Margaret Agnes (Purves) McPhee

on January 24th at 6AM to a Scottish father, John Purves, and an English

mother, Daisy May (Cook) who had met and married in Ottawa, Canada on

February 24th of 1916. Her Dad was a blacksmith who had returned to

Scotland with his young pregnant wife and son Wallace thinking to

find a job more easily there, but was disappointed. Work was scarce and

poorly paid. During the 6 months that her parents were in Scotland,

Margaret was born. But with job prospects dashed, they came back to

Canada and settled in Cornwall, Ontario, where thankfully her father was

able to find employment. When Margaret was under a year, her 18 month

old brother died of an accidental burn, devastating this young family.

Thankfully, another child was born a few years later, a daughter, Isabel.

Margaret shared that the death of Wallace was the cause of her father turning to

the Lord.

Margaret grew up in a Christian home and attended a United Church during

her childhood. Although there was a good Sunday School, it was a traveling

evangelist, actually a man who had been imprisoned for murdering someone,

who brought 13 year old Margaret to a commitment to the Lord Jesus.

There was no youth group that she could attend, but when she was 16, she

took a correspondence course from Moody Bible Institute. Margaret’s

parents hosted a monthly prayer meeting for the Sudan Interior Mission and

it was Tommy Titcombe, one of its missionaries who spoke on Margaret’s

behalf and arranged a summer job for her at the Canadian Keswick Bible

Conference Centre in Muskoka, Ontario. The following two summers as she

was completing high school and doing her senior matriculation(equivalent of

Grade 13), Margaret worked at this camp and met Edith Martin and her twin

brother, Emerson, Tommy Titcombe’s children. These camp experiences

exposed Margaret to good Christian teaching and wonderful fellowship, both

which helped to grow her faith. There was opportunity during the day to

swim and canoe along side one’s allotted camp duties. (Across the lake from

this particular camp was Pioneer Ontario where Cathie Nicol was busy

mentoring other young Christian leaders.)

Just as the Second World War was beginning, Margaret left Cornwall for

good and went to Toronto where she entered the Woman’s College Hospital

to begin her nurses’ training. She was 19 years old. The hospital provided

room and board for their nursing students. When she completed her training 3 years later, she began almost right away to work mostly nights. The hospitals at this time were staffed largely by students and new grads as so many of the more experienced RNs had signed up and joined the army to

help the war effort overseas. As a result these new nurses had very little

time off and within 15 months of graduating, Margaret was feeling very

worn out and spiritually disconnected. Her friend Edith suggested that they

get additional education with the School of Nursing on the U of T campus

enabling them to be qualified for administration and a chance at better

working hours. After a year of university taking additional nursing courses,

Margaret’s first job was head nurse of a Men’s as well as a Women’s

Surgical Unit numbering 80 patients in total at the Toronto Western Hospital.

It was a daunting assignment for a young woman, but she capably rose to the

challenge.

Margaret spent her twenties nursing in Toronto, eventually being promoted

to the position of Supervisor with all its associated responsibilities.

Thankfully during this time she had the fellowship of a Christian Young

People’s group. In 1948 some of these young friends had arranged to take a

month’s vacation together and drive across Canada to the West Coast. One

of the drivers was a young man by the name of Ted McPhee who was

studying theology at Knox Presbyterian Seminary in Toronto. He had been

parachuted into the arrangements at the last minute, but happy for the

opportunity as his family lived on the West Coast and this meant a free trip

home.

By the end of the trip, unbeknownst to her, Ted had singled Margaret out as

the one for him. He wrote her a letter declaring his intentions of “desiring to

row across the lake of life with her” which he gave her as she stepped on the

train to spend time with her parents. Margaret knew that she needed to give

this proposal a little thought as she would be committing to being a

minister’s wife, no small assignment back then, or even now. But she

assented and Ted and Margaret were married approximately six months later,

April 14, 1949, only two days after Ted had graduated from seminary.

The first year and a half of life together for these newlyweds involved

getting ready for a missionary placement and then living in Guyana,

formerly British Guyana. It was a challenging but productive time as Ted

learned some basic skills in Christian ministry and Margaret worked along

side him supporting him in this work, but also learning important skills of

cooking, sewing, running a household and looking after small children. After 14 months they returned to Canada and came out to Vancouver where Ted got a position on staff at an interdenominational Bible School. In addition to work at the Bible School, Ted would take preaching assignments

at local Presbyterian churches, eventually accepting a pastorate with the

small congregation of St. Columba in East Vancouver where they stayed for

a couple of years. By this time Margaret and Ted had bought a home at 14th

and Highbury and Margaret was mother to two young boys, Ian and Gordon.

