Alice Myrle Webster

Alice Myrle Webster Scott)

August 5, 1934 – July 30, 2024

Cherish your yesterdays, dream your tomorrows and live your todays.

~ Anonymous

It is with great sadness Tara and her family announce the sudden passing of her mother Alice Myrle Webster at the age of 89 in Victoria, B.C. on the morning of July 30, 2024.

She was an adventurer, an artist, a lover of life. Alice was always ready to try something new, and made friends everywhere she went.

Alice was born on August 5, 1934 to Elizabeth and Merle Scott. She was the third child of a family of six, and is predeceased by her parents Elizabeth and Merle Scott, two brothers Lawrence and Lynn, and unfortunately (4 days later on August 02, 2024) by her sister Coila. She was also predeceased by her sister-in-law Isabelle Hutton who passed on May 4, 2024, and Joyce Alexander (Webster).

She is survived by one sister, Mae Fisher (Carl), and daughter Tara Webster, grandchildren Lucas and Jasmine Webster-Dodd, as well as Tara's life partner Michael Dodd. She is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews of whom she was proud, many cousins whom she laughed with, many friends all over the world, and a true blue group of friends in and around Victoria with whom she painted, practised tai chi, walked and shared meals.

Alice took her elementary schooling in a one room school and then lived in Winnipeg (with Coila) and received her high school diploma at Gordon Bell High School. She took a year off to earn some money, and then enrolled at the University of Manitoba completing a degree in Interior Design.

In the 1950’s many University students were travelling/hitch hiking and she and a girlfriend headed to Europe to see the sights. Planning to do two months, she returned two years later and came back to Canada and decided that the west coast was calling. She headed out to Vancouver and in time established a connection with a gentleman that she met while hitch hiking in Europe. His name was Thomas Jerome (Jay) Webster and eventually they were married in July 1965 in Dugald Manitoba. Their mutual love for sailing took them across Canada to settle in Halifax where Alice established her interior design business and Jay took up a position with the Bedford Institute. Eventually, they decided that children should be part of this life and in May of 1973 Tara was born.

Tragically, two years later Jay died of multiple myeloma and Alice became a single parent. Alice continued with her interior design business and in 1982 she took on a sailing venture to the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean with another sailing enthusiast and made the decision to home school Tara at sea. This sailing life continued until Tara was 13 and it became necessary for Tara to settle into high school and university in Halifax. Once Tara was safely ensconced in university, Alice took off on another sailing venture of which encompassed Southeast Asia to Europe and the Caribbean. This adventurous way of life continued for years until she and her lifelong sailing friend Bill Whitby (whom passed away in 2007) returned to Victoria and Alice took up apartment living in Victoria for the past 17 years. However, she was still travelling each year to Australia to visit her daughter as Tara had met a sailing enthusiast from Australia and that is where she lives today.

So, to say that this third born child of the Scott’s from Anola has seen a whole new world is putting it mildly. She was a “free spirit”, an adventurer, a hard worker and a unique individual. She will be sorely missed.

We wish to thank Dr. Govender who was a comfort to her through the problems of the last few years, and her new neighbour Lizz Decembrini and friend Teresa Steadman who was with her in her last hours.

Her sailing journey on earth is complete, and we wish her clear sailing onwards.

A service of remembrance will take place August 13, 2024 at 11 am in Manitoba at Seasons Funeral Service at Oakbank, Manitoba, along with older sister Coila, who passed three days after Alice. Her ashes are heading back to Australia for one final sail and to Nova Scotia to be with Jay.

Bon Voyage Alice.

EULOGY

I want to start by thanking everyone for being here and for sharing this day with my family and I in our remembrance of our much loved Coila and my mother, Alice. It shows how close my aunt and mother were, that we are sharing our grief and our memories of these two wonderful women here today. They both loved life and to have a great belly laugh together. My memories of the two of them are full of raucous laughter and lots of love.

Their closeness started young when they were growing up, and Mum used to talk to me about how they lived together in Winnipeg while she went to school at Gordon Bell High School, after completing her elementary schooling in a one room schoolhouse near Anola. Growing up on a small farm, life was quite basic and she had stories of the family living off the land to get by. After high school, she took a year off to earn some money, and then enrolled at the University of Manitoba, completing a degree in Interior Design. She discovered her calling in design and later in life became very successful at it, but first the call of adventure was too strong, and she made her way to Europe with a girlfriend, where she hitchhiked and discovered her joy of travel.

