September 5, 1938 - February 27, 2020
Our precious Mom, Gramma, Nana, left us a year ago, after a short but intense illness.
Arlene was born in Dawson Creek BC, the first child of Ron and Margaret Morse. Arlene grew up in a home full of music, singing and dancing, which she continued to love all her life. She learned the values of family, love and hard work.
They moved a few times before settling in Houston BC in 1952, where foster siblings Edyth and Bruce McKenzie were added to the family, and Arlene and her sister Lorraine both finished school. Arlene married Aart van der Wiel in July 1956, and together they had three daughters, and moved to Ontario. After the marriage ending, Arlene and the three girls lived with her parents who had moved back to Palmer, then moving back to Houston with them in 1962.
She married Jim Van Tine in 1965, and they moved into his home on the shore of Ootsa Lake, where two more children were born. This is where she lived 55 years, raising her family of five, along with numerous flocks of chickens, milking a cow, and being the cook/bookkeeper for Jim's guiding outfit, as well as establishing a well-known meat-cutting business together.
Being self-employed, times were often lean, but Arlene never complained, but always worked hard, providing for her family. There was always an open door, and room for at least one more at the table. She learned to preserve vegetables from the garden, and experimented with jams and jellies of all sorts. Her homemade bread was irresistible.
She loved handicrafts, sewing, crochet, knitting, and made many sweaters and mittens for her family. During the years when home was the base for the guiding operation, Arlene fed the hunters from her kitchen table, with the family. In later years, she cooked in remote camps, and came home with various stories of squirrels in the peanut jar, grizzly bears in the bacon cooler, caribou on the outhouse trail, and strange noises outside the tent.
After selling their businesses, Jim and Arlene built a new home next to the old log house, where they enjoyed retirement, until Jim passed away in 2009. Arlene continued to live in her home until the end. She welcomed all visitors, loved having her family come visit, especially the great-grandchildren. She loved Sunday mornings with Nina, having breakfast, and doing puzzles. She enjoyed spending time each year, on Vancouver Island visiting Dana & Tom, her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
After winning a battle with cancer in 2007, she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in the fall of 2019. She stayed at Ootsa as long as she possibly could, but moved to Tweedsmuir House in January of 2020. After a short stint in the Burns Lake hospital, Arlene passed away peacefully on February 27, 2020, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, sister, nieces and friends.
A memorial service was held March 7, 2020, at the Island Gospel Fellowship.
Arlene is lovingly remembered by her family and friends.