Mildred Alice Curtis (neé Pilgrim)
Sept 12, 1926- Jan 18, 2017
Alice died peacefully at home, age 90, after a long struggle with corticobasal degeneration. She was predeceased by her parents, James Pilgrim and the former Bertha Lidtke of Palmer Rapids, Ontario, her husband, James Edward Curtis, her half brother, Vaughn Pilgrim and her granddaughter, Laura Margaret Woodside. She is survived by her children Anne (Blake Woodside), Carol (Victor Budgell) and Bruce (Wendy Turner), her grandchildren Malcolm, Fraser and Owen Woodside and Katie (Jonathan Harrison) and Matthew (Samantha DeBaie) Budgell , her great grandson Elijah Budgell, her brothers Edwin (Ruth) and John (Betty) Pilgrim and her sisters Freda (the late Murriell Mantifel) and Marlene (Norman Miller).
Alice was a schoolteacher, and then a housing inspector in the Royal Canadian Air Force, before marrying and moving to Mount Hanley, Nova Scotia where she and Jim had a farm and raised sheep and cattle. She had a large garden and was always busy preserving, baking and quilting. She loved to read and enjoyed book tapes from the CNIB when she was no longer well enough to read on her own. She spent her last 5 years with her daughter in Toronto after falling and breaking her hip and bravely coped with her ongoing neurologic decline. Thanks to her caregivers Josie, Carla, Para and Leni.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust (nsnt.ca), Amnesty International (amnesty.ca) or the CNIB (cnib.ca) would be appreciated.