ROBIN ANN WHEELER  23 October 1954 – 20 February 2012 Robin Wheeler, who passed peacefully at Shorncliff Hospice after a courageous year-long journey with cancer, was a beloved figure on the Coast.  A passionate advocate for sustainability, her legacy includes the One Straw Society, the School for Sustainable Living Arts, the Sunshine Coast Seed Collective, the Farm Food Freedom Fighters, a farmers market that later grew to become the Sechelt Farmer and Artisan Market and the Farm Gate Market. She was an excellent teacher and mentor of adults and children, training many people in sustainable agriculture, herbal arts and homesteading skills. An engaging speaker, she spoke widely on sustainability issues.    

Her books, Gardening for the Faint of Heart and Food Security for the Faint of Heart, continue to inspire readers. Robin’s sense of humour and generosity of spirit will long be remembered, and the seeds of creativity and the ideas that she so loved to plant have taken root and will continue to grow and thrive in her community.   Her philosophy was stated on the bumper sticker of her old truck – Be Subversive.  Buy Local Food.

Her family thanks Robin’s wonderful caregivers at VGH Palliative Care Unit and Shorncliff Hospice, and the many friends who supported her during her journey with visits, healings, food, flowers, music, prayers, meditation -- a tidal wave of love and a cloak of comfort that sustained her and touched her deeply. 

She will be missed by her parents Peggy and Ken Wheeler, her sisters Cat Wheeler and Beth Mowat, brother-in-law Tim Mowat, her nephews Tristan (Camilla), Trevor (Amy) and Jordan Mowat and her huge community of friends.

A memorial service will be held in North Vancouver at Boal Memorial Chapel in North Vancouver on Monday February 27th at 2pm.

Please join us for a Celebration of Robin’s Life on Sunday, March 4th at 3 pm at the Roberts Creek Hall.  Potluck meal begins at 5 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations to Shorncliff Hospice would be welcome.

The Sailing Ship

I am standing on the sea shore,
A ship sails in the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says:
"She is gone."
 
Gone! Where?
Gone from my sight that is all.
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I last saw her.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me,
not in her.
 
And just at the moment when I say,
"She is gone",
There are others, who stand on another shore, watching her coming, other voices that call out to welcome her.
 
Bishop Brent
1862 - 1926