Muriel Joan Bulford was born in London, England on September 27, 1931. Her father was William James Bulford (1890-1972) and her mother was Louisa Henrietta Page (1892-1938). She is predeceased by her sister Kitty and brothers Bernard, Ken, and Brian. Muriel grew up in England during the challenging years of the 1930s Great Depression followed by the Second World War, living through food rationings and aerial bombings in London and life in a foster home near Wales. She immigrated to Montreal, Canada in the early 1950s, where she married and raised three children (Paula, b. 1955, Ralph, b. 1956, and Philip, b. 1959). She lived in Montreal for about thirty years, then moved to Toronto, and finally, Vancouver, where she lived for the last twenty-three years of her life, passing away on January 18, 2015. Muriel is greatly loved and is missed by her family. 

Center of all centers, core of cores,
an almond, self-enclosed, growing sweet --
all the universe, to the farthest stars
and beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit ...

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich thick nectars rise and flow

Illuminating your infinite peace,
a billion stars go moving through the night,
Glowing high above your head
But in you is a presence that will endure
When all the stars are gone

-- Rainer Maria Rilke