Patricia June Ballance

She had two older brothers, Lorne and Roy, both of whom predeceased her.

She attended Tecumseh Elementary School from grade one through grade eight, then went to John Oliver Senior High School in Vancouver. Following high school, she attended Duffus Business College in Vancouver. She worked for a time waitressing at Strawberry Lane in Vancouver before moving with her mother to Nanaimo in 1948, at the age of 16.

Following her move to Nanaimo, Patricia worked as a salesclerk at Filmer's Stationery Shop, which later became known as Brian Ball's Stationery. She then worked at Anderson's Lady's Wear Store as a salesclerk. After leaving Anderson's, she began working at Brewster's Candy and Nut Shop, which is when she met Howard Ballance.

As the story goes, he had offered her a ride to work at Brewster's, and as they say, the rest is history! After dating for a couple of years, Patricia and Howard were married on August 11th, 1950.

Their first child, Leslie, was born on August 9th, 1951; followed by son, Ronald, on November 21st, 1953; and then daughter, Brenda, on October 6th, 1963. Patricia was blessed with 6 grandchildren: Shane, Michael, and Brie Ann Ballance, and Brett, Aaron, and Taylor Dupuis. She also had 8 great grandchildren: Mahala, Abigail, Sophia, Lucas, Faith, Wade, Everly, and Ivy.

Patricia worked from 1975 - 1982 for the family business as bookkeeper and secretary for Llance Logging Ltd., and then as an Avon sales rep. for 5 years.

Unfortunately, in 1993, the marriage of Howard and Patricia ended in divorce. After this, Patricia worked for a time at the Dorchester Hotel until her retirement.

After a while, Patricia and Howard began socializing again and remained close until their passing. Both had some dementia in later years and still thought they were married to each other and would kiss and hug warmly. They were both residents at Dufferin Place, so were happy seeing each other every day.