Elizabeth Jean Kilby

April 19, 1951 – November 4, 2021

 Our beloved Elizabeth Jean Kilby (nee Ingram) slipped away peacefully on the morning of November 4^th, 2021, after a sudden, brief re-encounter with cancer. She leaves to cherish her memory her loving husband of 49 years, Perry, daughter Katherine, son Daniel (Tara), sisters Robin, Janet (Carl), brothers Chuck (Lynn) and Bill (Barb), brothers-in-law Dan (Mim), Mark, sister-in-law Christine, a niece, several nephews, many friends and neighbours, and last and most treasured, her beloved granddaughter, Isla, age one year. Your Nana loves you forever, Sweetheart.

Elizabeth was a mystic, healer, explorer, wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She loved to dance, play with paints, jump in puddles, and explore new frontiers of all kinds. Elizabeth readily became expert at whatever challenge was at hand, teaching herself accounting, computer programming, house building, homesteading, arts & crafts, how to overthrow a workforce-exploiting ski resort in New Zealand (during the 10 days she worked there), run a community water system, reform a condo association, and edit and publish her husband Perry’s first novel – among so many, many other things. She met him while working as a featured dancer in a Klondike review show in Dawson City, Yukon. Two years later they were married, and in their early twenties, she showed her love of travel by backpacking around the world with Perry. They crossed Asia through Afghanistan and Iran in a small Mercedes bus and on public transport, and only slept on brothel floors and in ditches a few times. After living and working in Kamloops for many rewarding years, they moved to White Rock to be closer to family.

Elizabeth was an accomplished dancer and had a life-long fascination with movement and the subtleties of the human body. She trained in multiple healing modalities, distilling the knowledge of a lifetime into a practice uniquely her own. She learned Tai Chi and Qi Gong and many forms of meditation. She loved ballet, the theatre and singing show tunes (she remembered the words or the tune, never both). She loved spending time by the ocean, daffodils, warm weather, and sunshine. She was an impatient artist and knitter, the novelty of any project wearing off after about 20 minutes. This was her sole, and a very tiny, imperfection.

Elizabeth’s serenity, wisdom and kindness were lodestones for everyone who knew her. To journey with her was our greatest blessing. She will be greatly missed but will never be far away. She was our Northern Dancer, and though her candle has gone out, we will dance in her reflected light, always.