Remembering Wendy Lynn Lyon
March 13,1954 - January 11, 2023

It is with great sadness that we announce our beautiful and courageous Wendy has left us at age 68, after a brave battle with pancreatic cancer. She passed away peacefully here on Cortes Island Wednesday, January 11th, 2023 with her husband Richard, son Erik, and daughter-in-law Naomi holding her hands at her side. Wendy maintained her sense of humor, smiles, poise, strength, and love through great pain until the very end; an inspiration to so many. She loved being a grandmother, liked to be called "Nanna", and adored her grandchildren Julian and Iris here on Cortes; and Benjamin, Amelia, and Zoey in Tel Aviv, Israel. Many Cortes children loved to sit with her and Julian and Iris at Mansons Beach, the Lagoon, or at Hague Lake. They all called her "Nanna Wendy" and will no doubt miss her.

Wendy was born in Winnipeg in 1954, one of the sweetest flowers that ever bloomed on the Manitoba prairie. She lived there and in Victoria as a girl, moved to the United States as a teenager, and after marriage in 1975 moved to California with her husband Richard. Four years later they relocated to Europe for 17 years, where Wendy lived and worked in France, Germany, and The Netherlands. Wendy was fluent in French and German and taught English there, eventually returning to Arizona, where she worked as an International Relocations Manager until retirement.

Wendy chose an early retirement to return to Canada to be closer to her family and grandchildren and settled on Cortes Island 9 years ago. She was very happy here and grew to love Cortes and all the friends she made, walking the beaches, swimming in the lake, and hiking in the rainforest.

Wendy was fiercely proud of her Canadian citizenship and took it very seriously: everywhere she traveled she wore her Canadian flag pin or maple leaf pin. She grew up in a family with an elegant mother of Scottish-Norwegian descent who taught manners, courtesy, grace, and style in everything Wendy did: she was taught, above all, to show respect and kindness and to "Always be a Lady". For you women of Wendy's age reading this, you might know what this means: she was proud to have been a member of "CGIT", Canadian Girls In Training.

How much do you fellow Cortes Islanders like Snow.?.? and Ice.?.? Wendy loved it! She said to me (her husband, Richard, writing this) on a snowy windy day when the power was out: "Listen Rich, get over yourself, quit your complaining! Canada is famous for snow, not rain, and here on Cortes it just makes these tall trees look that much more beautiful!" On another wintery day when I griped about the cold she said: "This is nothing! We had Real Winter in Manitoba! I was a "Prairie Girl" and we played and skated all day long outdoors when it was waaay below zero, like -20 or -30; no problem - we were having fun!" "But", she added "You can't really fully understand the true meaning of the word "PAIN" until you get kicked in the nose with a frozen soccer ball!"

Wendy was tall, slender and athletic, so it's no surprise that in Summer she was a "natural", excelling in running and high-jump in her school track team and was the pitcher of her softball team. In the Winter, she loved to figure skate and was as graceful as a ballerina on the ice.

Later in life Wendy became an enthusiastic and proud member of a global fitness and personal improvement movement called "My Peak Challenge" (MPC) which Wendy said "Changed my life". MPC's 17,000+ members have contributed over 6 million $USD to charitable causes including blood-cancer research, end-of-life care, environmental pollution issues, and tree planting worldwide. Members call themselves "Peakers" and Wendy loved meeting her fellow Peakers for hikes on Vancouver Island and in Arizona. After Wendy fell ill with cancer hundreds of Peakers from across the globe have sent her well wishes and cards throughout the year. She will be truly missed by them all. Her Vancouver Island Peaker friends have established a fundraising page in Wendy's honour with all donations going to the Ocean Conservancy organization.

Wendy was creative, loved music and art, and she loved to paint. As a young woman in France she attended art school and perfected her technique, becoming skilled in painting with oil, water colours, painting on glass, and silk painting. She was passionate about the Impressionists and never missed an opportunity when visiting Paris to go to an art museum, and while she lived in Amsterdam she visited the Van Gogh Museum many many times, where she sat for hours admiring his work.

