Lillian McKimm

April 08, 1925 - October 16, 2025

In Loving Memory of Lillian Mayland McKimm
We are saddened to share the passing of Lillian "Lil" Mayland McKimm, who died peacefully on October 16th in Victoria, BC, at the remarkable age of 100.
Born and raised in Calgary, Lil spent her youth riding horses across the prairies with her father, A.H. Mayland, and sister, Betty Ellis. Those wide-open spaces shaped her spirit of independence and love of adventure. During her university years in Toronto, she met George F. McKimm, the man who would become her lifelong love and partner in adventure and learning. Together they built a life filled with travel, laughter, and stories that spanned continents. They hiked and climbed in the Rockies, sailed the waters of Vancouver Island to Alaska and the East Coast, and voyaged beyond to the Baltic and Mediterranean seas.
Lil was a woman of substance and style, as comfortable at the head of a table as she was at the helm of a sailboat. A natural hostess with an artist's eye for detail, she had an unmatched talent for curating a guest list that guaranteed good conversation and laughter late into the evening. Her handwritten notes, still tucked between the pages of well worn cookbooks, are quiet reminders of her effortless grace in the kitchen and her gift for bringing people together.
She was shy by nature, yet she possessed a quiet magnetism that drew people in. When she shined her attention your way, as she so often did, you felt seen, known, and included, as if you were in on something special. She had a rare gift for teasing out people's best stories and a thoughtful respect for everyone she met.
Athletic, artistic, and endlessly curious, Lil approached life as an ongoing pursuit of excellence. Whether on the ski slopes, the golf course, the tennis or badminton court, or in her early adventures as a skilled mountaineer and camper, she moved through the world with the same grace with which she carried herself: confident, composed, and always impeccably turned out.
She leaves behind a family and circle of friends who reflect her in countless ways. They carry her eye for art, her sense of style, her love of good food and good wine, and the quiet confidence and curiosity she instilled in them. Her love lives on through her four children, seven grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and the many lives she touched across her century of living fully.
The family extends heartfelt gratitude to her caregivers at R.J. Angels, Bayshore Home Services, and Amica Jubilee House for their compassionate care and kindness.
True to form, Lil requested "no fuss or muss" surrounding her passing, only that we each take a moment to reflect on a fond memory of her. She will be deeply missed but never forgotten. Condolences may be left at firstmemorialvictoria.com.