Nova Scotia shooting victim Lillian Hyslop is being remembered as a kind, compassionate and hard-working Yukon resident of more than 30 years.

“Her nature, her compassion, her gentleness, her spirit were just so good,” Lisa Triggs told the Star today.

“She was just a gentle person, and this not the end I would have wished for anyone like Lillian.

“There was nothing violent about her nature; she was always kind, she could deal with any situation.”

Triggs, a long-time friend of Hyslop, remembers her as a hard worker, active in the dog mushing community and famous for her annual Christmas cookie exchanges.

Hyslop lived in the Yukon with her husband, Mike, from the 1980s to the 2010s, before moving to the Wentworth Valley in Nova Scotia.

“They were pretty excited about going to Nova Scotia because her husband had inherited the land, and I guess they built their dream home there,” Edna Knight, another close friend of Hyslop’s, told the Star.

While living in the Yukon, Hyslop worked several high-pressure jobs at Whitehorse General Hospital and the insured health services office for the Yukon government.

She sang alto in the community choir and raised sled dogs with her husband at their property in Grizzly Valley in the 1980s and ’90s, before eventually moving to a house in town.

Both Knight and Triggs have fond memories of gathering at Hyslop’s home every Christmas season.

“She would invite all these people to her house, and her house looked so beautiful,” Knight said, remembering Hyslop’s enthusiasm for elaborate Christmas decorations and providing ample supplies of hors d’oeuvres.

“She had a big smile on her face when people all got there, and saw them all enjoying themselves; she sat back and took it all in.”

Triggs remembers the Christmas gatherings as the one time every year when their social circle would gather with their children to catch up.

“It was us getting together as women … it was important, because it helped us etch out a time for just ourselves and our girlfriends,” Triggs said.

She remembers Hyslop as a gatherer of people and a devoted friend with an infallibly calm demeanor.

“She would walk into a room and literally, Lillian would scan the room and right away from across the room she’ll smile at you and make you feel like you’re the only person in that room. I think her nature is just what made her an exceptional soul.”

Hyslop and her husband were well-known in the world of dog mushing.

Hyslop’s husband, Mike, was a former Yukon Quest office manager and volunteer, and also ran the Quest in 1998.

One of Triggs’ fondest memories of Hyslop comes from a dog mushing lesson she hosted with Mike in the early 1990s. Triggs said she attended the lesson with her mother, who was Mike’s and Lillian’s neighbour in Grizzly Valley.

“I was amazed with (Lillian’s) natural ease with animals, with people … she would give you the lesson of how to run the sled with calm and grace. She was always eager to pass along whatever she knew,” Triggs said.

Hyslop spent many years working in health services. Yukon Senator Pat Duncan was Hyslop’s colleague at the insured health office, and remembers her as a dedicated public servant.

“She was very, very hard-working,” Duncan told the Star Tuesday afternoon.

“She’s very much a public servant … she was very conscious of taxpayers’ dollars.”

She said Hyslop was an avid walker and would often leave the office for a stroll during her lunch break.

Since Hyslop’s sudden passing last weekend, Duncan said, the description of her walking every day in Nova Scotia reminded her of that time working at insured health.

“She had a very stressful job, and I remember her walking at lunch and making that a habit.”

Knight, who met Hyslop while volunteering for the Quest, recalled her as someone well-suited to the stresses of public health because she was tranquil, quiet and well-organized.

“She was in the right job for it, and I think because she has a calming personality; that helped a lot,” Knight said.

“She was easy to talk to, she really listened to your conversation and really contributed to it too, so you felt really at ease talking to her…. I love her, and I’m so sorry.”

Duncan, Knight and Triggs all expressed their sorrow and condolences to Hyslop’s family.

Lillian is survived by her son, Chas Hyslop.

Knight told the Star that Chas flew to Nova Scotia earlier this week to be with his father.

Hyslop was shot dead while she was out for a walk early last Sunday near Wentworth Provincial Park, regional and national media organizations have reported.

“A telephone tree of locals had already started calling regular walkers in the area to warn them to stay off the roads,” the Halifax Chronicle-Herald has reported.

“But that warning came too late for Hyslop, whose husband, Mike, picked up the phone to say his wife had already left for her walk,” the paper reported.

“So he went to go find her but got stopped by the police and asked what she was wearing and then they told him (of his wife’s death),” resident Debi Atkinson, who knew Lillian, told the newspaper.

A fire official confirmed that Hyslop had died at the scene.

Hyslop was a “down-to-Earth” fit woman who attended some social events and was friendly with everyone, Atkinson told the Chronicle-Herald.

“To me, it was just 100-per-cent random that she was walking on the road and she had a safety vest on.”

David Matthews told the Halifax newspaper he and his wife, Heather, ran into Hyslop last Saturday during their regular walk.

“We always talked to Lillian,” he told the Chronicle-Herald.

“She was an awful nice lady. We chatted about the weather or the COVID-19.

“She’d only been in the area for three or four years, so we didn’t really know her all that well, but we knew her enough to know she was a fine person. Always friendly, always nice, always sociable.”