Frances Muriel Hitchman

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Fran left us on April 19, 2025 after a short stay in long-term care in Sunrise at Lonsdale Square. She leaves her three children – David Hitchman, Kim Viljoen, Anne Hitchman and son-in-law James Roberts. She was pre-deceased by her husband of 58 years, Richard Hitchman and her son-in-law Hendre Viljoen.

Fran was born in Kamloops, BC, the second of the five children of Nels F. Nelson and Mollie G. Nelson (nee Ray) of Blue River BC. She grew up in Blue River and was an active ski club member winning races and spending winters outdoors in BC’s snow belt. After graduating from high school in Princeton, BC, she enrolled in the three-year nurse’s training program at the Vancouver General Hospital in 1945. She contracted and survived tuberculosis which delayed her training and graduation as a Registered Nurse (RN) until January 1950. A short time later, she took a public health nurse program at UBC before joining the Victoria Order of Nurses and moving east to work in Smith Falls, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec.

In 1956 Fran bought a Volkswagen beetle and her sister Dorothy joined her for a drive across Canada from Montreal to the west coast where they both settled in Prince George. Fran married Dick Hitchman in November 1957 and the family moved to North Vancouver in 1962.

Fran was an active member of the Vancouver Guild of Puppetry from the mid-1960s to the late 1990s. In 1973, she went back to work as a public health nurse in East Vancouver practicing in many locations including the downtown east side, various clinics and schools until retirement in 1991. She was a member of the Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club on the North Shore and a volunteer at the Wild Bird Trust on Maplewood Flats.

Fran moved to Cedar Springs in 2016 and then Sunrise at Lonsdale Square for the last 7 months where she was grateful to so many for the kind care she received.

The memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 28th at 2pm at the Boal Chapel, 1505 Lillooet Road in North Vancouver.