And then they accepted a call to go to Trail, selling their home and moving

away from Vancouver and all that was familiar to go to a church in a small

community where they spent 4 ½ years. Something that was an important

part of life at home with the McPhees was a devotional time in the morning

with the boys where they would have a chance to read portions of the Bible

and to pray. Later when the boys got older this time was changed to the

evening.

The big challenge for both Ted and Margaret came when Ted accepted a

position at the Cote des Neiges Presbyterian church in Montreal. It was

1963, Ian was 11 and Gordon had just turned 9 as they arrived at their new

home. Margaret has reflected that the politics of Quebec in the 60s and 70s

did affect Ted’s ministry. The October crisis was a frightening time for

everyone, as no one knew how widespread the FLQ terrorist organization

was in Quebec. People came back to church and Margaret reported that

there were no empty seats for the morning service.

But that crisis had been preceded by a wonderful time when the whole world

came to Montreal for Expo 67. The McPhees opened their doors of their

home to a steady stream of visitors, moving into the basement to make it

possible for many to enjoy the fair who might otherwise have been unable to

afforded to come. Margaret and Ted saw themselves as well as the church

family being blessed.

Although at one point Margaret had thought to up date her nursing skills and

get a job in a hospital working as a nurse, Ted prevailed on her to work

alongside him helping with the Sunday School and various aspects of

ministry within the church. However, in April 1975 Ted suffered severe

strokes from which he made a remarkable recovery, though not sufficient to

carry on as the full-time minister at Cotes des Neiges. Ted resigned his

position and he and Margaret returned to Vancouver in late October 1977. Upon arrival they took charge of a half way house for mentally ill patients, Adera House which not only provided them housing but also an opportunity for Margaret to work. Such a big change in their life circumstances and such

a challenge! After a year, they found an apartment in South Granville and

Margaret realizing that she needed to continue to be the bread winner as

Ted’s health was uncertain, now found a position at the Trinity Lodge

working as a nurse. Margaret retired from that job after 6 ½ years and had 4

good years with Ted before he had a massive heart attack in 1989. Again

miraculously Ted pulled through this health crisis.

Ted and Margaret had always been hospitable to students and when they

settled in their apartment in South Granville, there were always young

people coming into share a meal, in fact they bought a table to seat 10 for

that express purpose. They had been attending Fairview Presbyterian within

walking distance of their home. After all they had been Presbyterians all

their lives, but Ted particularly was feeling dried up spiritually. In 1990 with

encouragement from their young friend, Brian McConaghy, first Ted and

then Margaret drove up the hill to St. John’s where they found the teaching a

comfort to their souls. They stayed and made St. John’s their new church

home. They became interested in Tracey Larter’s outreach to international

students and Stella Ting’s work with ESL students. So even into their 70’s

they were offering hospitality to young people who would come and have

conversations with them. Ted would get the ESL students to read portions of

Scripture as a means to they're learning English, but also a way to

understanding the tenets of the faith. Many of these students became

Christians in this way.

Ted’s health continued to be precarious, but he did live until he was 86, in no

small part because of the ministrations of his faithful wife. Margaret shares

that she lost count of the numbers of times she had to call the ambulance for

Ted. When he finally died in March 2004, although she, of course, grieved

his passing, there was a sense of relief, because the last 5 years of his life

had been particularly challenging.

Margaret’s oldest son, Ian, died in 1999 at the age of 47 from multiple

myeloma cancer but she has enjoyed visits from her two grandchildren’s

families, Heather and her husband Keith, David and his wife Janna and their

four children, Hudson, Hope, Liberty and Cherish. Margaret continued to

live in the apartment that she shared with Ted until May 2018, having moved

in when the rent was less than $200 per month. With meeting her own needs becoming more challenging, Margaret moved into an assisted living facility,

Bear Creek Villa, in Surrey where she enjoyed almost two happy years

looking out of her fourth floor window at the beautiful nature park, being

served and entertaining visitors. Her younger son Gordon and wife Rolanda,

who live in Chateauguay, Quebec, were happily able to get to Vancouver

regularly over the Christmas holidays for some good visits.

On January the 24th of the year 2020 Margaret became a centenarian and

was royally fêted by family and friends as witnessed in her 100th Birthday

Memorial binder full of pictures and well wishes, even from Elizabeth the

Queen and the Governor General of Canada. But having witnessed

innumerable joyous and amazing and equally sad and tragic events since

1920, Margaret seemed to say, “That's enough Lord, take me home please”.

Margaret was admitted to the Surrey Memorial Hospital on February 12th of

2020 and was destined not to leave. Numerous friends and visitors were able

to spend time with her including her son Gordon and his wife Rolanda just

two weeks before her passing on Sunday (how appropriate) March 22nd at

4:45PM PST. She was at peace and rested safely in the arms of her Lord

Jesus at this time and also through all of her journey on this earth.