Katherine MacLeod
Born In: Woodstock, Ontario, Canada
Born: July 22nd, 1941
Passed in: Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada
Passed on: March 16th, 2017
Katherine Cecelia MacLeod (née Hyslop) died very peacefully at Victoria County Memorial Hospital in Baddeck, March 16, 2017.
After her beloved husband Robert Kirkby MacLeod (“Bobby”) died in 2004, Katherine chose to stay in their house on the Bras D’Or. She never tired of the ever-changing beauty of the sea and of Kelly’s Mountain. Thanks to innumerable kindnesses of care workers, and her dear neighbor Sandy Matthews, she was able to stay at home until a few days before her death. She will be sorely missed by her daughter Sheila Potter (Derek) and granddaughters Kaitlyn and Emily who were keeping her company when she did go gently into that good night.
Katherine was an athlete, a poet, and loved animals more than she liked most people. She was born to Flora and Douglas in Woodstock Ontario in 1941, 5 years after her much loved sister Sheila Delaney.
Kathy and Bob played 1000’s of hours of tennis at the Howard Park Tennis club in Toronto’s High Park. For many years, Kathy and Bob were “Tennis Mom and Dad” to the “Ball Kids” whom they trained for Tennis Canada.
Kathy loved words and had a great memory for detail, making her an eloquent speaker and a mean Trivial Pursuit player. She also wrote her own poetry, and was known for her beautiful turn of phrase as well as her prodigious vocabulary.
Kathy worked with children and had a special affinity for kids with mental and physical challenges for whom she had no end of patience. Nor did she ever grow tired of her dogs, cats or of the wild creatures who looked to her for shelter and care. She and her dog “The Gryph”, covered many miles of Cape Breton shoreline. The various bowls full of beach treasures that adorn her shelves are a testament to these happy wanderings.
She kept a slip of paper with the ‘fortune’, “You see the beauty in small things. Keep doing that”. And she did, until the end of her days.
A celebration of Kathy’s life is planned for late summer at her home in Cape Breton.
