Madge "Marge" Pedersen

Known to her friends as Marge, passed away on August 16, 2024, in her 96th year in Ottawa, in the presence of family. She was predeceased by her husband Eigil Dalsgaard Pedersen (2019) – with whom she had a 78-year relationship including 67 years of marriage – her fourth son Gordon (2007) and her daughter-in-law Vasiliki (2021). Mother of John, Philip (Vasiliki), David (Glenda), Gordon, Susan (Matthew) and Thomas (Neena). Grandmother of Jennifer Ann, Vibeke, Abraham, Kyle, Natasha, Henry and Margaret. Great grandmother of Nathan, Azure and Ella.
Marge was the daughter of Madge Johnson and George Abbott who immigrated to Montreal from England in the 1920s. They provided Marge and her two siblings, Eric and Joan, with a comfortable childhood.
In 1950, Marge graduated from McGill’s faculty of Education and was fully certified to teach by the Province of Quebec in 1952. As an educator, she was employed at the Montreal Day Nursery, as an elementary teacher at Edinburgh Elementary School in Montreal and later at Vivian Graham School in Île Perrot. In 1964, she was the founding daycare director at the Peabody Terrace Children’s Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts while Eigil was pursuing his Education Doctorate at Harvard University. In 1972, McGill University engaged Marge as a sessional lecturer and teacher supervisor of the first James Bay Cree Indian teacher program. In 1979, Marge completed education in Nursing at Dawson College, and she practiced as a nurse – including at the Montreal Children’s Hospital – and as a health-care provider for several years thereafter.
An eco-burial occurred at the Cobourg Union Cemetery on August 24, 2024, where she was interred next to Eigil. The service was limited to family members. Donations to the charity of your choice would be appreciated by the family.