Mary Victoria Hanson Lilleng Brizan, of Norwegian and Swedish descent, was born in 1926 in the Duncan area, where she spent her first five years in logging camps situated in extremely remote areas of Vancouver Island. The family moved to a farm in Sooke during the Great Depression, a time when many industries - including logging - were shut down. She had a great childhood on the family farm where they raised all the animals, fruits and vegetables the family needed to get through those hard times.
Mary started Grade 1 in Sooke Superior School and that is when she first learned to speak English. She could speak fluent Norwegian and Swedish and now she needed to learn English, which turned out to be no problem at all.
Mary finished her schooling and went on to university to receive a Bachelor of Arts in teaching. During the next 10 years she taught senior high, junior high and elementary school students in Vancouver and at a native reserve school on Vancouver Island.
While attending university, Mary had become an avid mountain climber and downhill skier, visiting almost every ski hill in Vancouver, the state of Washington and on Vancouver Island. She took skiing lessons while on Vancouver's Grouse Mountain through Vancouver Sun Ski Lessons.
Mary met her future husband, Ivica (John) Brizan when she was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her ski buddy, Lee Livingstone.
Ivica lived in Croatia, and during the Second World War both German and freedom fighting troops were taking turns burning down homes. At the age of 16 Ivica crossed the border to freedom. Mary and Ivica went on to raise two boys through many years of fishing, hockey, lacrosse and skiing.
Eventually Mary returned to university to receive degrees in Master of Arts and Master of Special Learning Disabilities. When she graduated (at Christmas) her desire was to work with children who had learning disabilities; unfortunately there were no jobs available in her field for "females" at that point in time.
Instead, she worked for the Government of Canada first with the Unemployment Insurance Commission (UIC) department in Victoria and then in 1980 moved to Prince George with Canada Manpower, (also called Employment and Immigration) where she worked as an employment counselor and supervisor for the next nine years. She retired in 1991, from the Special Women's Counseling Unit in Vancouver.
Mary's sons, Darryl (Ann Marie), principle of L&M Engineering, and Tony (Melanie), a millwright supervisor, were both living in Prince George so after her retirement she moved back to Prince George to enjoy her family.
In her younger years Mary managed a poultry farm raising 5,000 chickens. When she moved back to Prince George she investigated the business and decided against going back into poultry farming. She remembered having to occasionally pack buckets of water and feed to 5,000 chickens on Vancouver Island on the Sooke farm and decided that she had had enough of chickens!
After a while retirement was just too tranquil for Mary so she taught English as a second language at the College of New Caledonia. In the meantime her long-time friend Baljit Sethi of the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society asked her to develop and direct a government program for new immigrants: an endeavour that Mary enjoyed for the next 10 years.
Mary also became a member of the New Caledonia Rotary Club of Prince George and over a 10 year period she created bulletins and newsletter style reports for the Rotary Club.
Mary said, "I tried to stay retired but when a job opportunity came up at The Northern Family Health Society I took it, and successfully taught math upgrading to women who thought they were not capable of learning the subject. I retired for the last time at the age of 79."
Mary tried living in the country out in the Bench Drive area but after a few years she found it difficult to maintain the house and the garden. The stairs were unmanageable due to knee and hip operations so kicking and screaming all the way, her family moved her into town.
Mary said, "I have to thank them today for that was one of the best moves I ever made."
She now lives at Alward Place and volunteered her publishing skills on the council and created their monthly newsletter.
Since the move Mary has discovered the senior centres, tried them all, and volunteers at Mary is a dedicated lacrosse fan and for the past 10 years has created the programs for the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association games.
She is an avid bridge player and plays anywhere from two to five days a week - sometimes twice on the same day.
Mary said, "I am now 89 years old and I am busy all the time. I have generally been very happy and lucky in all the things in my life. My unsolicited advice to seniors is this: don't ever let yourself be alone and lonely in your room. There are lots of people waiting for you to talk to them, people who will draw you into their activities.
"Moving in with other seniors was the best thing that ever happened to me in my final retirement."
