, by her daughter-in-law Jennifer Maxwell (Ian), and by her grandchildren - Hannah Chesher (Ernest), Tyler Collins (Charmaine), Corey Maxwell (Pamela), James Maxwell, and Anecca Maxwell. She also had two great-grandchildren, Harley Chesher (in Edmonton) and Gia Collins (in Surrey). Lillian is also survived by a sister-in-law, Florence Brock (98 years), in Midland, Ontario.
The family would like to thank the dedicated nurses, care aids and doctors at NRGH ER, the 5th floor, and the Palliative Care Unit. In the midst of the emerging Covid-19 situation, they did what they could to make Lillian's final days as comfortable as possible for her. At a later date, when the moratorium on gatherings has passed, the family will hold a memorial for their matriarch.