Alison Mccabe

Our beloved Mom died quietly on December 16, 2017 in her apartment while in the care of The Ravines in Ottawa. She was 94. Born December 14, 1923 in Windsor, Ontario, the third child of WW1 veteran William McCabe (1891-1957) and Margaret Bolton (1893-1931), immigrants from Scotland, Alison lost her mother to illness at the young age of 7. Despite difficult economic times, Alison became the first in her family to achieve a university education, thanks in part to financial assistance from family and friends. She became a French teacher in Kincardine, Ontario where she met WW2 veteran Mons Linton Brunton (1921-2010). They married on August 25, 1951 and Alison temporarily left teaching to become the mother of five children while the family followed Dad’s RCAF service in Trenton, North Luffenham, Marville, Centralia, Downsview, Bracknell and Ottawa. Alison resumed teaching in 1969 once her last child was in school, and taught French at Confederation High School in Ottawa. After retirement, Mom and Dad realized their dreams of travelling widely, visiting Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England, Germany and France. Our Mom loved French literature and culture; poetry, including a little of her own; all things Scottish; the novels of Jane Austen; classical music; words, grammar, crossword puzzles and Scrabble, at which she was expert. Alison was blessed with great wisdom, kindness, determination, erudition, graciousness and charm, and a dry sense of humour, and was a tower of strength and devotion to her children and friends even as the ravages of age took hold. Predeceased by her husband, her brothers Jack and Bill and sister Nora, Alison is sorely missed by her children and grandchildren: Richard, in Ottawa; Bill and his wife Gail MacKean, in Calgary, and their children Ellen and husband Sam Robinson, of Toronto, and brother Sam Brunton, in Calgary; Mary and partner Sara Pope, in Victoria; James and his wife Anna DeCarlo, and their children Matthew and Joshua, in Calgary; and Maggie and her husband George Lemoine, of Ottawa. The family wishes to thank the Ravine’s staff for the excellent care they provided. Mom was not very religious, partaking in Voltaire’s skepticism; but her favourite charities were the Canadian Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the War Amps. Friends and family are invited to the Tubman funeral homes Garden Chapel located at 3440 Richmond Road (near Bayshore), Ottawa, On, on January 3 ^rd , 2018, from 2pm to 4pm and from 6pm to 8pm.