Alice E. MacLEAN

July 01, 1925 - April 08, 2023

Alice MacLean (nee Pinckston) was born on July 1, 1925 in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1941, at age 16, she left school to work as a secretary at the US Air Force Base in Edmonton as a part of the war effort. She always desired higher education so she completed her GED and pursued her academic interests at Camosun College after the family moved to Victoria in 1970.
Alice met her husband, Huntley, at Poole Construction Ltd. in Edmonton where they both worked. They married in 1952 and had five daughters. After retiring to Victoria, they fell in love with the wild beauty of the West Kootenays when daughter Cathy moved there in 1975. They eventually built a house on the shores of Slocan Lake, which also became a showcase for Mom's passion for gardening. After Huntley's death in 1996, Alice continued to make the long solo drive every spring to spend the summer at the lake, working on and always expanding her beautiful garden.
Mom was an accomplished pianist. She completed her Royal Conservatory of Music teaching diploma in Edmonton while raising her five children, and continued to teach after moving to Victoria. After retiring from teaching she was actively involved in the Victoria Conservatory of Music Alumni.
Mom was a creative soul with many interests. As a lifelong learner, she was always open to new experiences and adventures. She engaged in many projects, the results visible in the clothes she made for her children, the upholstered furniture, hand-stitched quilts, paper toile pictures, garden designs and in later years her paintings.
She was curious and engaged - be it following world politics or her grandchildren's escapades. She was an avid reader. She valued and nurtured her relationships and connections with people, and maintained them with phone calls, letters and emails. She loved to travel and kept journals of her trips abroad; journals that revealed that she was also a writer.
She was a free spirit, gentle and strong, funny and playful, engaging and generous in every way. Her life reflects a remarkable willingness to be open, to go with the flow, embrace change and be of the present.
Alice is survived by her children Cathy, Jean, Marian, Janice and Margaret; her sons-in-law Bob, Matt and Ian; her grandchildren Cassandra, Sandon, Claire, Kelvan, Jackson and Kyla; and her great-grandchildren Caleb, Lucas, and Dylan.
Thank you to Shannon Oaks Independent Living in Oak Bay for providing such a wonderful environment for the nearly three years that she resided there.
A celebration of life will be held at a later date.