Diane Basaraba

Diane passed on peacefully in Vancouver on April 28, 2024. Survived by her daughters and son Kaycee, Kelly and Trevor, step-son Tim, grandchildren Tony, Joshua, Kaiya, Seren and Keenan, sons-in-law Terry and Riley, sisters and brother Mabel, Paulette, Brandy and Daryl.

Diane was predeceased by her mother Racheal McNalley, and granddaughter Mallory. Diane will be deeply and forever missed notably her daily ‘I love you…’ texts. Diane was a woman of faith, compassion, generosity, creativity, grit and adventure. Early years, Diane was recognized for her bravery; her mother while cooking caught on fire, and she consequently saved her life by putting the fire out.

Diane attended university, while single-handedly raising three children, she became a teacher and taught in Vancouver and United Arab Emirates. She was the kind of teacher that invested in all-round development of a student (as children we loved reading the thankyou cards her students sent). Diane loved George, John and Neil; and built life-long family-friendships with Sandra, Lorraine, Ollie, Sally and Jacquie. She sponsored a missionary monthly and a family every Christmas. She was a foodie, a texting queen, a blue-ribbon lemon pie/strawberry short cake baker, a poet, charcoal sketcher, nature-lover and ‘health-nut’ (before it was cool). Diane was a travel adventurer: she traveled internationally with her daughter, Kelly (& Joshua) to Argentina, Costa Rica, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Hawaii, Disney Land, etc; and holidayed yearly with both her daughters and grandchildren (Mallory, Joshua) to the Okanagan.

Diane’s life was fueled by her great love for her children and grand children. She wanted to raise lions not cayotes, she said. The kind of mama, who instilled the importance of a good education, prayer, hard work, family-traditions and love is the greatest thing on earth. There were those all-day beach days, snow days… stuffing our faces with wonder bread, baloney and cheese sandwiches or gulping hot chocolate with marshmallows and the tuck into bed included bathed, feeling happily exhausted, loved and reciting “the lord is my Shepard…” and Saturday morning cinnamon buns. The kind of ‘Binky,’ who drove her grandchildren to after school activities, and day trip adventured from a beach/lake to science world to splash down and river walks (with Sally and Joshua). Mama was the happiest when her children and grand children were working on achieving their dreams. She was our ride-or-die – we were hers!

Our family would like to express immense gratitude to Raven Song Community Health Centre’s palliative care home team led by the dedicated, compassionate, all-knowing-what-to-do Naiomi (our mother adored) and the shift nurses Stacey and others who took tender loving care of her. And a special heartfelt thankyou to the Vancouver Hospice Society, her doctor and the compassionate nurses Omega and others who took tender loving care of her in the last three days.