Fraser, Lisa Charlotte – Lisa, aged 42, died suddenly on Sunday and we mourn her passing immensely.
She leaves behind a devastated husband, Ben; and two wonderful, amazing daughters, Edith, 10 and Lucy, 6. She was the center of our world, the person who had a vision of what she wanted for her life and family and she made it happen.
She was born in Calgary and grew up in the lower mainland of BC. She went back to Calgary for university and since then, she lived and worked all around the world, with significant stops in Ethiopia, Australia, Scotland, and back to Coquitlam before discovering the eastern shore of Nova Scotia a couple of years ago.
She leaves behind an extended and wonderfully complicated family who have all shaped her into the incredible woman she was. She loved and meant the world to Lionel, Carol, Tracy, Danny, Greg, Sharra, Bob and Gaye and all of their extended families. She was an only child who got to have seven siblings. Tadd, Shane, Dax, Jake, Layne, James and Nicole.
Lisa worked at HSBC Canada for the last 15 years and really embraced her career in banking. She loved being involved in the investigation of financial crime. Very few things gave her more pleasure than figuring out what a dodgy person was doing with their account. She loved conducting internal interviews and catching someone in a lie. She was mentored by some amazing colleagues and got a great deal of satisfaction at being able to pass on her experience and expertise to others along the way.
Lisa first came to Nova Scotia on a summer road trip vacation in 2021 and we fell in love with it immediately. We went back to BC and immediately tried to figure out how we could move here to live and raise the girls. In the spring of 2022, we bought a house on Lake Echo without ever viewing it in person. We sold our place, packed up the kids, the car and dogs and drove across the country to start a new life in a new community we had never been to before, where we didn’t know a soul. We hoped for a change in life, and for the girls to grow up in a place they could call home. It’s been almost 2 years and we have been welcomed in a way we could never have anticipated. This was the happiest Lisa has ever been. She was often an intensely private person, and yet here she wanted to be involved. In the people and the work of the Lioness club, Bell Park Elementary, Orenda Canoe Club, she found something that she wanted to be part of. She had found her forever home.
Lisa loved to be creative and make things, and her home is filled with her artwork, her exquisite hand-sewn quilts, Halloween costumes and Christmas decorations, straw hats made from dried grass from the backyard, with jars of jams and kimchi lining the cupboards and bread baking in the oven. Martinique beach held a special place in her heart, a place that no matter the weather or the time of year she loved to walk and pick up sea glass or driftwood or discarded lobster floats.
She loved being around, in and on Lake Echo. The ever-changing tapestry full of birds, muskrats, ice and snow, sunrises, floods, fog and hurricanes. Summer days floating on the MV Holiday Island, paddling around to friends and neighbour’s yards from the kayak or going for a reinvigorating Penguin Plunge swim on New Years Day. She planted fruit and nut trees in the yard overlooking the water that will keep her memory and vision alive long after the rawness of her leaving us mellows.
She was the center our life, an intelligent, kind and caring mother, daughter, wife and friend.
Lisa’s life was filled with joy and fun and a Celebration of her Life will be held on February 2nd, 2024 at the Lake Echo Community Centre from 4 until 7 p.m.
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