For the past fifteen years I have been writing about theatre in Canada on this blog, and theatre criticism has become one of my biggest passions. I truly feel like I have found my vocation with TWISI, and now more than ever, I feel like this work is important and needed in our community. The person who has believed in me and my work the most, who has quietly supported this blog and me the most for the last fifteen years was my mother, Shirley Campbell. She was the most helpful silent partner in all my pursuits, and although she always remained on the sidelines, and never wanted to have the light shined on her, there is no way I would have been able to write these reviews for the last 15 years without her, I will be forever indebted to her, deeply grateful, and thankful to her, for everything that she did to centre my passions, and my interests, and to do everything within her power to help me dedicate my life to following my dreams and my heart. I am posting my mother’s obituary here to honour her extraordinary life. I promised her that I would continue the work we started in 2007 with TWISI, and I am dedicated to continuing to write and review in her honour and memory into the future.
It is with shattered hearts that the Campbell family announces the sudden passing of our beloved mother and sister Shirley Marjorie Campbell on May 12th, 2023 at the age of 75.
Shirley was born January 30, 1948 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the fifth child of Florence (McLean) and Joseph Campbell. She was an inquisitive child who always wanted to understand how things worked. This led to her taking apart several household objects that she couldn’t put back together again, much to the consternation of her parents. She was also a firm believer in her own potential and her ability to overcome any obstacle, even as a toddler, when she climbed up onto the roof of the old clubhouse at the Bedford Golf Links. She attended St. Ignatius School, Armdale Junior High, and Halifax West where her love of learning and of athletics were fostered.
After the death of her eldest brother, Junior, when she was fifteen, the Campbells relocated to Ontario, and Shirley went on to graduate from Woodstock Collegiate Institute. She graduated with a Bachelor of Physical and Health Education Degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1970. She began her career teaching and coaching girls’ sports at her alma mater in Woodstock and at Stratford District Secondary School where she was adored by her students. Always a Bluenoser at heart, Shirley returned to Halifax in 1973 and worked first as the Health and Physical Education Director at the YWCA, and then was the first female Unit Director at the Halifax YMCA from 1975-1977.
Between 1978 and 2015 Shirley worked for the Nova Scotia Department of Health as a health educator. For the first three years of her role in the provincial government, she also took graduate courses at Dalhousie University. She chaired or co-chaired hundreds of different provincial committees and working groups, including as a founding member and president of Smoke Free Nova Scotia. She coordinated and developed the department’s health promotion campaigns for healthy dental hygiene for kids, immunization and flu, numerous campaigns to help folks quit smoking and reducing second hand smoke in public places, and of course, SEX?- a Healthy Sexuality Resource Book, Nova Scotia’s sex education guidebook, which was incorporated into the health curriculum of most schools in the province in the early 2000s. The book was considerably ahead of its time, but Shirley advocated for it with her always respectful yet determined conviction, and her passion for helping young people make smart, informed choices, and setting them up for successful, happy, and healthy futures. She received the 2005 Canadian Home & School Federation’s Health Award for Sex?
Shirley was a truly remarkable multitasker. While she was working full-time on these projects, and raising her daughter on her own, she also graduated with exceptional marks from the University of Guerrero with a Masters Degree in Applied Epidemiology in 2003. It was truly impossible to compete with her ability to overachieve on multiple fronts simultaneously.
Shirley’s impressive breadth of work and her contribution to the health and welfare of generations of Nova Scotians is vast, and, it was typical of Shirley that she did not often tout her many achievements or her expertise. Her biggest accomplishment, however, she spoke of fervently and at any opportunity, and that was her daughter Amanda. Since 1984 Amanda and Shirley have been best friends, co-adventurers, nearly inseparable, and Shirley has poured every ounce of her love, care, knowledge, belief, strength, spirit, and time directly into her little girl’s heart. As a sports mom raising an artist child, Shirley always followed Amanda’s own interests, enrolling her in theatre and singing classes, and attending hundreds of plays with her over the years, becoming familiar with and invested in the theatre and music communities in Nova Scotia and Toronto through Amanda’s passion for them. Shirley was Amanda’s biggest supporter, her most fierce champion, her greatest ally against the darkness both inside and outside, the best listener, the best hugger, the person who lit the light inside Amanda every morning, and carefully and lovingly swept the worries away at night. Their bond was truly irreplaceable; it was the biggest blessing a daughter could ever ask for to walk through life with someone who loved her so immensely right by her side. She was also the most doting and attentive loving mother to two dogs who lit up her life: Idina Madison, who passed away in 2016, and Linus Joseph, and she was an incredibly devoted and considerate daughter and friend to her mother, Florence.
Shirley loved watching tennis (Go Leylah, Bianca, and Felix!), curling, football, and hockey if the Leafs were winning. At different points in her life she played basketball, volleyball, netball, tennis, loved cross-country skiing, and taught aerobics. She and Amanda loved going for road trips, singing loudly in the car all the way to the beach, or for a hike on a pretty trail, and especially to see the Pumpkin People in Kentville every Fall. She had endless patience and clever strategies for jigsaw puzzles. She was avidly interested in politics, social justice, and was a life-long learner, always open to hearing a different perspective and always, always, always asking more and more questions (just to clarify!). She was extremely thoughtful and generous, endlessly supportive, not just of Amanda, but of all Amanda’s friends, and Amanda’s friends’ friends. She was truly the most kindhearted, smart, funny, and wildly helpful and resourceful mother, friend, and person. She leaves behind a massive hole in her daughter’s heart, but enough happy memories to last to infinity.
She was predeceased by her loving parents Florence (2018) and Joe (1990), her siblings Errol and Diana (1951), and Joseph Jr. (1963), her brother in law Warren Shaddock (2001), and her cousin Joe MacLean (2013), as well as all her aunts and uncles. She leaves behind her two dear sisters, Carol Connor and Joan Shaddock, and brother in law Don Connor, her cherished daughter Amanda Campbell, and their dog Linus, all of Halifax, as well as many lovely cousins across the country.
Amanda would like to thank nurses Taylor, Joelle, and Kaylie at the QEII for their immense kindness and gentleness in the ICU. Memorial information will follow at a later date. In lieu of flowers a donation to Neptune Theatre, World Wildlife Fund Canada, or a charity of your choice is greatly appreciated.
G’ite Mumma.
“You were content to let me shine, that’s your way, you always walked a step behind… I can fly higher than an eagle for you are the wind beneath my wings.”- L. Henley.
