ST. GEORGE - Outgoing and generous by nature, Anna McLean doted on eight grand kids and four great-grandchildren.
But she was anything but the stereotypical grandma who sits at home and knits.
"(Mom) always liked to be on the go," Jane Lee, her youngest daughter and next-door-neighbour, said Friday. "If the car was going anywhere, she loved to go.
"And she loved to shop."
Lee said her mother, a onetime curler, was also active in the Granite Town Seniors, volunteered at the local tourist bureau and was part of a group of local ladies who met almost daily over coffee or tea.
"Her whole life revolved around her family and friends," said Lee. "She loved family get-togethers. We were a family that got together for every special occasions, anniversaries and birthdays - and that meant everything to her."
McLean, who had beaten cervical cancer in 1974 and bladder cancer in 2004, was diagnosed with cancer again on Sept. 21.
She died on Wednesday, six days after turning 80, at the Regional Hospital.
McLean's funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m today at the St. George Funeral Home, with Rev. Canon David Genge and Rev. Gordon Cooke officiating.
Lee believes her mother's happiest years were those she and her husband of 61 years, James (Jim) W. H. McLean, spent in St. George after he retired from NB Power.
"I think mom and dad liked living in a small town, that small-town atmosphere. They never could have survived this long in the city. They loved being able to go downtown and know everybody."
Born Anna Geraldine Merrithew in Guysborough, N.S. on Oct. 25, 1927, she was one of six children of the late Guy A. and Lena A. (Stairs) Merrithew.
Her father, a machinist, moved his young family to Fairvale, where Anna grew up. Anna met her future husband while working at the Wasson's lunch counter in uptown Saint John, as Jim recalled Friday, when she borrowed 25 cents from him so she could catch the train home to Fairvale.
Jim was serving in the Canadian Navy when the two got hitched at the Baptist Church in Fairvale on Oct. 5, 1946, so Anna moved to Halifax. All four of their children - daughters Jane (Lee) and Kathy (Connors), of Riverview, and sons Brian and Jim Jr. of Saint John - were born there before her husband returned to civilian life in 1951, moving his family to Fairvale.
Jim's work with NB Power took the family to Bathurst, St. George and back to Saint John. The McLeans also spent time in Fredericton prior to retiring in St. George.
Muriel Bernard is one of those who is glad she chose the Granite Town in 1984.
"When I first moved here 30 years, I was very lonesome for Grand Falls. She was my first friend and took me everywhere.
"She enjoyed every day of life," Bernard added. "She went out every day and walked and she loved going on the seniors' trips."
Besides her husband and children, Anna's survivors include a sister, two brothers, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Always proud of the accomplishments of her late brother Gerald S. Merrithew, a former Conservative cabinet minister at both the provincial and federal levels, Lee said her mother was a died-in-the-wool Tory who didn't much care for Liberals.
But Bernard said her political allegiance didn't stop Ann from becoming friends with "our Ricky-" as she referred to Liberal Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet of St. George - or Doucet from visiting her after she fell ill.