Mary Ann Helen Nye

Mary passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of August 13th, 2024 at the age of 85.

Beloved wife of the late Herbert Nye. Loving mother to Gord (Laura), Herb (Anna), and Rebecca (Garth). Dear grandmother to Joshua, Adrienne (Craig), Lydia (Brad), and Jacob. Great grandmother to, Jordan, Sterling, and Maya. Mary lived out her faith in Jesus Christ with the assurance that to be absent from the body, was to be present with the Lord. Hers was a life committed to learning and service.

To the staff and residents of Whispering Pines, the doctors and staff of the Royal Victoria Hospital, and mom’s church family at HiWay Pentecostal Church; thank you for being a part of mom’s journey — and ours. We are thankful and grateful for your friendship, support and love. Despite the sadness of our loss, this has been a beautiful chapter in our lives.

Mary’s life was definitely a life more lived than endured. Mary and her brother Bob were born and raised in Kingston, Ontario. Her father was an Irish immigrant, Kingston Penitentiary guard and WWII veteran. Her mother, a nurse at the Kingston Mental Hospital. It goes without saying that when it came to judging character and detecting nonsense her parents were quick and sure. These were indeed different times. 

While Mary still in high school she decided that she wanted to get married and be a homemaker — the rest would sort itself out along the way. 

At the age of eighteen Mary married a soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces, left her childhood home in Kingston, was posted to Vancouver, and started a family. 

Eleven years later, nine moves, three children, a rededication of her life to her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — life was never boring. If you said it was, you were sent out with a one quart Tupperware jug and told to not come home until it was filled with wild blueberries. Have you ever picked wild blueberries in a black fly, horse fly, deer fly, mosquito infested forest in Petawawa? Lesson learned.

Okay, so the bugs were bad, but the berries were great! As a committed homemaker, mom learned and loved to sew, knit, cook, bake and make preserves. Our family benefited greatly by her labours of love — and kitchen experiments. While most were delicious, a few along the way were “character builders”.

With a serious appetite for reading and learning, mom loved to read and study her bible, the Mitzvot, and the Midrash. She wore her heart on her sleeve and lived her faith. Rarely did she miss an opportunity to share her love of God in word or song. Mom’s piano lessons as a young person served her well, but she found an accordion was easier to take camping. 

From time to time mom worked outside the home sometimes in retail, but also at the parole board in Kingston and Base Medical Supply in Calgary. But her passion was the Word of God. She volunteered in the life of every church we attended, singing, teaching and tending to the church library.

Moving as much as we did wasn’t always easy, but if you let it, and she did, you can learn how to keep old friends, make new friends, and to grow where you are planted. 

For the last few decades Barrie was home to mom. She grew where she was planted, volunteered at HiWay Church, read, studied, led small groups, taught, made many friends, and loved them.

She would say, “The day will come when…” then, she would plan and prepare. 

In May of 2016 mom moved into Whispering Pines, and she never regretted a moment of it. Whispering Pines was her home, she made the chapel her church and made some new friends and neighbours.

In the closing days of her life mom would simply say, “I’m ready…” and pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” And she slept. And He did.

If you wish, a donation may be made in Mary's name to the Salvation Army.