Crooks, Margery Jean (MacLean) – Age 90, beloved daughter of the late Margaret (Fraser) and A. Frank MacLean, died, enfolded by love, May 1, 2022 in Truro.
Avid reader and award-winning student, Margery was salutatorian for the graduating class of Sydney Academy in 1949. She then studied arts and played varsity basketball at Dalhousie University, graduating with a BA in 1952. Finally, she studied at the Maritime School of Social Work, taking multiple prizes there before heading into the work force in 1953.
In 1956, Margery married Robert A. Crooks, her lifelong love and partner in all things. For the next 40 years, she sewed her passion for social work and community outreach seamlessly into the fabric of his ministry in their beloved United Church of Canada. She worked for departments of Child Welfare, Mental Health and Social Services in four different provinces. Active in the social mission of every congregation in which her husband, Bob served, she volunteered with libraries, seniors, refugees, those in palliative care and those living with cancer. At the same time, she raised a family of four children into which she welcomed partners and friends in the same spirit of love and generosity that she had already welcomed the partners and friends of her four brothers.
Margery leaves an extended family deep in mourning and thanksgiving: her children, Jamie (Willa), Cathie, Chrissie (Robert) and Tim (Alison) – and her grandchildren, Bill and Sam, Sydney and Jackson, Whitney, Ellis and N’Kysha, and Lily. She also leaves brothers, Ian, Sandy (Lila), Hugh (Norma) and Alan (Alison); brother-in-law, Roland (Jean); sister-in-law, Marilyn, and 17 nieces and nephews.
Anyone who knew Marge will remember her dedication to fitness (walking/yoga), her abiding interest in the lives and activities of others, her resolute open-heartedness, and the unassailable bedrock of her Christian faith – a sliding scale of everyday disciplines beginning with the body and ending with the divine. For her children, the ‘flower’ in the ‘bulb’ of those everyday disciplines was nothing less than the adult worlds we live in. It’s no exaggeration to say that the social, intellectual and spiritual engagements that have given our lives meaning grew up, one and all, in the garden she cultivated. On her final day, we saw the bounty of that garden one last time. God in front of her and family at her side, she departed earthly life awash in love without so much as a hint of fear, despair or regret.
Funeral service will take place Tuesday, June 7th at 2:00 p.m. in First United Church, Truro. Please note that masks and physical distancing will be required.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Margery’s memory may be made to The First United Church Restoration Fund, Truro, The United Church Camp Meeting Association (Berwick Camp), and/or Phoenix Youth Programs, Halifax.
Arrangements are under the direction of Arimathea Funeral Cooperative, Upper Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia.
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