Elizabeth Anne ABBOTT

April 11, 1930 – December 13, 2025 Surrounded by love, the much-cherished life of Elizabeth (Lantz) Abbott came to a peaceful end through the medically assisted death she requested. Born in Charlottetown, the eldest child of Joseph P. Lantz and Dorothy (Brodie) Lantz, Elizabeth's life was moulded on Brighton Road and 'the Farm', with its surrounding fields and Keppoch shoreline. Elizabeth is survived by her youngest brother Brodie (Charlotte) and was predeceased by her brother Rory (Mary) and her sister Heather (John Smallman), whom she lived beside again in the final chapter of their lives. Elizabeth left Prince Edward Island in 1950 to study at McGill (MacDonald College). In the summer of 1952, she set out on a life-changing trip with her sister Heather and their mutual friend Valarie Rogers. Sending sustenance parcels ahead to general delivery post office addresses, their pluck was rewarded with grand adventure as they toured post-war England on their bicycles. After graduation, Elizabeth took a job as dietitian at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. A year later, she left to marry the 'funny Englishman' whom she'd met at McGill and visited, along with his family, while on her bicycle trip. In 1955, she boarded a plane, with mad money from her father in case she changed her mind, that took her to Salisbury, Rhodesia, now Harare. Of the many places she would live and travel in her 95 years, she maintained Zimbabwe was, by far, the most beautiful. There, where the only person she knew at her wedding was her groom, she began a shared and well-lived life with Alan St. George Abbott that lasted 66 years until his death in 2022. Inherited from her mother, Elizabeth possessed irrepressible style. It surfaced in everything; her conversation, her home, her dress, her cooking, and in the magnificent gardens she created everywhere she lived. Travelling from one continent to another and then back again, the many odd and often quite run-down houses, variously rented or owned, were transformed by her imagination and hard work into comfortable family homes; "nests for the birds". In everything, her aesthetic was understated and yet vividly memorable. She survived breast cancer to live a long and very lucky life. Throughout it, she took interest in the world and in ideas of all kinds. She was a curious, voracious reader, even after the loss of sight substituted audio for paper. She put her face to the sun at every opportunity and loved to cross country ski alone in the woods, especially after a fresh snowfall. Her two daughters, Kathleen (Doug Nowers) and Adriane (Frank LaLeune), to whom she unfailingly gave encouragement and unconditional love, know her as the steadfast champion of the most interesting path possible, in our lives and her own. Today, we pay her the highest compliment we can, which is to say that our admiration and respect for her transcended our parental ties and our many generational divides. Over time, she simply and quite beautifully became our friend. We join her in effusive praise for the unfailing professionalism, dedication, kindness and humour of absolutely everyone involved in healthcare and eldercare services. Particularly, we thank the eye doctors Gupta and Rafuse, who kept her vision as long as they could – she felt wildly fortunate. And we thank the emergency room neurologist who gave us all a dark laugh when, after Elizabeth suffered a severe fall and fractured skull at 94, he told her she would in fact recover-and that she couldn't just order MAiD like a pizza. From the staff at Parklands at the Gardens to paramedics, nurses and doctors of all variety and the wider breadth of healthcare staff who do absolutely everything including trying to keep the hospitals clean, you are all heroes. A private interment will take place at Point Prim cemetery, PEI, where her ashes and her loving husband's will be placed to push up wildflowers together, visited by ocean breeze, birds and, we hope, a few big-fat-buzzing bumble bees. Should you wish to honour her life, please make a gift to any charitable cause and the next time you head to one of Nova Scotia's famed hiking trails, nurseries, wineries, gardens, independent bookstores, artists' studios, or miraculous out of the way restaurants (looking at you, Lupin)-have yourself "a grand adventure!"