LAING, Anna Jean
July 11, 1928 - March 15, 2024
Anna Jean Laing, 95, of Cochrane, Alberta, passed away with family by her side on Match 15th, 2024. She was born on July 11th, 1928, in the
six-room hospital at Lacombe, Alberta, to parents Charlotte and Sanford Leader. Anna was raised on a farm east of Lacombe with her three younger sisters. Farm life fostered a sincere love for animals within Anna. She was a very diligent student and usually rode her favorite horse “Dandy” one-and-a-half miles to the oner one Jones Valley School.
Anna attended high school in Lacombe, where she graduated as valedictorian. Following high school graduation, she worked for a year at the Alberta Government Telephone switchboard in Lacombe. Anna then entered the nursing school at University Hospital in Edmonton, graduating in 1947. At the beginning of her postgraduate course in Psychiatry at Ponoka Mental Hospital, X-rays revealed the early stages of tuberculosis on one of Anna’s lungs. After six months of treatment at the Baker Sanatorium in Bowness and a year back on the farm, Anna was offered a clinical nursing job back at the Baker Sanatorium. She worked there for seven years.
During this time, she met Doug Laing at a Knox United Church group for young people. Anna and Doug married in 1956 accompanied by the popular song “Blue Canadian Rockies.” They built a home in Calgary’s new suburb of Cambrian Heights and began a family. Each of their four sons were born while Anna and Doug lived in Calgary. However, favoring the country life, they bought property nine miles northeast of Cochrane. There, Anna could be surrounded by animals, most notably her beloved chickens.
From her new country home, Anna began her second career as a school bus driver on routes to Westbrook School and later to Cochrane. Anna loved her community and was very active in it. She was a tireless volunteer with the UCW at St. Andrew’s United Church. She was an active member of the PTA and always lent a hand where she could. Anna was adamant about recycling and she worked hard to get a community-wide program started up in Cochrane.
Throughout Anna and Doug’s 44 years of marriage, they enjoyed many wonderful trips to places such as Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, the British Isles and many trips to Singapore and Southeast Asia to visit their son George and his family. After Doug passed away in the year 2000, Anna lived with her parrot and cats at their country property until her desire for a simpler life brought her to Cochrane’s Big Hill Lodge in 2012. In 2022, she moved from Big Hill Lodge to Hawthorne Care Facility for heightened care and, with gratitude for her good fortune,a heightened westward view. Anna passed peacefully there on the evening of March 15, while the sun dropped behind the Rockies in a spectacular sunset.
We will remember Anna as a kind, compassionate, hard working and resilient woman who was, in her own words, “so happy my Alberta roots remain strong.” Anna is survived by sons George (Suzie) and Roger (Christine), daughter-in-law Annie, grandchildren Megan, Stephanie, Mark, Kyle, Walker and Axel and sisters Etta and Ellen. She is preceded in death by her husband Doug, sons Gordon and Stewart, daughter-in-law Kathy and sister Marie. The family would like to acknowledge the hind and thoughtful staff at both Big Hill Lodge and Hawthorne. A Celebration of Life will be held for Anna at the St. Andrew’s United Church in Cochrane on May 22, 2024, front 1:30pm to 5:00pm.
