MARGARET ROSE McLAUGHLIN

Margaret was born in Archydal, Saskatchewan, northwest of Moose Jaw, and the family moved to Indian Head in 1949. Her father, Roy, worked at a grain elevator and her mother, Rose, was a school teacher and also the town librarian for many years. Margaret was the third of three children; her sister Heather, a high school teacher, died in a horrific car accident in 1971, her brother Hugh, practiced law in Swift Current until his death in 2007. Margaret graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1967 and accepted a position with the Canadian government in Ottawa working in the secretive intelligence community where she would make several lifelong friendships. In 1969, she headed off to see the world for three years, travelling throughout Europe and Africa and working in London and Capetown. In 1972, she returned to Canada and moved, first to Calgary, then to Fort McMurray and eventually to Fernie, BC, where she ran a restaurant named Cravings with an old friend. In 1987, she moved to the Sunshine Coast, where she lived for the rest of her life. Margaret had many, many friends whom she loved dearly and who in return, treasured her loyalty, generosity and boundless sense of humour. She adored animals, travel and reading. For Margaret, sitting in the shade of her garden combing through the Globe and Mail on a sunny morning was sheer bliss. She was a Canadian patriot and found her own piece of heaven here on the Sunshine Coast. To say she will be missed seems like a colossal understatement; indeed a dark cloud has descended on all of us whose lives were so blessed by her presence. We will gather sometime later in the summer at the Roberts Creek beach, where she loved to picnic, to raise a glass in her memory. Her favourite charities here on the Coast were Happy Cat Haven and the Sechelt Hospital Auxiliary.