It is with profound sadness we announce the passing of Diane Estelle Meehan on Sunday, December 9, 2018 in her 89th year. Cherished mother of Ross (Janice), James (Misty), Johane (Bryan) and Jay (Christa); beloved Nanny (Raspberries) to Patrick (Erin), Kelly (Scott), Erin (Rob), Liam, Harrison, Duncan, Connor and Brayden, and just one year ago, Diane’s joy was fulfilled with the birth of her great grandchild, Ben. Diane also leaves to mourn: her sister, Shirley Ciacco, nieces Lynne and Carmen, nephew, John and many more nieces and nephews across the country. She was predeceased by her son, Christopher, and husband, John.
Diane was born at St Paul’s hospital in Vancouver in 1930 with a congenital hip disorder that no one recognized nor eventually knew quite how to treat. The Mayo Clinic recommended in 1939 that she be put in a body cast made of gauze and plaster from the waist down along her left leg and foot. They said it would let her left leg catch up to her right leg if she stayed in it for a year. It didn’t.
For Diane the trips “up Fraser’’ were a delight in the homemade buggy sourced from scrap wood, four old bike wheels and painted white. Her mother would push her from 36th and Chester past Mathews corner store up the hill, past the cemetery and Chandlers Monuments. Then they would go past the farm and orchard at 41st street. Across from the Blue Bird confectionary they would meet up with her Grandmother who walked up from her house at 43rd and Prince Edward. Next stop was Lees Meat Market where she would be given a couple of wieners. Then a stop at the Piggiley Wiggiley grocery store for the hello and talk of the business. They’d also go past Frosts, a dark store with an oiled wood floor. It sold dry goods, lace hankies, thread and such.
She often talked of these times and how much effort her Mother put into making her life happy, even though her Father was overseas with the Seaforth Highlanders. “Hers was truly a labour of love that year in 1939”. Her thanks, too, went to the store owners on “the hill” who were so very kind and generous to her family.
“Life in South Vancouver was and is great”. She hadn’t ever wanted to live anywhere else.
But Diane travelled. Married to a military man, she saw Canada from coast to coast on various bases. Children were born across the country from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island to Goose Bay, Labrador. Later, after settling in Vancouver, she took time off for holidays as a clerk in the Vancouver Police Department and began to travel further than the usual summer vacations at Birch Bay, often to Reno with her sister. More trips were made, crossing Canada by train, and beyond, for cruises and to Europe (four times). Two of her travel highlights were taking her adult children and their families to Ireland and on a cruise to Alaska. She loved getting away and was disappointed when her travels had to be curtailed in her final years.
These final years were spent happily making new friends at Cavell Gardens, not far from her home in South Vancouver.
Visitation will be at Kearney Funeral Home, 450 West 2nd Ave., Vancouver, on Friday, December 28th from 4 to 5pm.
Church service will take place at St. Andrews, 480 East 47th Ave., Vancouver, on Saturday, Dec. 29th @ 12pm. Reception follows.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Heart and Stroke Foundation would be appreciated by the family.