She was a beauty, our Marian. From her early years in Oliver, BC to her final days in Vancouver – and all the stops in between – she couldn’t let a minute pass without a quip, a smile, or a hug that could swallow a heartache.
Her conjuring arts were legion, including her curiosity for new cuisines: these she mastered, using them both to nurture her family and root it firmly in the community: there was always room at her table for one or even a dozen last-minute guests.
She was the mother to three generations, helping to raise her five brothers and five sisters before she and her sweetheart, Gerry, let loose on an unsuspecting world five kids of their own. She was boundless in her fierce love for a passel of grandkids, nieces and nephews, and grandnieces and grandnephews, and was joyfully anticipating the arrival of her first great-grand child, presently on the way.
Somehow, she found time to complete a nursing degree at St. Paul’s Hospital where she found joy in the “preemie-ward” caring for the babies who had arrived dangerously early.
She bolted off to tour Europe in the mid-1950s with her best friends forever, Phyllis and Betty, and the Continent was never the same again.
She returned to the workforce as a home care nurse, and improved the standards of the profession by initiating the first home care training program at a local college. With Olivia, she conceived of and created the first hospice in Nanaimo.
Sure, everyone thinks Dad started Corpus Christi College at UBC, but we all know it was Mom’s endless supply of chicken wings doled out liberally at meetings and networking functions that breathed life into the institution.
She taught all of us the value of lifelong loyalty to friends. And she still carved out the time to learn how to play piano poorly and write painful doggerel.
Predeceased by her parents, Dave and Ivy McAstocker; her brothers, Tom, Danny, George, and Fred; her sister, Pat; her in-laws, Charles and Marie Sylvester; sister-in-law, Adrienne; brothers-in-law, Grant and Barry; and nephews, Mike and Patrick. That leaves the rest of us to grieve, yes, but also ballyhoo her life.
In lieu of flowers, a donation to the Marian and Gerry Sylvester Scholarship fund at Corpus Christi would be much appreciated.
The family would like to thank the staff at Renfrew Care Centre for treating our mom so well. And we would particularly like to thank her caregiver, Cherryl, for the many years she loved our mom and cared for her physical and emotional needs as her health declined.
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Marian Frances
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Sylvester- avis mortuaire Marian Frances
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