As a young mother Wendy instilled that love of art in her two young sons. Wendy would not allow traditional "lined colouring books" in the house - the boys were to use their crayons or paintbrushes on plain blank art paper to draw and colour "outside the lines" anywhere they wanted. Here on Cortes, she loved doing art projects with her grandchildren Julian and Iris, and was proud to have local artist Naomi Cairns as her daughter-in-law. Wendy called Naomi the "Monet of Cortes Island".

Wendy was a talented woman of beauty and style who excelled at anything and everything she set her mind to do, whether it was cooking, learning a language, rearing her sons, learning to fly, entertaining guests and family around an elegantly set table, playing her piano, operating a sewing machine, writing a book, exercising and weight lifting....and on and on, whatever it was. Wendy did this with grace, dignity, self-discipline, an open heart, curiosity, a sense of humour, energy, and courage.

Certainly Wendy showed a remarkable amount of courage struggling with her very painful pancreatic cancer that had metastasized and spread as her end-of-life drew near. She maintained her good spirit despite the difficult chemotherapy and the increasing tumor pain, all so that she could have a longer opportunity to say goodbye to her friends, her Peakers, family, children and grandchildren. But the cost was heavy in terms of pain and the challenge to her endurance. At the end, lying in great weakness, the terrible pain was overwhelming...and then at last it was gone. Wendy had fought the good fight, she finished the race, she kept the faith.

Wendy was a Christian who believed that Our Lord Jesus comforts us with the promise of Rest in Peace and everlasting life in the Paradise of God. She kept a card by her bed that her dearest friend Claudia made from one of Wendy's water colourings of a field of yellow flowers. At the top she wrote "you are love", and at the bottom, "and you are loved". On the reverse side she put a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that Wendy read every night for inspiration as her bedtime prayer, and it gave her great comfort and solace.

" Let us labor for an inward stillness - - An inward stillness and an inward healing. That perfect silence where the lips and heart Are still, and we no longer entertain Our own imperfect thoughts and vain options, But God alone speaks to us and we wait In singleness of heart that we may know His will, and in the silence of our spirits, That we may do His will and do that only. "
HWL - 1864

Rest in peace our sweet Wendy, rest in peace. Know that we love and miss you very much, and you will remain in our hearts and memories forever.
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Wendy is survived by her husband Richard; sons Andrew and Erik; daughters-in-law Noa and Naomi; grandchildren Julian, Iris, Benjamin, Amelia, and Zoey; and brothers Jack and David; and sister Betty.

Wendy's wish was to be cremated, and a Celebration of Life will be held at a date and place to be announced later this year.

The Lyon family wishes to thank the staff, nurses, and doctors of the Cortes Health Centre and Campbell River North Island Hospital for their professional, tender care; Cove Pharmacy; BC Cancer Agency Oncologists Dr. Christian Fibich and Dr. Anne Morrison for their skill and compassion managing Wendy's chemotherapy and controlling her pain; and the Cancer Ward nurses and Palliative Care Nurse Jeanna for their compassionate care and help. We would also like to thank Dr. Ian Law and Dr. Niel Webb of the Cortes Health Centre, and Dr. Stephen Hughes of Quadra Island Medical Clinic for your professional and compassionate attentiveness, house calls, and care of Wendy to control and reduce her pain as much as possible at the end of her life. It is truly appreciated.

Special thanks to Bernice McGowan, Josée, and Justin of Cortes's Augmented Home Support; and Margaret Verschuur, Emma Tius, Yasmina Cartland, and Ron Douglas of the Cortes Island Death Collective for your humanitarian loving care for Wendy, beginning last Summer through to the end of her life. You did a beautiful job in a sad situation with great love and sympathy. You are quite simply "Wonderful!" and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

Finally, for anyone wishing to make a donation in Wendy's memory please do so to the Cortes Death Caring Collective. They are an "all volunteer" group and donations will help them keep doing the important work they perform for Cortes Islanders. You can reach them via their website on Tidelines.

Richard Lyon, January 2023