Carol Matthews died in Nanaimo on December 18, 2025, at the age of 83.
Carol’s family has shared a lovely tribute to her online (https://www.online-tribute.com/CarolMatthews) about the many different ways that she worked throughout her life to help people, including as a hospital social worker and as Dean of Health and Human Services at Vancouver Island University. She also had a long and active literary life: “Carol’s short stories have appeared in literary publications including Room, The New Quarterly, Prism and Grain Magazine, and she was the winner of the 2017 Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction. She is the author of five books, including her memoir Minerva’s Owl, which has a new edition upcoming from Freehand Books. Mike’s death in 2012 set her on a path of grief exploration, and supporting others in finding comfort and making sense of loss was her calling. At the end of her own life, her mantra was: “Truth, Beauty, Kindness, Love.””
Just before Carol’s death, she was preparing a new edition of Minerva’s Owl, her memoir about losing her husband of more than forty years and moving through phases of grief and bereavement. Carol wrote a new epilogue for the book, incorporating these lines from P.K. Page, which we share here in tribute to Carol and her remarkable life and legacy:
Though lovers be lost, love shall not.
Love shall not. O love shall not.
Engrave it in stone. Carve it in rock.
This is the sub-text of all art,
the wind in the wings of the Paraclete.
With the Lord of the Dance we shall form a ring
and there in love’s pavilion
hand in hand we shall say Amen
and we shall dance and we shall sing
with Love, with Love for companion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Carol, we will miss you greatly, and we are so grateful for your words and your wisdom.