Pat Leach
30 January, 1920 ~ 17 October, 2015
We are sad to announce the death of Pat Leach. She passed away peacefully on October 17 at Eagleview Lodge on Saturday 17th October. She lived a long and full life. Despite leaving school at fourteen she was a perpetual student, enrolling in night courses throughout her life. During WWII she was a nursing aid, later changing her focus to work with young children. This in turn ultimately led her to apply for and be accepted at teaching training college and a long and rewarding career teaching English language and English literature at high school level. Along the way she also taught English to E.S.L. students and for many years was a qualified Red Cross first aid and CPR instructor. She loved the outdoors, enjoyed camping and was also an expert kayaker, racing for England at an international level. Her winter evenings were spent knitting beautiful icelandic sweaters, doing tapestries, playing Scrabble or totally immersed in crossword puzzles.
Pat was predeceased by her parents James and Charlotte Redmond and by her two older sisters, Kathleen and Doreen. In 1991 Pat lost her beloved husband, Leonard, to whom she was married for almost fifty years. Increasingly lonely without him she took the brave step at age 81 of emigrating from England to Canada to live with her daughter, Mary, and son-in-law, Vic, a decision she never regretted. Her presence and sense of humour will be much missed by Mary and Vic, her friends here in Canada, and by her son Peter and his wife, Sue, in England.
Pat was cremated and her ashes returned to England where, in accordance with her wishes, they will be scattered where she and Len honeymooned and where too his ashes were scattered on the cliffs overlooking the beach at Perranporth in Cornwall.
Sincere thanks are extended to Dr. Potter Cogan, VIHA Home Support Services and the staff of Eagleview for their devoted care and support during Pat’s last years.
A funeral Mass will be said for Pat in the new chapel at St. Joseph’s Hospital at llam 14th November 2015, followed by a reception at 661 Woodland Drive, Comox. In lieu of flowers a donation to the Canadian S.P.C.A. or the Salvation Army would be appreciated.