1931 – December 15, 2023

Marian (alias Suzie) Cackette passed away peacefully on December 15, 2023. She was surrounded by family and left in a cloud of love and best wishes.

Marian did not fear death; she welcomed it and the chance to join her departed relatives, friends, and dogs.

Marian was born in 1931 and raised in Trail, B.C. Her childhood was spent in the Great Depression but by the time she graduated from high school, WWII had finished, and the economy was booming again. Marian studied teaching at UVic and UBC in the early 1950s. Afterward, she taught elementary school at Willow River, north of Prince George where she met her life-partner Richard Cackette. These were some of the most rewarding years of her life.

Marian and Richard moved to Vancouver, and she continued to teach troubled kids part-time. Eventually though, she had to give up teaching to raise her family. When her own kids grew up and moved away, she and Richard moved into their summer cabin at Manning Park. That was in the days before Eastgate had sewers, clean water, or electricity, not to mention TV or radio reception. Heating and cooking were supplied by woodstoves. Lights were kerosene or propane. Marian loved her home at Manning Park but the part she liked the most was her weekly trips to the thrift stores in Vancouver.

After a decade of pioneering life, Marian and Richard moved to Kamloops in 1993. The opportunity to shop at a moment’s notice was welcome. As was electricity, hot water, and a furnace. She also had a chance to plant huge gardens that the local wildlife wouldn’t immediately eat. Marian continued to hit the garage sales and thrift shops with fiendish intensity, almost until the day she died.

Marian believed the role of a thrift store is to re-distribute valuable goods to the less fortunate. She volunteered at several of them for many years. Lots of homeless and struggling people benefitted from her kindness.

Marian is survived by her kids – Jim, Heather, and Mike, and her brother Mike, and by six grandkids and their families. She was predeceased by her husband and by her siblings – Jack, Jim, and Lawrence.

You may offer a message of condolence at Kamloops Funeral Home for the Cackette family.

• Date : 2023-12-15
• Location : Kamloops