6 - Sunday, December 4, 1988 - North Shore News Miarion’s long love affair with living THE GRAND OLD LADY of Park Royal Towers is ten- ding other gardens now. At least, that’s how I’ll always like to think of Marion Lambie who died peacefully in her high-rise home last Monday. We last talked on July 29 when 1 called to wish her Happy Birthday. Hard to betieve, it was her 101st. A year earlier, when she joined the ‘‘century club,”’ this column had told her eventful life story in some detail. The Scots lassie born near Edinburgh in Queen Vic- toria’s Golden Jubilee year who, at 24, followed her immigrant brother to his Manitoba farm. Off soon, however, to the bright lights of Toronto and a law office job, kicking up her heels and having ‘the time of my life.’” So much so that her worried mom crossed the Atlantic to have a serious talk with daughter and pack her off back to the rural respectability of the Prairies! Twice married, she also developed close ties with the U.S. She was already in her 60s when her second husband, naval ar- chitect William Lambie, took her to live in Los Angeles for 23 years. When she was 74 they had a six- ...life was to MARION Lambie enjoy. Alarming month trip around the world and after William died she stayed on with his family in California for another 10 years before returning to Canada and settling in West Van in 1973. She lived on her own, though she had a sister-in-law on the floor below. Her tastefully furnished sixth-storey suite was spotlessly maintained, with only occasional help from a cleaning lady. Boxes of loving!y cultivated flowers and shrubs, including her special pride, a rose bush, filled her long balcony ‘garden,’ But her most striking quality was her pure zest for living, her belief that life is meant to be enjoyed. It showed — and it rubb- ed off on those who knew her. At 100, her talk, her mind and her movements could have belonged to a woman 30 years younger, and the reward was her wide circle of friends here. When suddenly the pains struck, Marion refused to enter hospital. Life meant her home and there she would hold on to it to the end. For this happy, life-loving, much miss- ed lady it was the obvious final choice. wet SCRATCHPAD: More four-legg- ed ‘‘eyes’’ for the blind, thanks to $5,000 donated by the Independent Order of Foresters (with its 600 North Shore members) to Cana- dian Guide Dogs, Vancouver Branch. IOF Chief Ranger Evelyn Coulter and treasurer Frank Morris — accompanied by blind North Van IOF member Joan Billesberger and her dog ‘‘Babs’’ — presented CGD administrator Situation dedeviliing West Vancouver Police should not Te ALARMING number of false alarm calis be considered a reasonable cost inherent in an Dee Elliott with the cheque at the recent CGD annual meeting ... New director of Cap College’s commercial music department is trombonist Rejean Marois. Former teacher of concert, stage band and vocal jazz in Quebec, he’s a fre- quent music festival adjudicator and has been on worldwide enter- tainment tours for UN peacekeep- ing troops ... Seeking long-lost sisters and a brother is Brian Lewis of Penetanguishene, Ont. If Lewis siblings Elizabeth Martha, 26, Gary William, 25 and/or Kathleen Eileen, 23 — all born at the Grace Hospital, Ottawa — are out there anywhere and would like to con- tact brother Brian, please call me at The News ... Apologies from our word processor for hiccupping during the page 13 item in last Sunday's Lynn Valley Echo on Sid and Irene Rockey. Their 60th an- niversary open house is set for the evening of Dec. 22 — NOT Dec. 18 ... And more of the same to North Van librarians Muriel Mason and Bette Cannings whose names were accidentally switched in the caption to Jast Sunday's photo — Muriel is the middle lady. ane WRIGHT OR WRONG: People who think they know it all are a real pain in the neck to those of us who really do. “Photo submitted “EYES”? FOR THE BLIND...IOF’s Frank Mortis presents cheque to (Ieft) Canadian Guide Dogs administrator Dee Elliott; looking on, (left to right) IOF’s Evelyn Colter, Joan Billesberger with her dog ‘‘Babs’’ and CGD national president Bil! Thornton. See column item. impioved, privately-initiated level of home and business security protection. The fact that only two alarm calls responded to by police during a period between Aug. 1, 1987 and July 31, 1988 were legitimate, and an incredible 2,625 for the same period were false alarms, is an appalling state of affairs. The overall security of citizens of West Vancouver is regularly compromised by the daily depletion of polic- ing manpower on time misspent chasing after securi- ty-breaching ghosts. Who’s to blame? According to police, the blame may be shouldered by those unfamiliar with the work- ings of their own alarm systems and some fly-by-night alarm company operators, who install inadequate equipment and then back it with less-than-adequate monitoring support. If you already have an alarm system in place, make sure everyone who comes in to contact with it is famil- iar with its operation. And if you are planning on in- stalling one, make sure you get a qualified, licensed company to do the job. There are many local and properly-licensed alarm companies operating which will install the correct hardware to do the job and back it with sufficient monitoring support. In many U.S. cities, police have coped with runaway false alarm calls by refusing to respond to them at all. Alarm companies have filled the void with armed rent-a-cops. We have yet to realize the realm of rule- by-quasi-police, but the scenario is not unrealistic if the current trend continues unabated. Publisher ........... Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher Associate Editor ..... Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedute 111. Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published gach Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the Nerth Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3685. Subscriptions No#th and West Vancouver, $25 per year Mailing tates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we ‘cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, adaressed envelope. 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