*************** LIVE STREAM WILL COMMENCE AT 1:00 PM***********

If you are unable to attend Marion's Celebration of Life in person at Calvary Church on Feb. 3rd 2024 at 1pm, we hope you will join us via the Live Stream at the same time. Please copy & paste the following link on any browser at this web address:

LIVE STREAM WEBSITE ADDRESS: https://youtube.com/live/Bki1B_IMlOU
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Marion Dowdell was born on December 4, 1925, in Winthrop Mass., a seaside New England town just north of Boston. Her parents, Florence and Frank Ross, owned a large old house and along with Marion’s two brothers, Rick and Bob, many extended family lived with them, including grandparents, a maiden aunt and a bachelor uncle. Every summer Marion journeyed to Waterborough, New Brunswick with her mother, grandfather, and brothers to the farm of her mother’s family. She enjoyed spending the summer months there, a practice which continued into her college and university days. Marion had many wonderful memories of these trips, her grandparents, and simple farm life in the thirties.

As a young girl, Marion spent hours in the ocean with her brothers and friends, and at about 12 years old, developed an ear infection which became quite severe. As there were no antibiotics available, it worsened to Mastoiditis, then became meningitis, and Marion was not expected to live. She was given the newly discovered Sulfa drugs, which she believes saved her life, and without which she would not have survived. Marion made her decision to ask Jesus to be her Saviour after listening to a radio program, the “Old Fashioned Gospel Hour”, and believing the gospel. She soon contacted some missionaries from Somalia who were home in Winthrop at that time. Marion visited these friends often, and there met her lifelong friend Edith Shupe.

When the war broke out, Marion worked in a munitions factory before going to Gordon College of Theology and Missions, with the intention of going out as a missionary. She graduated with a BA in 1947, and began nurses’ training right away, at the New England Baptist Hospital. Here she met another lifelong friend, Marion Emery. Marion and her husband Alan took on Marion’s support. During her years of nurses’ training, Marion started attending Park Street Church, and met many missionaries. Attending the yearly Park Street Missionary Conference became the highlight of the year for her at that time, and in later years, while on furlough from Africa, a source of immense blessing. She obtained her RN in 1951, and she and her friend Edith applied to SIM for Africa. Marion was accepted to go to Nigeria, her friend to Ethiopia. She became a Park Street missionary, and was pledged full support very quickly, from Marion Emery.

Soon after, Marion said good-bye to her parents and headed for Nigeria by ship, landing in Lagos several weeks later. Her first job was language learning, followed by running a Leprosy Clinic, then a large Dispensary and Maternity Clinic, and running the OR even before the hospital had been built. Marion and Howard met soon after this and were married in 1954.

Marion continued to work as a nurse in Nigeria, and she and Howard had four sons. They also worked together in Niger and Liberia, for many years, before returning to Canada, to work at SIM headquarters in Toronto. Their many friends at Calvary Church supported them, including Jack and Marie Boddy who remained good friends all their lives.

During her retirement years, Marion became a good friend to many new Canadians from all parts of the world, but especially Africa. Her kindness and generosity benefitted many. During the last years at Shepherd Gardens Marion was very happy and in good health until very recently. Towards the end she was ready and eager to go home to her Father in heaven.