Isabel Marie MacLean passed away peacefully on January 01, 2020, at The Dryden Regional Health Centre.
She was born on April 15, 1932, in Sydney, Nova Scotia and spent her childhood and early adult years on the island of Cape Breton. Then, with three young daughters in tow, she and her husband Jack took an adventurous move to remote northwestern Ontario and the rest is history!
Family was her central focus and over the decades her home was always the gathering point for family and friends with children and pets roaming free to enjoy life. Food was always available in abundance and if she wasn’t watching news, politics and curling on television she was on the food channel or browsing the countless food magazines she subscribed to in order to find some new and interesting recipe. Her open circle created a haven for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren as well as too many friends to count. All are devastated by her passing.
She worked as an elementary school teacher in Nova Scotia and started work in Ontario in a one-room school in Quibell, then later in schools in the Vermilion Bay, Oxdrift and Dryden areas. She also served as Principal. In her retirement years people would often approach her and reminisce about their time with her as students and fellow teachers, noting that she touched their lives in many positive ways.
Throughout her retirement, she worked or volunteered with many social planning and support organizations. Her most recent volunteer work centering on the Princess Court Family Council.
Family members include daughters, Wendy Peck of Winnipeg, Deborah MacLean (Jacques Dufresne) of Dryden and Heather MacLean of Dryden; six grandchildren, Shawnda Peck, Danille Peck, Brian Peck, Paige Dufresne, Jordan Thiel and Brett Thiel; and two great-grandchildren, Ryan O’Flaherty and Finley Heinrich-Thiel, her sister Becky Cummings and many nieces and nephews from her large extended family. She was predeceased by her husband Jack MacLean, brothers John and Fred Pledge and sisters Erma Ball and Phyllis Meade.
A Come & Go Tea to Celebrate the Life of Isabel MacLean will be held Saturday January 18th, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. at The Centre.
If friends so desire donations may be made to Princess Court DECO through the Stevens Funeral Homes P.O. Box 412, Dryden ON P8N 2Z1. Condolences may be posted at www.stevensfuneralhomes.ca.
