August 25, 1953 - December 11, 2023
In loving memory ~
R.I.P.
Since 1997, Carol Allen did the research for and much of the writing for the Canadian Immigration Hotline.
At 3:55 a.m., December 11, Carol passed away from terminal lung cancer. She'd been given six months to live. She lasted nine. She was a brave, gentle fighter. Ten days before her death in Penticton, B.C., she was felled by a massive stroke. Her brother, this editor and loyal friends comforted her in her final days.
Carol Allen (nee Munawych) was born in Vancouver and grew up in Edmonton. She also studied for a semester in Ottawa. Her father Alex worked on construction projects in the Arctic for some years. Her mother was a talented artist. Carol lived in Frobisher Bay, Hay River and several other places in the Arctic. She was one of the first women to have a commercial fishing licence in the NWT. Later, she travelled to Greece and, being very poor at the time, supported herself picking oranges and winning the trust and interest of the Greek people in Crete.
Carol was highly intelligent and diligent in following and documenting stories. One of her favourite adverbs was "instantly."
After moving to Toronto in the 1980s, she became a talented pastry chef. All her life, Carol developed and perfected her cooking skills and cherished a copy of Larousse Gastronomique.
Carol was an avid gardener, both in Toronto and later in Penticton, B.C. For a decade, she was the highly organized, creative President of the Penticton Community Garden Society. During her tenure, she had to manage the highly fractious personalities who comprised the gardeners. She won a $10,000 grant from a major Canadian corporation and almost singlehandedly constructed a hillside garden stocked with British Columbia native wildflowers.
Carol loved and cherished Nature. She delighted in the flocks of California quail scurrying around her Keremeos home. When living in Naramata, she was famous for feeding ducks and resident peacocks. She loved Ravens and the loud Stellar's Jays which frequently visited her yard.
For 29 years, Carol was my confidant, co-worker and best friend. She was a beautiful, talented and insightful woman. I miss her and love her. - Paul Fromm paul@paulfromm.com
Remembering Carol
Stellar's Jay
A plump Stellar's Jay
Perched on bouncing blue pine bough --
Carol's favourite.
Scratching Log
Tea Cozy's, then Parsnip's
Long scratching log whittled down
Is gone like Carol.
Carol'd Flickers
Will her belov'd Flickers
Perch in thin skeletal pine
--Orange crests? She's gone!
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