April 29, 1938 – January 19, 2023
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother and grandmother (Nina). Marilyn is survived by sons Graham (Fiona Narod), Ted (Erika), and grandchildren Duncan (Emma), Alasdair (Petra), Carolyn and Wes. She was predeceased by her brother Ronald Jones.
Marilyn was born and raised in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. Her early days were spent in the house on Powerhouse Road and the family cabin at Kye Bay. She married Tom Simms in 1958 at St. Andrews Church on Mission Hill and they started their lives in Vancouver. Marilyn went on to live in many other cities across Canada: Halifax, Toronto, Calgary, and Victoria. After her divorce in 1988, she returned to the Comox Valley and her beloved Kye Bay for the next 30 years. She spent the last 3 years of her life in North Vancouver to be closer to her sons.
Marilyn loved to travel, taking trips/cruises to Europe, the Caribbean, South East Asia, Japan, and Alaska. She also loved to shop and took great pride in her fashionable wardrobe. Marilyn was an accomplished writer, obtaining her Creative Writing degree from UVic in 1994 and writing for local publications in the Valley. But her main passion was the house she built at Kye Bay. She decorated it with First Nations art and loved to share it with family and friends. Even after she moved out, she loved to hear of her sons, grandkids, and family members visiting and enjoying the house and beach as she had.
A Celebration of Life will be held later this year in the Comox Valley.
3 Comments
Helen and JamesTurner
We had the privilege and pleasure of spending time with Marilyn at Kye Bay. We will remember her as a bright, gracious and generous lady with intellect, wit and an endearing smile and laugh. Condolences to all the family. Much credit goes to her sons who showed such love, caring and dedication to her through to her final days.
Marianne Henriksson
Marilyn was my dear friend and neighbour in Kye Bay and beyond. She shaped and enriched my life there with her zest for life, for company. We spent many a winter evening playing Scrabble and she usually beat me. She loved movies and theatre, the arts in any form. Her tireless work and support in helping to obtain sewer and water services in Kye Bay and later with establishing a building development plan. She was a presence and force to be reckoned with. Rest now, Marilyn. I love you and will miss you.
Martin Crilly
Valerie and I knew Marilyn as a fine, generous neighbour and stalwart community-minded leader in Kye Bay, which she enthusiastically saw and supported as the playground of the Comox Valley. After she returned to live there in the late 80s, she served as a director of the Kye Bay Improvement District, a body that owned and operated our street lights and a focal point for community interests. She began writing a regular Kye Bay news sheet, printed at her own expense and personally delivered to her neighbours’ doorsteps. A talented writer, she researched and wrote articles on Comox Valley personalities and issues that were published in local media. She kept up with local politics and knew the scene, notably the personalities of local elected and staff officials. She kept files on a variety of topics of interest to Kye Bay — most importantly on sanitation. On this issue she was instrumental in defining and publicizing the problem (i.e. septage seeping into wells and onto the foreshore, causing a long term boil-water order, a development freeze and stinky summers) and guiding the effort to fix it (joining Comox and funding sewer and water pipes to the regional network through a community vote), which task took the best part of the decade through 2003. In this effort her political judgment and convictions were critical in bringing the $3 million project to Kye Bay: current generations are indebted to her leadership for their enjoyment of homes, the clean and sweet-smelling beach, and the preservation of Kye Bay’s environment. Well done and thank you, to a very fine lady indeed.