Date:         Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:35:05 -0800
Reply-To:     Malcolm Stebbins <mwstebbins@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Malcolm Stebbins <mwstebbins@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      NVC - On a Personal Note
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

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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