Ila McRae CAMPBELLTON, NB - We announce with sadness the death of our mother, Ila McRae, in her 82nd year, on January 9, 2005. In recent years she gave up many interests and activities, but her life was characterized by her boundless energy and by her commitment to her family, her life long friends and her community. She was born in Campbellton to Stanley Firlotte and Violet Blaikie. Just out of high school herself, she taught in a one room school house in Broadlands, Quebec before going into nurses training at the Montreal General Hospital. She graduated in 1948 and promptly married Bill who had courted her throughout WW II and her training. Together for the next 47 years, they raised five children, almost as many poodles and hundreds of bushels of vegetables in the garden at their beloved Pt La Nim cottage. Ila and Bill made a mark on their community of Campbellton. When Bill became mayor for the first of three terms in 1971, Ila became a gracious hostess to city counselors, premiers, and lieutenant governors often charming visiting dignitaries with gifts of home grown tomatoes and home made preserves. She was part of the group that brought Theatre New Brunswick to Campbellton in the 1970s working tirelessly to sell subscriptions and build an audience. A great supporter of local artists, she was most proud of her role in the creation of the Restigouche Gallery. An avid reader, she wrote a book review column for the Centennial Library for several years. For many more years she delivered Meals on Wheels, worked with the United Church Women, volunteered at blood donor clinics and organized the art gallery garage sales. Both Ila and Bill were honored to be listed among 100 influential Campbelltonians during the centenary of the city. She fed the hitchhikers Bill brought home each summer. She looked forward each year to a full table at Christmas. She was a tireless gardener who generously shared the plants she started in her greenhouse each spring and the harvest her gardens produced each fall. Her green thumb and Bill's determination to plant yet another row made her grown children protest at the sheer volume of beans to be picked. Her years of genealogy work left her family richer in ancestors as she charted generations of Blaikies, Firlottes, Downs and McRaes. She was a generous supporter of many causes. She was a loyal friend. She will be missed by her Montreal General pals who she saw regularly, by the friends she and Bill made in over 20 years of visiting Mexico, by the Campbellton friends she shared the comings and goings of life with. She was predeceased by her husband, William T (Bill) McRae and by her sister, Vera Reith. She leaves her children, Rick, Lissa, Cristie, Kilby and Billee; her daughter-in-law, Elaine Thompson; sons-in-law, Bill Robson, Dwight Dionne and Greg Leger; her grandchildren, Jesse and Justin McRae, Julia and Christopher Dionne, Tom and Polly Leger, and Catherine and Mathieu Myre; her sisters, Joyce St Jean (Ottawa), Beryl Mundle (Calgary); brothers, Bob Firlotte and his wife, Doris (Scarborough, Ont), Cameron Firlotte and his wife, Noni (Abbotsford, BC); her step mother, Margaret Firlotte (Campbellton); her sisters-in-law, Mary Jane McRae (Campbellton), Joan McRae (Ottawa) and brother and sister-in-law, Jack and Helen McRae (Toronto); her cousins, Marion Dunville and Doug Firlotte and many nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held Friday at 11am at the First United Church, Campbellton followed by a reception at the church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to any children's charity, the United Church or the Parkinson's Foundation of Canada.