The community lost a passionate volunteer who was always willing to lend a hand with the passing of Gladys Cargin this week.
Cargin, who was just over a month shy of her 89th birthday, died Monday at Royal Columbian Hospital. She had been transferred there from Delta Hospital, where she had been for the last month, to undergo a heart procedure.
"She had been having failing health for some time but had been able to cope," said daughter Andrea Carr, one of Cargin's four children.
Born in England in 1925, Cargin and her husband Norman moved to Canada in 1967. After initially settling in Ontario, they moved west to Surrey and then finally found a home in Tsawwassen.
Carr said her mother became well known in the community, both for her volunteer work and for her regular cooking column that ran in the Optimist and the South Delta Today for about a decade in the 1990s.
"When we went for a walk, we could not go for more than a block without someone stopping her to ask for a recipe," Carr said.
Cargin, a grandmother to five, also wrote under the pen name Pat Pemberton, which was her maiden name. She also used that name on her brief CBC cooking show.
However, Cargin's true passion was helping people.
"She was always trying to help people... she always had a story at the end of the day about someone she helped," Carr said.
She taught many people, free of charge, how to cook and bake over the years and became the live-in cook for Abbeyfield House at St. David's Church in Tsawwassen.
She also volunteered at the KinVillage's Unique Boutique thrift store for more than 20 years.
Carr said her mother had a knack for picking out just the right outfit for her customers.
Cargin was pre-deceased by her husband.
A funeral is set for Wednesday, June 11 at 2 p.m. at Ladner Pentecostal Assembly.
