Crabtree, Joan

1925-2024

Devoted wife, daughter, and auntie. A lover of children, all dogs, Queen and Country

Joan Crabtree, of Nelson BC., passed away peacefully in her sleep at ninety-nine years of age at her residence at Mountain Lakes long term care facility. Thank you to all the staff at Mountain Lakes for their kind care of Joan while she resided there.

Born in England to Earnest and Elizabeth Bluett, Joan endured the affects of World war II as a teenager. Before the war was over, as a young women Joan eventually joined the war effort working on a factory line that made aircraft altimeters.

In the early 1950’s, Joan left all she knew as home and country and immigrated to Canada.

Arriving in Nelson, and reuniting with her uncle and cousins, Joan found employment at the Ministry of Forests in 1955. During her 15 years of service with the forestry, she made some life long friends along the way and met her future husband, Ralph Crabtree.

Ralph and Joan were married in 1966, and while not having any children of their own, they often found themselves entertaining the children in their extended family and those in the two neighbourhoods of Nelson in which they lived.

A good number of those children, along with their parents as well, remember those times with great fondness and remained life long friends of both Joan and her husband, Ralph.

Ralph introduced Joan to the great outdoors and natural beauty Canada has to offer and Joan quickly developed a love of BC’s wildlife and wilderness.

Joan became very fond of the outdoors and all the associated activities, and she loved to travel, camp, hike, and bird watch. All of these activities were shared with the family dogs in tow.

After Joan’s decision to leave her employment for health reasons, her and Ralph’s shared love for animals, and especially dogs, saw Joan begin her own adventure of dog ownership. Many a happy time, as well as the inevitable times of frustration and sorrow were spent caring for the dogs in their life.

Joan also enjoyed a foray into beekeeping, and as usual, life long friends were made as a result of times spent together with the folks she met in the honeybee culture.

Joan had a typically English sense of dry humour, driven by good wit and flavoured with a bit of sarcasm. Joan also loved the English Royal Family, especially adoring the Queen. She could always be found standing in the greeting line at every opportunity, as members of the Royal family would attend events in the Kootenays.

Joan’s love of animals also extended to horses and she and Ralph made many trips to Spruce Meadows for the show jumping events.  In their many travels across both the prairie provinces and on to the east coast of Canada, RV trailer in tow, and at least one dog, if not two, on Joan’s lap, there was always a stop or two that involved viewing horses either working or on parade.

Their travels also took them to the US, travelling both coasts and into the desert states for the winter for a few seasons of snow birding. Nelson would always draw them home however, with a great longing for their home, friends, family and the natural beauty of the area.

After Ralph’s passing in 2006, Joan devoted less time to the outdoors and more time to her love of two sports, English football and golf.

It was her father who introduced her to English football as he took Joan to the local clubs matches in Liverpool as a young girl. They would often be riding the tram back home after the match accompanied by the stars of the era, who at that time in history, were working class folks just like the fans in the stands.

From her home in Canada, Joan was usually up early on Saturday mornings to watch the matches for the day and was always in the know about the modern era English Premier League football clubs and the players antics both on the pitch and off.

Joan was almost equally fascinated with pro golf and like English football, routinely followed the players lives both on and off the course.

After Ralph’s passing, which was quite hard on her, and her brief battle with cancer, Joan developed a greater appreciation for the friends she had made over the years as she relied on them heavily in Ralph’s absence.

Joan having a soft spot for children is a bit of an understatement and this translated into her financial support of two important causes for children in BC. Joan generously gave to both the BC Children’s Hospital and locally to Nelson Friends of the Family.

At 99 years of age Joan has not any peer aged friends left to mourn her passing but arguably due to her love of children she has made some great younger friends who along with her family will miss her greatly.

If you are considering commemorating Joan’s life in some way, please consider giving to either of her two favourite children’s causes as a meaningful way to do that.

A celebration of life will be held for Joan on Wednesday, the 16^th of October at the Prestige Lakeside Resort in Nelson, at 2:00 PM. After this time together, Joan’s ashes will be placed in the Crabtree memorial plot at the Nelson Cemetery.