It is with overbearing sadness and grief that we announce the passing of Margaret on February 21, 2020. Margaret is survived by her husband, Bruce; four children; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Margaret was a loving wife, mother, friend and matriarch. Art, music, quilting, enjoying nature, sailing and cooking were but a few of her many activities. She was born on June 1, 1937 in Minnedosa, Manitoba. When half raised, Margaret moved to Victoria with her mother Mary and sister Evelynne. They settled in the downtown core where the girls attended school. Upon graduating she chose a career in nursing and enrolled in St. Joseph’s School of Nursing, affiliated with Victoria General Hospital. Immediately upon graduating as a Registered Nurse in 1959 she married her fiancé Bruce and thus joined the clan McCallum where she quickly became a cherished and respected member.
She immediately started working as an RN and continued until the arrival of her firstborn, Stephen, and in rapid succession Susan, Malcolm and finally Duncan.
An adventure for Margaret was a 1973 trip across Canada to accompany her husband to Halifax for Naval training. There were many associated challenges for Margaret, such as getting the four children into their various schools and all the other associated activities such as boating, swimming, skating, etc. and at that point, she was not a vehicle driver, which in itself was a challenge. The family returned to Victoria in 1975 and the children were able to return to more familiar schools and activities, and she earned her driver’s license. She was much relieved at all the happy changes to her lifestyle and took a renewed interest in nursing.
Her next academic challenge was a university course in nursing where she achieved her BSN in 1980 and won many close friends. Since she worked at a number of advanced nursing tasks which offered many varied medical nursing challenges. A more humorous event was when, on a Grey Cup Sunday, her associate and very good friend Dorothy’ who was the Director of the Nursing Unit, dressed for the day in a football uniform and greeted people at the door in a confident manner, when suddenly a newly bereaved family arrived, and Dorothy had to meet and deal with the group dressed as a football player, only to have that group followed by a Police detachment who wished to meet with her formally- a most embarrassing series of events for poor Dorothy but quite entertaining for Margaret!!
After several stints of employment in long -term care, nursing facilities Margaret chose a modified form of retirement where she only worked for temporarily short-staffed facilities until becoming fully retired. She continued to pursue her interest in quilting and developed a detailed sewing room where a number of fine works were drawn up, cut out and sewn to become works of art and used in home decorations and bedding covers.
In addition, her husband developed a sailing school where students were sometimes taken out for overnight trips requiring meal preparation, so Margaret became an expert in the preparation of quick-cooking a variety of meals that could be frozen, taken aboard to thaw and placed in the oven for the evening and other dining.
There was evidently no end to her skills and talent. One of Margaret’s favourite memories was a sailing trip with Bruce from Esquimalt, BC to Ketchican, Alaska, a three- month trip that included sailing up Grenville Channel to Prince Rupert. On one particular day as we crossed the channel, we had a good headwind which gave us fine speed prior to tacking. On about the third tack, as Bruce cleaned up the gear for the next run, he looked back at the cockpit where Margaret was sitting with her feet up, in full sun, and she wore the strongest facial expression of pure joy and contentment that Bruce had ever seen. A great moment!!
Upon returning from Alaska Margaret resumed her nursing career and continued working in long term care facilities until she finally retired and took up more relaxing activities. Eventually, she developed severe arthritis in her back which developed into spinal sinosis and she soon became wheelchair-bound until it became too much to endure and she was admitted to Sidney Care Home on April 10, 2018. Despite the excellent care provided, Margaret continued to decline until she passed away in her sleep on February 21, 2020 at approximately 0530 in the morning. She was 82 years of age.
A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 pm on Sunday, March 1, 2020 in the Sequoia Centre at McCall Gardens Funeral Home, 4665 Falaise Drive, Victoria, BC. The family invites Margaret’s loved ones to attend. Special thanks to the staff of Sydney Care Home for their support, care, and attention. Condolences may be offered to the family below.
McCall Gardens
www.mccallgardens.com
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Margaret Elizabeth McCallum 2020..
mccall gardens funeral and cremation service
Death notice for the town of: Victoria, Province: Colombie britanique