Obituary of MARGARET AIRDRIE AHSAN

MARGARET AIRDRIE AHSAN (NEE FRASER) August 3, 1940-July 26, 2012 It is with very deep sadness that we announce the sudden and unexpected passing of our beloved Margaret Airdrie Ahsan. Margaret, known to many, and as she preferred to be addressed as Airdrie, was born in Vancouver, BC-- the youngest child of Dr. Roy Hamilton Fraser and Mrs Jean Russell Hawkins-Fraser. She lived the most of her childhood and teenage years all over the province of British Columbia, from Williams Lake to Prince George, to Prince Rupert, but majority of years in the Vancouver and Victoria area. Airdrie was a direct descendent of one of the original Selkirk Settlers of Manitoba and was very proud of her family heritage, and passed that pride and respect to her children Airdrie's father, being a general practitioner medical doctor and her mother and older sister, Mary-Lou, both nurses, inspired her to follow into the health care field herself. She studied her nursing degree at the University of Manitoba School of Nursing, and afterwards taught labor and delivery and obstetric nursing in her field. She met her husband, Dr. Amir Ahsan, in 1961 while she was studying her nursing degree and he was doing his medical fellowships in orthopedics in Winnipeg. They were married in 1963, in Lac La Biche, Alberta, and they settled in Winnipeg where he practiced as an orthopedic surgeon. They were married for 44 years, until his passing in 2007. Airdrie retired from nursing due to health issues and devoted her entire attention to her family and taking care of the business of her husband's medical practice. She loved her children to distraction, as her husband did, and she devoted her life to them and their endeavours. She had a love of music, and the arts and history, which she loved to share with all, as she was a very well-read woman in so many ways. She also had an impeccable talent in the kitchen, which she applied to an established business for a time, but she was especially known for her fabulous baking. She had a love of people and was described as a strong, intelligent, kind, kindred spirited loving soul. Many loved her as their honorary grandmother or aunt. She was predeceased by her sister, Mary Lou Fraser in 2008, and her husband Dr. Amir Ahsan in 2007. She is survived by and will be greatly missed by her two children--her son, Jamil Ahsan (Sadaf) of Baltimore, MD; and her daughter, Dr. Maryam Ahsan of Chicago, IL; her granddaughter Layla, numerous nephews, nieces, grand-nephews and grand-nieces, and great-grand nieces and close family friends. Services will be held at the Grand Mosque, 2445 Waverley Street on Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at approximately 1:15 p.m. with interment to follow immediately at Glen Lawn Memorial Gardens at approximately 2:45 p.m.