Rebecca Lynne MacBride

This is Scott, Rebecca's husband. I'd like to thank everyone who has come to visit this page and I'd like to say a few things about Beck.

But how can one effectively encapsulate the Life of a person in a few paragraphs? Even a book can not fully express what could be told.

I can not include every important life event here.

All I can do is mention some aspects of Rebecca's life and some highlights, among many, that I know were meaningful to Rebecca and that she was proud of.

So please, take a few minutes to sit and read some of Rebecca's life that I know she'd love to share with you.

Beck was an intelligent, educated, articulate person. She had multiple creative gifts that included her photography, poetry, and her ability to illustrate.

She has many beautiful nature photographs that she would use to create lovely greeting cards. She has sold many of these and was interested in expanding upon this.

Some of her photos have been blown up and framed and are hanging in various people's homes, as well as a doctor in England who has her work on his office walls!

I have included just a few examples on this website page that are among a few hundred images she photographed over the years.

About her timeline history:

Beck was born in Los Angeles and had 2 older siblings, Debbie and Michael. Her father was a decorated U.S. Marine who fought in WW2 in the South Pacific. Sadly he died of a sudden heart attack when she was about 15. This was a major turning point in her young life that deeply impacted her, both emotionally and with her life direction.

Her mother was Canadian, from St. Catharines, Ontario, and Beck and her mom moved to St. Catharines.

It was like another world to Beck - the culture was different, and adjusting to Canadian winters took some doing. She stubbornly refused to wear snow boots at first, but soon realized she was much better with warm, dry feet!

She worked hard at school, and went on to achieve her Fourth Year Honours degree in the Arts, Film Critique, at Brock University, St. Catharines.

Beck was always proud that she helped edit a book about the CBC, authored by one of her professors from the university.

I also grew up in St. Catharines and met Beck in the Summer of 1985. We both ended up in Toronto, she in 1987 and me in 1988.

She was very proud to be working as an assistant at Film Director Norman Jewison's newly opened film school, the Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies, later to be shortened to The Canadian Film Centre, on Bayview Avenue, Toronto.

She met many successful people in the feature film industry and cherished personally autographed posters by people such as David Cronenburg, who signed, "Rebecca, Help Me!" on her "The Fly" poster, and John Patrick Shanley autographed her "Moonstruck" poster. He wrote the screenplay for this film that starred Cher.

Beck enjoyed that Norman would call her over to his office, away from the Film Centre, and then invite her to stay and hang around as he would be interviewed by the CBC, as just one example. He also personally autographed some posters for her.

Following this, she became the Studio Manager for the post production sound facility Soundscore, a company that did sound design for feature film and television, owned by Bruce Niznik.

One of her fond memories was when Bruce called her from one of the recording studio sessions and pretended that he needed to speak with her. The real purpose was to express his excitement about working with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who were with him that evening, as he was one of the sound design team members working on the IMAX Rolling Stones film at the time. Bruce just wanted her to hear them talking only several feet away! He was whispering to her, "That's Mick Jagger talking!"

Bruce also did the sound design for the original Blue Planet IMAX film. If you listen closely, at one point in the film, you'll hear a couple of weather reports, back to back, as the film discusses the impact of climate issues on the Earth. Both of those voices delivering the "weather reports" are actually Beck, voicing the two segments! She delighted in having her voice in the film.

She was also asked to dub a reel-to-reel tape that was used in the film. Turns out this tape reel was actually one that had been used onboard the space shuttle to record certain audio while in space. So she was quite nervous handling this tape, as she feared possibly damaging it.

Managing a sound studio affords you some interesting experiences at times!

When Bruce moved down to California, he invited Rebecca to come down as part of the team. But Rebecca preferred Canada and decided to switch tracks to a completely different industry.

Beck took her management skills and applied them in the health industry. She was hired as the Office Manager for a neurologist in Toronto.

Following this, she moved on to be an assistant to medical research doctors at ICES, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, also in Toronto. Some top medical scientists worked at this facility, pushing forward improvements in health care as a whole in Canada, and Beck was proud to be part of the support staff.

Sadly, in 1995, Beck lost her mother to lung cancer.

But in 1996, a wonderful event took place:

Our son Adam was born.

Beck did go back to work for a while, following her maternity leave. But she wanted to be around Adam as a young child as much as possible.

She began working from home doing medical transcription for multiple cancer hospitals in Ontario and British Columbia. This allowed her the flexibility to walk Adam to school and back, and be as present as possible for him for many years through his childhood.

Just over 10 years ago, We moved from Ontario to Saskatchewan for a job opportunity I had. And unfortunately, during most of this time, Beck's focus needed to shift toward ongoing health issues.

Over time, things gradually deteriorated. Her declining health required that she move into a longterm care home 2 1/2 years ago, always with the goal front and center in mind to improve her situation and try to come back home.

3 weeks ago, she was struck with sepsis. It damaged her kidneys and we learned of 4th Stage liver disease at that time, as well.

Although she rallied for a couple of days last week, she became unconscious for the last few days and passed on peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.

We deeply appreciate each of her friends who regularly communicated with her, encouraging her, and even sending her gifts. In particular, a lifelong friend, Kathryn.

I know this was very valuable and meaningful to her, and to Adam and I.

Rebecca is survived by her husband Scott, her son Adam, her 3 nephews Josh, Chris and Matt and their families, and 2 sisters-in-law Sherry and Heather and their families.

Our family wants to thank everyone for their love and support at this difficult time.