Loving wife of Major Justin L. McNeill for 44 years, who pre-deceased her in 2023, Alyson passed away peacefully after a long and difficult battle with dementia. She is survived by son and daughter-in-law Dean and Alison McNeill, grandchildren Jordan, Brandon, Ethan, and Claire McNeill, and sister Jacquelynn Heaps.
Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Alyson was raised in Sydney and Hallifax, Nova Scotia, as well as Montreal, Quebec. Despite being legally blind from birth, Alyson earned her Bachelor’s degree at L’Université de Moncton while working full time and raising a child as a single mom. In 1978, she married her high school sweetheart Justin McNeill. Justin’s military life would take them from Nova Scotia to Germany, and ultimately to Ottawa where they lived happily for many years. While in Ottawa, Alyson earned her Master’s degree in Education, and became an Addictions Counsellor. In the early 1990s, Alyson and Justin decided it was time to set their retirement plan in motion, so they sold their home, bought a 44-foot trawler-style yacht and spent several years cruising around the Caribbean and Florida, occasionally making the trek back up to Ottawa, which they considered home. Their boat, The Answer IV, was a big part of their lives until it was time to return to being a landlubber.
Alyson’s optimism, sense of humour, inner strength, intelligence and resilience carried her through her entire life. Thanks to the family’s dark sense of humour, Alyson was always able to see the humorous side of any situation. Highlights, mostly because of her low vision, included many hilarious misreadings of the TV guide, hanging her coat on a cactus in a restaurant that she thought was a coat rack, and having a wonderful, warm evening conversation with their cat, which turned out to be her purse. In addition to the fun side, Alyson was a high school teacher, a college professor of Business Communications, an accountant, a radio DJ on the base in Germany, a business manager for Justin’s private dental practice, and a Counsellor. She always gave her all to everything she did, was a wonderful cook, a beautiful singer and dancer, a dedicated mother, and was a great friend to many who knew and loved her.
Alyson will be dearly missed by her family and all who knew her. Her passion for life, her wry take on some of the craziness that life brings, and her love and compassion for the people in her life will always be remembered.
A funeral will be held in the Beechwood Military Cemetery in Ottawa on September 18 at 2:00 pm, followed by a Celebration of her Life at the Beechwood Funeral Home from 2:30 – 4:00 pm.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).
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