There are some people who are easy to write about. Our mom is not one of them.

How do you put 68 years of a person into a few paragraphs? How do you explain the woman who was our mother — funny and stubborn, loving and fiercely independent, sometimes quiet and sometimes the life of the party — and somehow make people understand who she really was?

Deborah Lynn McLean — Debbie or Deb to nearly everyone who knew her — passed away in Red Deer on September 19, 2026, at the age of 68, surrounded by love.

Debbie was born on June 23, 1958, to Orval and Mary Ask and grew up in Drumheller, Alberta. After graduating, she moved to Calgary, where she had her two daughters, Crystal and Miranda. She spent a short time living in Chilliwack, British Columbia, before eventually finding her way back to Drumheller, where she raised her girls and made a life of her own. In her later years, she moved to Red Deer to be closer to her grandchildren, who had become the great loves of her life.

Debbie was funny and had the sweetest smile. She was stubborn. She was independent in a way that was sometimes admirable and sometimes maddening, often both at once.

In her younger years, Debbie knew how to have a good time. She could be the life of the party, the person in the room who made things a little more fun. As the years passed, her world became quieter. She preferred family, familiar faces, and the comfort of her own company to a crowded room.

But she never lost her curiosity about people.

Give Debbie a cigarette and a stranger to talk to, and you could pretty much guarantee that stranger wouldn’t remain a stranger for long. She had a way of talking to people as though she’d known them forever. A quick conversation could become a friendship, and a quiet afternoon could become a little bit of mischief.

She loved movies — thrillers, crime, science fiction — and television. She loved rock and roll, especially Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and most recently Yungblud. She loved ice cream and sweets of almost every kind. And more often than not, a Diet Pepsi was somewhere within reach.

Her family became very familiar with the concerned phone calls from the care home about the amount of sugar Debbie was consuming. Debbie, presumably, remained less concerned.

Because that was the thing about her. She knew what she liked. And she lived accordingly.

Her grandchildren were the great joy of her life. She helped raise them, watched over them, worried about them, and loved them with the kind of fierce devotion that doesn’t need to announce itself.

Her daughters, Crystal (Jason) Kjelsberg and Miranda (Colin) Wilson, will carry their mother with them in all the ways that matter — in memories, in stories, in the pieces of her that found their way into them without anyone noticing.

Debbie is also survived by her brother, Allan Ask, her two nieces, her sister, Valarie Davis, and the many friends she gathered throughout her life.

At Villa Marie, she found another little community of people to laugh with and get into a bit of trouble with. And in the final days of her life, the people caring for her became part of that community too.

It is not often that a care home becomes quiet with grief when someone leaves it.

But there were many tears from the nurses and care aides who cared for Debbie during her final week.

They had come to know her. They had come to love her.

And, in the end, that may be one of the greatest measures of a life — not simply how many years someone was here, but how many people felt her absence when she was gone.

Debbie’s family is heartbroken to say goodbye.

But beneath the grief is gratitude: gratitude that she was surrounded by love, gratitude for the years and the memories, and gratitude that after all the hard days, she is finally free from pain and at peace.

She lived her life on her own terms.

She loved what she loved.

She said what she thought.

She made friends with strangers over cigarettes.

She ate the sweets she wasn’t supposed to eat.

She watched her movies, drank her Diet Pepsi, listened to her music, worried about her grandchildren, and showed up when they needed her.

She was never going to be anyone other than Debbie.

And we wouldn’t want her to have been.

Rest easy now, Mom. You are always loved.

A Graveside Service will take place at Alto Reste Cemetery, 26575 Highway 11, Red Deer County, AB on Thursday, September 24, 2026, at 1:00 p.m.

Condolences to Debbie’s family may be emailed to meaningful@telus.net. Please indicate “Deborah McLean” in the subject line.

Arrangements in care of

Meaningful Memorials Funeral Service

A locally owned and operated cremation and

funeral provider serving Red Deer and Central Alberta

587-876-4944

• Date : 2026-09-22
• Location : MEANINGFUL MEMORIALS FUNERAL SERVICE Red Deer AB "Locally Owned"