Audrey Elizabeth Wright

WRIGHT, Audrey Elizabeth (née Craig) Audrey Elizabeth Wright (née Craig), of Tsawwassen, BC, died in peace on September 11, 2015 at the Fraser Valley Centre of the BC Cancer Agency in Surrey, BC. Audrey was predeceased by her parents: Erle Montgomery and Myrtle Jean Craig; by two of her six children: A Craig Wright and Michael Wright; by her three siblings: sister Shirley Mahoney and brothers Dr.Charles E Craig and J Douglas Craig. She is survived by Richard (Dick), her ever-loving husband of 64 years; by her four adoring children: Sandra McKerrell (and David); Alison Wright (and Maurice Bourassa); Charles Wright (and Christie Stoll) and Malcolm Wright (Sarah McKee); by her eleven so-loved grandchildren: Dougal Wright; Katy Bourassa-Wright (and Graham With); Callum Wright (and Rachel); Casey Troop (and Jay); Niko Bourassa-Wright; Shauna Garside (and Kirby); Phaedra Bourassa-Wright; Alannah Wright (and Brad Rossington); Sophie McKee-Wright; Griffin Wright; and Liam McKee-Wright; by her three truly remarkable, great-grandchildren: Mckinley Garside; Alexander Wright and Haleigh Troop; and by Olive and ED Puss. Audrey is also survived by nine children of her siblings and by relatives in California and on PEI. Audrey was born in Vancouver on January 28th, 1931; grew up in Vancouver, living on Cypress Crescent and attending Prince of Wales Elementary and High School, until 1946, and then in Pasadena, California, where she attended and graduated from Pasadena City College. Back again in Vancouver, she studied fashion design, assisted brother Charles in establishing his new Orthodontic practice and, along with her mother, oversaw construction of their new home at 32nd and Hudson - all the while being courted by Richard, whom she married in 1951 and contentedly put up with for the rest of her life. In 1956, the Wright family of four, at the time, moved away from Vancouver, to Edmonton, where they learned about not living close to the sea and mountains, about winter severities, about Prairie life, oil boom-townitus and Socreds, and where they became a family of five. In 1960, they relocated to Ancaster, Ontario, a suburb of Hamilton, for a two year stint, which was sufficient to experience many aspects of life in Ontario, particularly on the Niagara Peninsula, and to increase to a family group of six. In 1962, they moved on to exurban Hudson, Quebec, thirty-five miles west of Montreal, and into their century-old 'Edgemere' on le lac de Deux Montagnes, where they remained for eight years. In Hudson, Audrey endured a final family expansion, but pregnancy did not hinder her active pursuits in numerous arts and crafts, of voracious reading and anecdotal essay writing, of imaginative sewing and creative needlework projects, of gourmet cooking and gracious entertaining, of overseeing constant house renovations, of child rearing and household managing, and, as always, of looking beautiful. In 1970, the now family of seven moved enthusiastically from idyllic exurbia to the stimulating, cultural urbanity of Westmount, in the heart of Montréal, where Audrey continued, ever more confidently, the pursuit of her numerous, creative endeavors and where, in the Fall of 1970, the group's urban life experience was coloured by Montréal's October Crisis. A great many enduring friendships were shaped in Hudson and Westmount. In 1972, Audrey and Dick, along with their five offspring, returned to Vancouver, where many ancient, close friendships were to be rekindled and many new ones created and where closer ties with relatives and family members were to be reestablished. It was Audrey's gregarious friendliness that eased renewal. It was back in Vancouver, also on Salt Spring Island and later, upon moving to Tsawwassen in 1990, that Audrey's creative, artistic spirit came more and more to be focused upon that wonderous world of quilting and, following a stimulating Creative Writing course at Langara College, upon her writing. Artistically, Audrey was a highly innovative and creative, a painstaking perfectionist who was gifted with a refined sense of colour. Her writings exhibited her acute senses of humour, irony and colouring. The legacies she left from her quilting, her writing and other artistic pursuits are joyful to experience. Socially, Audrey was ever a cherished friend, a caring, generous, graciously-spirited person who managed to inspire her sense of enthusiasm for life in others. Later in life, she accepted the challenges and discomforts of aging with courage, dignity and her ever-present sparkle of humour; towards the end, she endured more than her fair share of medical distress without loss of aplomb [except for those damned stairs]. Audrey will be remembered by all who knew her as a gracious, generous, compassionate and loyal friend; as an enthusiastic and accomplished creator of quilt and needle works and of the written word; as an exceptional, most loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother; and as a loyal, much-cherished companion and pal, a wife extraordinaire! Friends and family are invited to attend an informal memorial reception at Kin House, 5050 - 47A Ave, Ladner, BC, on October 24th, 1:30 - 4:00PM. Audrey expressed the wish that, in lieu of flowers, donation to favorite charities be considered.