Barbara Alta Thain (née Rowson)

Passed away peacefully in the company of her daughter Sandy on the afternoon of January 23 2025.

Barbara and her older brother Raymond were born in Hamilton Ontario to Lorne Rowson and Isabella Wilson. She grew up in northern Alberta and British Columbia where her mother taught in single room schoolhouses in several small communities. While she was about 10, the small family relocated in Mission, British Columbia, where she graduated high school, went to Normal School and then taught in Vancouver. She met her future husband Bob and they moved to Ottawa where he started his government employment with the Defense Research Board. The family moved to England in 1963 and spent three years happily residing in Bromley, south of London, going to school and traveling in Europe, before returning to Ottawa. During the next several years she operated a retail Canadiana Gift store, and with her husband sponsored two Vietnamese girls Thu and Phuong. Phuong, later named Christine and her husband Buddy and son Arthur were always regarded as family.

Barbara was a talented painter, most often watercolour, and collected brass rubbings, Wedgwood majolica and antique items of furniture. She sewed many of the clothes that the family wore and enjoyed gardening as well as spending time at the family cottage. She enjoyed distant travel and adventure holidays with hiking and the outdoors, volunteering, helping people, and caring for her growing family. She remained active until late in her declining years.

She married Robert Sydney Thain in 1950. They had three children, Sandy Wendt (Steve), Derek Thain (Grace) and Andrea Thain; grandchildren Nicholas (Elli), Jeffrey (Melanie), Christina (Sean), Christopher, Michael and Ella, and great-grandchildren Sydney, Micah, Kalista, Daphnée, Justin, Hailey, Alicia, Charlie, Everly, Harry and Millie.

 She will be missed by many.

 Friends may attend a celebration of life at the Kars Chapel of Tubman Funeral Homes, 1610 Roger Stevens Dr., Kars on Saturday, February 8th at 11 am followed by a reception.  Those wishing may make memorial donations to the Dementia Society