What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare
Mary Taylor (née Phillips) died on 16 December 2023 in Vancouver. She is survived by her three daughters , Marita (Bill), Andrea (Ernst), and Alison; grandchildren Alex (Lora) and Julia (Matt), Patrick (Lisa) and Christopher; great grandchildren, Leia, Alex, Adela, Lucas, and Ethan; and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband, John (Jack), her older brother, Patrick, and her twin brother, Edmund.
Mary was born in London, in 1917. The family business was the preeminent Leicester Galleries, and she grew up surrounded by fine art, antiques, and music. Her zest for travel was kindled early: age 5 she set off to school at the Ursuline Convent, Waterford, Ireland. Her next stop, age 12, was St. Mary’s, Ascot, which fostered an enduring love of mathematics and poetry. After finishing school, she went to France as a jeune fille au pair, but this adventure was cut short by WWII.
During the war, she worked for the War Office in MI5, and later for the American Army. Over the course of her life, she never lost her powers of detection, nor her sharp mind. She loved to do the London Times crossword. Analysed in the time it took for a cup of coffee and two cigarettes, it was then completed, without further reference to the clues, in ink! Nights during the Blitz were spent with the Auxiliary Fire Service. Too small to handle a hose, she drove the big rigs. She met Jack during the war, a Canadian officer, stationed at Aldershot. Their 1943 London wedding was notable on two counts: a Wedding March was composed in her honour, by Frederic J Nettleford, a friend of her father’s; and, in highly-rationed London, she had a three-tier prewar style wedding cake from Canada with real icing, extraordinary for the time.
Mary came to Canada in 1946 as a war bride. Life in post-war Vancouver was very different from cosmopolitan London but she settled in quickly. Friends made playing golf, first at Fraserview then at McCleery, segued into bridge friends for life. Tennis was superseded by curling at the Arbutus Club with her husband. Summers were spent, first, at Woodlands, and then in Birch Bay.
She found her calling as a realtor, first with Canada Trust and then with Royal LePage, where she several times excelled as the top agent in Vancouver. But no amount of work dulled her enthusiasm for travel: all over Europe, Mexico, Japan, Russia, culminating with China, as she was determined to see The Three Gorges on the Yangtze River before they were flooded and lost forever. She loved the good things in life: wine and food; music and art; antiques and their pursuit, especially auctions. More than once, Jack was surprised with what she brought home.
She began to lose her sight in her 80s but that didn’t diminish her passion for travel: her last trip was taken solo, age 99, to visit Alison in Austria. The last few years of her life were difficult, marred by almost total loss of eyesight and covid restrictions. But her 105th birthday was celebrated in style, where she gave a wonderful toast to her family and friends.
31 August 1917 St John’s Wood, London, England — 16 December 2023, Vancouver, Canada
There will be no service at her request.