After several years of many adventures, she came back to Canada and ended up on the West Coast with a charming fellow, Thomas Jerome Webster (Jay). They had a wonderful time in British Columbia, working as teachers, and going on scientific trips into the wilderness, encountering bears and other wildlife. Eventually, completely in love, they married in Dugald, Manitoba, on July 19, 1965, in an intimate wedding that Coila organized.

The East coast was calling now, and they ended up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Jay started working at the Bedford Institute and Alice began her own Interior Design business. Life was good and I was born in the spring of 1973. Several months later, Jay was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of bone narrow cancer. He passed away several years later, and Alice became a widow and single parent. Life had thrown a curve ball, and she struggled, but she was strong and carried on, raising me with so many loving memories I almost felt he was there. But he was the love of her life and she never forgot him. She is with him now after so many years apart.

Bill Whitby sailed into our lives in the late 70's on his cruising yacht “Nora” and Mum was intrigued. She went on an experimental trip across the Atlantic Ocean with Bill and was smitten with the lifestyle. The next thing I knew, she had sold her business, rented out the house, given away the cats and we were off to sail to the Caribbean! That was in 1982 and four years later we returned to Canada, after sailing through Panama Canal and out across the vast Pacific Ocean. This adventure shaped me, and I am forever grateful to Mum and Bill for showing me the beauty and complexity of the world past our doorstep.

Once back in Canada, we lived for a short time in Victoria, B.C., before moving back to our beautiful old “Captains House” in Halifax, N.S., where I went to High School and then University. By the time I reached University, Alice decided to break with tradition, and left the nest before I did! She was yearning to travel and sail again, and flew off to join Bill in Thailand where he was doing his “last chance” voyage. He started by just sailing to Hawaii for the fun of it, and then Asia, and they kept heading westwards all the way around the world to Panama, over a number of years. Having graduated from University, I joined them in Kenya, Africa in 1996 to sail up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal to Turkey in the Mediterranean, where I met my life partner Michael Dodd, who was also sailing around the world in his yacht.

We eventually sailed together in 2001 in the Caribbean before they reached Panama, me with Mike on his sailboat “Catalpa” and Mum and Bill on “Nora.” It felt like a dream come true, to sail and visit different countries together. Sadly, it came to an end and Mike and I sailed onto Australia and Mum and Bill stayed in Panama. Panama and then Nicaragua became home for them for several years before Bill succumbed to illness in 2004 and they moved back to Canada with Mum starting apartment living in Victoria, B.C.

She had a great time living in Victoria, joining many social groups, practicing Spanish, doing Tai Chi, watercolour painting with occasional exhibitions, bird-watching, walking. Mum was interested in so many different things, and hugely enjoyed the people she met along the way.

Mum's last ocean voyage was with Mike and I in 2005 when we sailed “Nora” to Australia together, reliving the Pacific voyage of many years previous. She enjoyed visiting Australia again, starting a new tradition of visiting us there, and even weathered two separate cyclones in 2006 and 2011 that devastated the area where we lived. Not long after the first cyclone, Mum and I drove across Canada together, visiting family and friends and that was the last time I saw Bill before he passed away in 2007, ending the adventurous sailing era that was such a big part of my mother's life.

When Mike and I began having a family of our own in 2009, Mum was there for both births and started visiting us every year, spending up to three months at a time getting to know Lucas and Jasmine, and showering them with love. She sometimes didn't think she was a great Grandma as she was away from them so much, but I think she was a wonderful grandparent, reading to them, playing games and doing crafts and listening to their stories. They are older now, and will always cherish their memories of her even though they will miss her and getting to know her better.

Her last years were quieter than the past, but she was still getting out and about with her art group, tai chi and visits with friends. Covid times did not help her, shutting her up into a small space alone, but after Covid she was getting out again and enjoying life. Our Australian family came to see her last year, and I had a visit with her again this year, just last month, never imagining it was my last. We had a wonderful time, visiting each other and visiting with our Winnipeg family, our last time with Coila.

We have come full circle today, over thousands of kilometres and transversing time to be together to remember and celebrate the lives of Alice Webster and Coila Lumsden, my cherished mother and beloved aunt. Life is short, seize the moment and embrace life and your loved ones. For tomorrow is another day.

“May you live all the days of your life.” – Jonathan Swift