Marlene passed away on August 8th at Bradford Valley Community Care in Bradford, ON. She was closing in on her 88th birthday. She is survived and mourned by her children and their spouses (Christina and Stan, Charlton and Christina, Jennifer and Trevor, and Jocelyn and Leo) and her seven grandchildren Jake, Rebecca, and Rachel; Anne; Charlie and Paige; and Ewan. She is also survived by her older sister Dorothy and her children and grand-children. She was pre-deceased by her husband of 50 years, Morley Carscallen.
Marlene was born and grew up in East York. Often referred to by others as a force of nature, she was an intelligent, strong-willed, and ambitious woman who seemed to be able to work tirelessly. In the early 1950s, she trained at Toronto General Hospital where she worked as an operating room nurse, including some of the earliest heart surgeries in Canada. It was work she enjoyed and found both interesting and challenging.
She met her husband Morley on a blind date and whether it was love at first sight or a matter of being evenly matched they were together and remained in love until he died of a heart-attack in 2008. They loved to travel together, especially on road trips.
Always active and engaged, Marlene started university when her four kids were still young. She graduated with an English degree from the U of T and moved on to complete a Master of Divinity at Trinity College. It was in the course of those studies that she found her life calling within the Anglican Church of Canada. Raised Presbyterian, she turned to the Anglican Church in the 1970s when the family was living in Thornhill. When the family moved to the Avenue Road and St Clair area, she joined and became a dedicated member of Grace Church on the Hill. When the Church re-established the deaconate, Marlene was the first Diaconal Coordinator for the Diocese of Toronto and the first lay person to be ordained. She found leading the dedicated group developing the permanent deaconate of career Deacons serving active outreach in the community enormously and endlessly rewarding. It was a role she relished and for which she was justifiably proud.
She was an ardent and gifted gardener, a hobby she inherited from her father, along with his day lilies and peonies. Her garden, like the busy family home, was always in a state of ordered chaos but was beautiful to see and experience. As a mother, as a wife and partner, as a deacon and as a friend, Marlene Carscallen was always her authentic self. She embraced challenges and all it brought to life and whether it was her work with the church, reading a bed-time story, or teaching her kids how to apple-pie a bed, she gave it her all.
A funeral followed by reception will be held at Grace Church on the Hill in Toronto on Friday August 12th at 11:00 am. Flowers can be sent to Grace Church on the Hill at 300 Lonsdale Road, Toronto. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Canadian Cancer Society (cancer.ca/en/) or Nature Conservancy Canada (www.natureconservancy.ca/en/).

Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Marlene Mary Carscallen nee Munro 2022..

Morley Bedford Funeral Services Ltd

Death notice for the town of: Toronto, Province: Ontario

death notice Marlene Mary Carscallen nee Munro 2022

mortuary notice Marlene Mary Carscallen nee Munro 2022