Gisele Marie Monique McKeough

November 6, 1950 - May 23, 2007

Beloved wife and best friend of Patrick; loving mother to Trish and Andrew; sorely missed by mother Jeannette, sisters Denise, Jocelyne and Helene, brothers Marcel and Alain, and her many aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, in-laws, friends and golf partners.

Gisele grew up in Levis, Quebec. On December 31, 1974, she and a half dozen girl friends visited Le Gaulois, a bar in old Quebec City. Seated next to her was her future husband Pat, in town on a ski trip. Gisele spoke no English. Pat dredged up his schoolboy French, but he mixed up poisson and piscine. Throughout her marriage, Gisele enjoyed telling people that the first thing Pat ever said to her was, "Is there a swimming pool in your shish-ke-bob?"

They arranged to meet again at the Quebec Winter Carnival in February. In March they went on an Eastern Townships ski trip. Pat studied French and a long-distance romance followed. In July 1976, Gisele moved to Toronto and began learning English. They married in Levis on August 13, 1977.

French-Canadian Gisele and her Irish-American husband were both raised in Roman Catholic households where money was scarce. Both valued hard work. Both loved travel, skiing, friends and family.

Gisele's intelligence, computer skills and work ethic won her promotions and pay raises, but her heart was never in it. Between Trish's birth in 1980 and Andrew's in 1985, Gisele became a stay-at-home mom. She quit smoking. She volunteered at Lester B. Pearson French Immersion School, which Trish and Andrew attended. Soon she was hired as a classroom assistant, a job she would have done for free. Later she transferred to Grenoble primary school, where she enjoyed working with the under-privileged children of recent newcomers to Canada.

In 1994, Gisele encouraged Pat when he quit a job he had held for 20 years and launched his own company, The Successful Investor. After work and on weekends, she applied her computer expertise to the business, creating a circulation management system out of an off-the-shelf scheduling program. The business grew and eventually Gisele had to give up her school job. When they weren't working together, Gisele and Pat traveled throughout North America, and visited Mexico, Costa Rica, a dozen European countries, India, Thailand and Japan. Gisele developed a passion for golf after she and Pat joined Whitevale Golf Club.

Gisele always saw her Successful Investor job as temporary. In 2005, she began forming a team at the office to replace her so she could go back to the volunteer work she loved. In 2006, persistent headaches turned out to be due to brain tumours which had metastasized from her lung. She accepted her fate. She said, "We had a great 30-year marriage, two great kids, we saw a lot of the world and we built a great business."

Her advice to young people is work hard for what you want, enjoy life and don't smoke.

Friends may call on Saturday, May 26th, from 3-5 and 7-9 p.m. at the R.S. Kane Funeral Home, (6150 Yonge Street, at Goulding, south of Steeles, 416-221-1159). Funeral service will be held at the R.S Kane Chapel, on Sunday, May 27th, at 11 a.m. As an expression of sympathy, donations may be made to the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, www.pmhf.ca.