Elizabeth Gail Brimbecom

28 June, 1939 – 30 November, 2024

Surrounded by her family, Gail died peacefully at the Bowmanville hospital on Saturday, November 30, 2024, after a brief illness.

Elizabeth Gail Manson was born in Oshawa on June 28, 1939, to Allan and Mavis Manson, and trained as a nurse at Toronto Western Hospital. She married Bob Brimbecom, her husband of 59 years, in 1961, and took time off work to raise two children with him in Whitby. Gail returned to the workforce in community health before realizing her dream of attending the University of Toronto, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts. She then began a teaching career at Durham College, where she helped train a generation of nurses while earning a master's degree in education in her spare time.

Gail was a life-long member of Westminster United Church in Whitby, where she first employed her considerable musical talents as the church organist and later became a pioneer in the establishment of parish nursing in Canada. Parish nursing became her passion, and she was recognized for her work by the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, the Canadian Nurses Association, and Victoria University at the University of Toronto, which granted her an honorary doctorate in 2006.

After Bob's dementia-related death in 2021, Gail turned her energy toward supporting friends and acquaintances living with dementia. She continued to throw herself into committee work at her church, where she helped lead initiatives on social justice, Indigenous truth and reconciliation, climate change, and creating welcoming spaces for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Gail was predeceased by her sister, Lynn Douglas, and will be greatly missed by her sister Trudy (Tony), her children Lori (Doug) and Barry (Barbara), her grandchildren Natalie (Travis), Teddy, Alexandra, Bridget, Allan, and Diana, and the many people whose lives she touched.

Visitation will be held at Courtice Funeral Chapel, 1587 Hwy. 2, Courtice, Ont. (905-432-8484) on Friday, December 6 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

A second visitation will be held at Westminster United Church, 1850 Rossland Rd. E., Whitby, Ont., on Saturday, December 7 at 1 p.m., followed by a celebration of her life at 2 p.m. Refreshments will be served afterward. The service will also be livestreamed; details will be available on the Courtice Funeral Chapel website.

Gail was an avid traveller who delighted in meeting people from places and cultures around the world, and was possibly Canada’s most vocal promoter of the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. But her heart remained in Muskoka, where she spent as much time as she could at the lake in Utterson where her ancestors from Scotland settled in the 19th century.

The family would like to express deep gratitude to Gail’s caregivers at the Bowmanville hospital, who treated her with extraordinary compassion, dignity, and respect.

Gail had a keen appreciation for acts of kindness. She also loved flowers but would no doubt have encouraged anyone who wants to honour her memory to instead make a donation to Westminster United Church, the Alzheimer Society of Canada, or any other charity.

Memories and notes of condolence may be shared at Courtice Funeral Chapel.