Nancy Oliver

Nancy Oliver

June 24, 1935 – September 5, 2020

Nancy, a teacher from Kirkcaldy, Scotland, immigrated to Slocan City,
B.C., in 1959. From there, she spent the next several years teaching in
Payne Bay and Fort Chimo, in northern Quebec, and Lake Harbour, N.W.T.
She was a house parent at the Grenfell Mission orphanage in
Newfoundland, and opened a school in Port Burwell, N.W.T. In 1965 she
enrolled in a nursing program at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London,
England, as a means to better help those in need. She then returned to
Canada and resumed working in the north.

After surviving a plane crash on the tundra, Nancy remained undaunted,
and eventually met her future husband, aircraft mechanic Don Oliver, on
a flight from Churchill to Igloolik. They had two children together and
lived in several communities across Canada before choosing Austin,
Manitoba, as a place to call home. Nancy taught there until her
retirement and then volunteered to teach in Poland, the Dominican
Republic, and Bulgaria.

Nancy enjoyed the quietly rewarding pursuit of gardening and meeting old
friends and new on her walks.

Nancy is interred by her husband in Brookdale Cemetery, Holland, Man.

Pioneer, teacher, nurse, mother, and friend – a life well lived.

“We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne.”
- Robert Burns