Elizabeth Morin died peacefully on May 12, 2023 in Vancouver at the age of 102. She was predeceased by her husband Dr. Gaston Morin, by her brother Hon. Charles C. Locke of Vancouver and her nephew Hugh Macaulay. She is survived by her sister Alice Macaulay of Vancouver, and 10 nieces and nephews and many great nieces and great nephews.
Elizabeth was born in Winnipeg in 1921. The family moved to Vancouver in the late 1920s, where she attended York House School and then St. Michael’s Boarding School for Girls in Vernon. Elizabeth was a gifted artist, and after high school she attended Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts before attending UBC. While there, she was an enthusiastic member of the players club. The family moved to Ottawa in the late 1940s. Elizabeth obtained her master’s degree in social work from McGill, and then pursued further studies at Yale University. Elizabeth had a strong calling to help people, and she enjoyed her career working for the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society, at the Ottawa Family Service Centre, and at the Ottawa General Hospital psychiatric department. And, as the executive director of the Ottawa branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association she found scope for her interest in developing new programs. After a long and distinguished career, she retired in the late 1980s. In addition to her professional life, Elizabeth was devoted to the care of her invalid mother Marie Locke with whom she was very close.
All her life Elizabeth was independent and adventurous. She loved clothes, and travel, reading, and having a good laugh. She travelled on her own, and also with her friends to places that interested her, the Middle East in the late 1960s, to Japan, to India, to Australia. Her last big trip was to China where she went on a tour in her 80s. She loved and was very good to her family, and over many years provided a home in Ottawa for nieces and nephews to land and be cared for while sorting life out. She didn’t hold back from giving her views which could be strongly expressed, but she was a great influence on them. She will be lovingly remembered by her sister Alice and by her nieces who spent many happy days with her in Ottawa and Vancouver.
Elizabeth moved to Vancouver in the early 1990s to be close to her dear siblings and their families. In 2009 she moved to the Arbutus Care Centre where she received very good care. She also received excellent care from her personal caregivers, Virginia Mallari and Erlinda Rigby. This is particularly true for Virginia who was with her for 12 years. The family is very grateful to both of them.