P.A. murder victim ‘lived life to the fullest’

News of a well-known volunteer’s death is rippling through Prince Albert.

Marina Thorpe, 64, was found shot to death on a walking path in the city on Sunday. A teen boy has since been charged with first-degree murder.

“It’s bad enough when you lose someone. But to lose someone in a tragedy is really hard,” said Thorpe’s fellow Red Hat Society member Bonnie Chubak. As the group’s leader Chubak is known as ‘the queen.”

Through the quirky group called the Red Hat Society – which has the motto “there’s fun after 50” – Chubak got to know Thorpe as a woman who “lived life to the fullest.”

The group has “no agenda, besides having fun,” Chubak said, and is best recognized when its members don their red hats at group outings.

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Chubak has many fond memories of Thorpe – a woman she describes as supportive and giving.

“She was very helpful to me, when my dad passed away – my dad had Alzheimers so she as very supportive with me, and with his passing,” she said.

Thorpe was a mover and a shaker in Prince Albert, and always had new ideas to share with the Red Hat Society.

“If there was a new restaurant opening she was the one saying ‘oh you know, there’s this new place opening, we should go there,’” Chubak recalled.

Despite her active lifestyle, Thorpe was “very quiet. She wasn’t a flamboyant person it all. She was just a very quiet but giving person,” Chubak said.

Thorpe offered her friends rides whenever they were needed.

“I’d broken my arm and she was driving me to physio all the time. You know came over and helped me make my cookies,” Chubak said.

“She would do anything for anybody.” 

As a former nurse, Thorpe gave her time around Prince Albert through many volunteer activities.

She worked with the Canadian Cancer Society, the Rotary Club, and the Christian Women’s Club, among other groups.

Shortly after her husband died in the early 2000s, Thorpe lent her skilled hands to the Sharp Needles Embroidery Guild.

“She lived life definitely to the fullest,” Chubak said.

The news of Thorpe’s death has had quite the impact.

“She’s going to be very missed by a lot of people,” Chubak said.

paNOW has reached out to the victim’s family, who is not ready to speak to media at this time. The newsroom will respect that wish.

claskowski@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk