Ann was born in Falkirk, Scotland and died in Vancouver, BC, peacefully at home, age 81 years, with her family by her side. She was pre-deceased by her parents, James Ramsay and Isabella Learmonth, by her older brothers and spouses, James (May) Ramsay and Robert (Irene) Ramsay, and by her brother-in-law Ronald (Loretta) Trotter. She is survived by her loving husband of 61 years, James, her sons Martin (Theresa) and David (Annette), her granddaughters Karen (Sam), Fiona, Gillian, Kiana, and Bailey, her sisters in Scotland, Patricia (Russell) McKean and Janette Dewar, her sister-in-law Sheila (Bill) Johnston, and by many nephews and nieces in BC, Ontario, and UK.
Ann finished high school in Falkirk and began work in the laboratories of Scottish Oils (later BP). On her very first day on the job she met a young summer student, and was destined to spend the rest of her life with him. They were married in 1957, sailed immediately for Canada and Ottawa, where she worked in Canadian government laboratories, and where son Martin was born. They moved to Vancouver in 1960, where son David was born, and where Ann and family spent the rest of her life, except for some spells of a few months up to a year in Oxford, Cambridge, Zurich, Christchurch (NZ), Ottawa, Edinburgh, and Hong Kong.
In her first years in Vancouver Ann was at home taking care of her family, and became good at everything she did: wife, mother (then grandmother), friend, cook, gardener, seamstress, upholsterer etc. She was a volunteer driver for VGH, and an excellent mentor in the Girl Guides, serving as Captain of a Girl Guide and later a Brownie group. This involved arranging all the girl guide activities including summer camps at Camp Olave on the Sunshine Coast. When the boys grew up Ann worked for an advertising company which later became involved in designing and building some of the pavilions at Expo86, and finally she was for a number of years on the editorial staff of the BC Medical Journal.
She played and enjoyed various sports: first badminton, and later tennis. She was the inspiration for the family acquiring a cabin at Whistler, and downhill skiing was the next activity. Finally she took up golf with enthusiasm, joined the Musqueam and later McCleery Ladies’ Clubs, served on the executives, with a year as Captain at each of the clubs; she was made an Honorary member of the McCleery club. Golf was the excuse for a number of vacations across Canada, the US (particularly Palm Desert), New Zealand, and Scotland. She was also active in the UBC Faculty Women’s Club and at Brock House.
In all these activities she met many new people and they became lifelong friends. She had a huge circle of friends whom she loved and admired; she kept in touch with them all and always had a smiling face for them. Ann was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend. We will miss her terribly. The family thank Father Paul Smith, Dr. Brad Fritz, and the Pacific Spirit palliative home care team for looking after her so well as she endured a very short and stoic struggle with pancreatic cancer. Funeral Service was held on Wednesday, October 17, 2018, at 11:00 a.m., at Immaculate Conception Church, 3778 West 28th Avenue, Vancouver.