Marie Baycroft

Every August, stargazers are treated to a spectacular light show of falling stars known as the Perseids. The night of August 13, 1923 was one of the largest such displays in recorded history. On that night, one star came to life and continued to shine well into the 21st-century. From hard-working Austrian parents in a farming community, Marie showed early on that she was dependable and a very bright star indeed. She completed all her farming chores early each day, often rode by horse or sleigh to school in the winter, and read every book in the school library at least once. She was considered well ahead of her peers, such that she skipped both grades two and seven. After she finished high school, a friend convinced her to take a train from Edmonton to Toronto where she and others joined the Home Front of the war effort, working in a factory making whatever was needed in support of our troops overseas.

After the war, she retooled her skill set and turned her abilities into a successful accounting career spanning more than five decades. Her gift of being able to organize a company’s financial records from chaos, and then subsequently use that clarified information to provide advice on how the company could profit better for the same effort, earned her a high professional reputation. She created a loyal base of clients and was able to continue to serve them even while working a full-time job providing the accounting services for the family company, Baycroft Moss Limited. Despite her active career, she found time to raise five children over two marriages. Always a loving and kind mother, she maintained a nurturing and stable household through some severe challenges to what should be peaceful home life. She protected us as kids so we could thrive and grow to become the people we did. All of us can easily recall how she shielded us from the most trying of circumstances and the personal sacrifices she made to keep things on an even keel.

When we were sick, she always knew the best home remedy and would sing a song or tell a story to make us better. She loved soap operas and TV dramas that had good story lines. She worshipped everything Elvis even long after he was gone. Her predicting the changing of the weather - especially the approach of a low pressure system – would make her sneeze and this unique ability lasted her entire life.

Mom spent around 30 years in the Edmonton area after the war. At that time, there were a few streets dedicated to the burgeoning fashion industry there. Each boutique was owned by an individual designer, and she carefully selected several quality garments over the years. She told stories of how important it was that the designer could see you wearing their creation and make adjustments to fit you perfectly, sometimes over more than one return visit. Her passion for fashion mirrored her attraction to find quality décor and antique furnishings. She made many trips to Edmonton to bid on select pieces of antique furniture, often being a few hundred years old and even coming from prestigious locations like Queen Elizabeth’s castle in Balmoral. As kids, our home was a lovingly-restored CPR train station full of these antiques for our everyday living. A few home-and-garden magazines visited to make photo essays of our unique abode; regrettably, one never fully appreciates how unique and rare these situations are until long after one gains the insight of an adult looking back...

Her years of retirement gave her the best view of the Gorge waterway in Victoria, where she spent many hours absorbed in its peaceful view. Even when stricken with the significant health challenges of her last years, her resilience and return to semi-independent living was almost legendary. Predeceased by her three brothers Nick, Bill, and Michael and sister Helen, she is survived by her remaining sisters Lil and Elsie, as well as her five children Del (Nattacha), Remi (Marni), Lita (Walter), Richard (Phoebe), and Sur (Mayumi). She left us to rise back to the stars in the early hours of October 10, 2019 at the age of 96. We will always love you, mom, and will do our best to follow your example of living life to its fullest. We will not forget the sacrifices you made that we might have a fair start to our own lives. Your spirit will go on through the five of us and into your numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Being our mother is not about what you gave up to have children, but what we gained from having you as our mom. Rest in peace.

SB