Dear Malcolm,

Please accept my sympathy for the loss of your
wife.

Robert

Dec 7, 2007 7:35 PM, Malcolm Stebbins
<mwstebbins@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Please forgive me, but on Fridays we sometimes
share personal issues
 on
> this vanagon list as over
> the many years, we have become like family.
>
> It is with great sadness, I inform you all that
after a 16 month
 battle
> with cancer, my wife
> Patricia Baker died last Saturday evening at
the palliative care unit
 of
> Halifax's Victoria
> General Hospital.  She died peacefully,
surrounded by family and
 friends.
>  She was 52!
>
> As all who knew Pat will understand, she showed
great strength of
> character throughout this whole
> ordeal; never angry, never bitter, always
accommodating, and always
> thinking of others needs
> before her own.  Patricia will be greatly
missed by many people.
>
> Patricia was smart (4.0 GPA for all of her
Bachelor's, Master's and
> Doctorate degrees), well
> respected professionally (awarded the Sarah
Shorten award by our
 Canadian
> Assoc. of University
> Teachers), she was 3 year president of our
University Faculty Assoc.
 and a
> published author. She
> was kind, loving, selfless, self-deprecating,
and absolutely
 scrupulous.
>  We had one of those rare
> 'soul-mate' or 'kindred spirit' relationships
that most people can
 only
> hope for.
>
> For this list; Pat took to Westy camping like a
duck to water. During
 our
> 16 years together, she
> was with me through 2 vans:  a 1986 French
syncro westy that we
 bought in
> Morocco and drove all
> over Morocco and 3 trips throughout Europe.
Then came my 1991 syncro
> westy that we shipped to
> Egypt and, during the year that we were there,
drove all over Egypt.
 As if
> that was not enough, we
> then drove the van from Cairo to Amsterdam;
though Jordan, Syria,
 Turkey,
> Greece, and up through
> Europe, 11 weeks and 10,000 kms.  We also made
2 Canadian
 coast-to-coast
> trips.
>
> As a visual tribute to Pat, there are a few
photos at:
>
http://picasaweb.google.com/mstebbins/PresentPat
Some are of Pat &
 the
> vans.
>
> I thought long and hard about posting this, and
I realized that what
 I
> really wanted to say is
> that next time your van breaks down, don`t get
angry, at least wife
 is
> THERE to yell at you.  :-)
>
>
> Malcolm (Halifax, NS)
>

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