Gail was warm, gracious and energetic, bringing light and love to everyone. She passed peacefully away on July 7, 2022, at Toronto’s Bridgepoint Health Centre after living for almost two years with brain cancer.

Gail was born in Brandon, MB and moved with her parents to Vancouver as a toddler, where she grew up in the rooming house they ran for a time on West 11th Avenue. After she graduated from Eric Hamber Secondary School, she worked in the Bentall Centre as a receptionist. Gail married in 1970 and started a family, with daughter Cynthia and son Ashley coming along in the years that followed. Her children remember her constantly in motion, listening to music as she filled their home with good memories. She proudly said her two children were her best achievement, and the years raising them were her “happiest time.”

Gail was independent and very industrious, becoming a substitute mom for a succession of foreign exchange students (whose families would often visit and send gifts long after they returned home). She worked for more than 25 years as an administrator at Vancouver Montessori School and often spoke fondly of the hundreds of happy children she worked with year after year.

The 2020 pandemic found Gail visiting Toronto, where she decided to retire to spend more time with her children. The diagnosis of brain cancer that came after her move only slowed her temporarily. She quickly resumed enjoying gourmet meals, drinking a glass of California Cabernet, having good conversations, and dancing in the kitchen and backyard (Drake’s Toosie Slide was a particular favourite). As she kept cancer at bay, she was able to enjoy her daughter’s wedding in September 2021 (and was welcomed into her son-in-law’s extended Newfoundland family as one of their own). She was also delighted to greet her first grandchild, Cyra, born in February 2022, shortly before she was readmitted to the hospital for the last time.

Gail is predeceased by her mother, Elsie Mae Bonnett and father, Jack Wickert and leaves the following immediate family: Daughter Cynthia and husband Alex Gill; Son Ashley, fiancée Laleh Sadeghi and new granddaughter Cyra (all living in Toronto); and brother Dale Wickert (living in Garden Bay, BC). A wide range of friends and former co-workers will also miss Gail’s spirit and cherish their memories of her.

A memorial service will take place at the Mount Pleasant Funeral Centre (375 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Toronto, ON) on Thursday, July 14 at 1:45 PM, followed by lime margaritas, refreshments and a visit with the family. Online access via livestream is available at https://mountpleasantgroup.permavita.com/site/GailMaeFell.html?s=50. A gathering to share memories will be organized for Gail’s Vancouver friends and family at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to support dedicating a bench for Gail in Vancouver’s parks system (https://donate.vancouver.ca/Fell). And in recognition of the excellent palliative care she received at the end of her life, donations may be made to the Hennick Bridgepoint Foundation and designated to the Palliative Unit by calling 416-586-8203 or 1-877-565-8555.