Mary Patricia da Silva

Mary was born September 1, 1942 in North Vancouver, British Columbia; the 7th child of 8 children to John and Mary Ljunggren. She had many happy years in Terrace, B.C. where she raised her two sons David and Danny. Mary moved to West Vancouver to enjoy her retirement years. At this time she acquired her constant companion dog “Buddy”. They spent many hours enjoying walks along Ambleside Beach and she loved to stroll through Lighthouse Park. She went frequently with Buddy for morning tea and a muffin at the Bakehouse. Their morning routine was to go to the pet store in Caulfield, West Vancouver where Buddy would get a daily dog treat. Buddy and Mary were inseparable. They went everywhere together. She enjoyed her hobbies of swimming, kayaking, tennis, golf, skiing and weight training. She volunteered and donated money to the Covenant House and various other charities in Vancouver. She was a frequent attendee of the opera. Opera was always her music of choice.

She had a great love of travel and visited many exotic ports of call in her lifetime like Australia, Portugal and England etc. Mary was a frequent shopper at Park Royal; her favorite places included Starbucks for “London Fog Tea” where she read her daily newspaper and visited frequently the White Spot and they got to know her personally there. She enjoyed going to Purdy’s Chocolates and she developed quite a sweet tooth and liked to limit herself to one chocolate per day, although she never did. Winner’s and Dollarama staff knew her by name. For the last 7 years she was almost never seen without packing around her large and heavy carry-on suitcase, which probably kept her in good shape.

Mary is survived by her sons David (Lori), Danny (Doris), her beloved grandchildren Korbin (Rids) and Brooklyn, younger brother Brian Ljunggren (Leeann) and many nieces and nephews. She will be dearly missed. She was an inspiration to people that knew her.

A Celebration of Mary’s Life will be held on Friday, May 30th at 1:00pm at First Memorial Funeral Services - 1720 Bowen Road, Nanaimo. The family would like to also invite guests to join them at the reception following the service. For friends wishing to attend, please reach out to the family to RSVP to either Danny - [email protected] - or Debbie - [email protected].

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Covenant House in Vancouver.