Nancy Ruth McGregor

The McGregor family mourns the loss of our whip-smart, strong-willed and creative mother, Nancy Ruth McGregor (née Waller). Nancy was born in Guelph Ontario on March 5, 1931 to Bessie Evans (née Steen) and Dr Kenneth Burton Waller. Nancy was the second of four children (Joyce, Nancy, George, and Victoria “Bunny”). They grew up in nearby Rockwood, where KB was the town’s doctor.

Nancy had fond memories of her childhood in the Waller house, joking around with her sibs, biking to the river, swimming, and when she was older dancing and dating.

She graduated from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Nursing Science (BNS ‘54), where she met the love of her life, Richard “Dick” McGregor. The couple married at St John’s Anglican Church in Rockwood, and that fairytale wedding grew into a lifetime of love and devotion.

Nancy and Dick moved to Montreal where they started their family - David (Julie), Douglas, Nora, Phlis Joan (David) - and then moved to Ottawa.

Nancy was a dedicated nurse. She never forgot the hardships faced by the young patients at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where her career began. While juggling to raise her family, she worked in long-term care, and eventually became a public health nurse.

After they retired, Dick and Nancy moved to Centrepointe in Nepean (West Ottawa). They turned the new house into a loving home. They became pillars of their community, enjoying time with their wonderful neighbours, and for years Nancy volunteered as head usher at Centrepointe Theatre.

Nancy appreciated and created beauty wherever she was and she often quoted the British designer William Morris ``Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”. On that note, her home was filled with beautiful furniture. And art - much of which she created herself. She loved to paint landscapes. Ontario’s beautiful old barns and hayfields were favourite subjects. She created stained glass window hangings. She refinished antique furniture and built wooden tables for the family cottage. She was a master knitter and quilter and she sewed curtains and tablecloths and clothes for herself and her children.

Nancy loved music (from ABBA and Frank Sinatra to Maria Callas and Westminster Cathedral Choir). She had a beautiful singing voice and she’d often accompany herself on the piano.

She was an avid reader and with her exceptional vocabulary she was a fierce Scrabble opponent, and a skilful crossword player.

Nancy also loved nature. She recognized birds and their songs. She knew her trees (Beech was her favourite). And she loved spending her summers at the McGregor cottage that Dick built on Kamaniskeg Lake. Sometimes she’d go there by herself, or with the family dog (Mickey, Pippa, Molly), and spend peaceful days reading and swimming.

Nancy wasn’t only a nurse, a homemaker and a mother. She was also a politically-engaged news junkie and a loyal CBC radio listener. She was often writing letters to politicians and city councillors, and she never missed the opportunity to vote.

Nancy also had an unending enthusiasm about the world and travelled to almost every corner of the earth. She loved it all, especially Italy, two visits to India, three trips to China, the former Yugoslavia, New Zealand, Holland and Singapore - where she and Dick lived for three years. Despite all of these wonderful worldly adventures with Dick, Nancy said it was the everyday life with him at the house or cottage that she cherished the most.

Nancy also had a great sense of humour and had a quick wit. She loved to laugh and joke around.

When the four kids were young, Nancy often played her favourite hymn on the piano, “How Great Thou Art”. It reflected her love for planet earth and all its creations. She often spoke of the Sun being God. And sometimes in a moment of whimsy, she’d proclaim her desire to be reincarnated as a monarch butterfly.

Toward the end of her life, she often reminded her family that she had a wonderful life. She made sure her children knew how proud she was of all of them.

Nancy’s death marks the end of an era. She was the last surviving member of her immediate Waller family, her group of close friends, and her wedding party. She lost Dick in January 2022 at their house in Centrepointe and without him she also lost the will to live. She died of a broken heart on August 29, 2022 in Halifax with her daughter Phlis by her side.

At Nancy’s request there will be no service. Cremation has taken place.

You can honour Nancy’s memory by planting a hardwood tree or milkweed for the monarch butterflies, or by making a donation in her name to Médecins Sans Frontières or the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.