Louise Einsig Young

Louise E Young, of Brookside Road, Nova Scotia, born in York, PA, February 6, 1939 took her final glorious bow on Sunday, October 24, 2021. She was surrounded by her four loving daughters, holding hands, listening to her favourite music, with laughter and great conversation surrounding her, just how she lived her life.

Louise was an inspiration to so many friends over the years. She was a woman ahead of her time-- inspiring and mentoring the countless fortunate who entered her sphere. She began her long career at Dalhousie University in the Transition Year Program, and she went on to create the Writing Workshop in 1971, where she continued until she retired.

Her summers were spent in her beloved Summer Language Immersion Program, setting the standard for second language acquisition, with full cultural immersion into the community, for programs throughout the country. Her passion for this was contagious. It became a life defining experience for anyone lucky enough to have taken part.

If you knew Louise, you knew her passion for food and cooking, for dinner parties, for intelligent conversation, for travel, for music, for reading, and lest we forget, for always fighting for the less fortunate and downtrodden, whenever they crossed her path.

Louise traveled the world in her younger years and continued to visit each of her daughters, wherever they were living up until the global pandemic forced her to stay home. If you had the privilege to have shared a seat at her table, where all were welcome, toasts were plentiful, and conversations were thoughtful and animated, and often hilarious, then share a great meal in her honour as often as you can--she would love that.

Louise lives on in her children: Nicole (Craig), Michelle (Marc), Julie, and Gabrielle (Douglas), and her grandchildren Andris, Mara, Melaina, Kira, Harrison, Cleo, Jaden, Maya, and Owen, along with so many beloved friends and family members.

In the hours following her passing, we were inspired to share the following with people who loved her:

Early this morning, we said goodbye to our beacon, our queen, our lodestone, our awe, our inspiration, our role model, our fiercest defender, our source of pride, and our friend, our beautiful Mama...

Today, at 1:47AM, the most badass mama bear ever to walk the earth left this life. She was surrounded by all of her daughters, she was pain free, and it was peaceful. We held her hands, we laughed, we cried, we shared memories, we played music she loved: Carole King, Stan Getz, Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo-Ma, to name a few.

To us, she was the most spectacular human to have ever graced this earth, and we were the fortunate four to call her mom. We loved her with abandon. We shared her with so many. Her grand kids loved her and knew her as Mimmy. Too many lessons learned to name them all. We owe those countless bits of wisdom to her.

The world will seem a little bit bleaker without a Louise Young in it. If you had the pleasure to know her, you understand. We know so many people, friends near and far, whose lives she has touched, who shared our love for her, in whose memories she will live on, with our own. She took our breath away.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Polycystic Kidney Foundation of Canada.

Rest well, Mimmy. As Gab said, your jobs here are done. And you did them all so damn well. ❤️