Catherine Davies

Catherine was born and raised on a farm in Melfort, Saskatchewan by her mother Grace MacKay and father Roy MacKay, along with her two siblings:brother Barry and sister Sharon (Shin). Catherine was always fond of talking about her Dad's ancestors coming to Canada from Ireland, one a Protestant and the other a Catholic, stealing away in the night to start a new life. Her mother's ancestors were Scottish, which is probably where the curly hair comes from.

Catherine's family moved to Ocean Falls from Saskatchewan in the 1940s, at the end of the depression, travelling by car through the Rocky Mountains with minimal possessions, looking to start a new life on the rugged B.C. coast. It was in Ocean Falls that Catherine met her future husband George Davies, and they soon became good friends.

On leaving high school, Catherine studied nursing at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, graduating in 1953; meanwhile George was studying Engineering Physics at UBC. When George graduated, Catherine sent him a congratulatory letter: apparently George took notice, responded in kind, and a romance was born. George moved to England, a recipient of an Athlone Fellowship, to study Electrical Engineering at London University. Catherine joined George in England, where she continued to nurse, and they were married in a church in Middlesex, Catherine being given away in marriage by an Irish uncle.

Upon graduation, George received a job offer from the Canadian Government to work at the Communications Research Center in Ottawa. Catherine soon had a job working at the Ottawa Civic Hospital as a nurse, and not long after that they started their family, taking up residence in Shirley's Bay, by the Ottawa River. Sons Ken and Alan were born in 1959 and 1960, followed by the adoption of our beloved sister Kim in 1967. The family moved to Boston for a year in 1972, and then again for a year, this time with just Kim, to Canberra, Australia in 1983. In 1993 George and Catherine sold their house in Ottawa and moved to Surrey, B.C, where they retired.

Catherine loved her kids and grandkids (Margaret, Alicia, Calvin and Alex), her dogs and cats, and going for hikes or cross country skiing in the great outdoors. She was very social, and kept up with a large network of friends. Catherine's signature curly hair and beautiful laughing blue eyes complemented her ever beaming smile, which would light up a room; she was welcoming and kind to everyone that she connected with. She was loving and nurturing, always willing to offer a helping hand. She was warm, compassionate, positive, upbeat, and cheerful and would often whistle a tune as she was making dinner, sewing, or cleaning up the house. She was a loving and supportive wife to George, her husband of 59 years.

Sadly, Catherine's later years with dementia were difficult, but she soldiered on, never complaining, and always happily greeted visitors with never failing social grace, even if she could no longer remember their names, or how she had come to know them.

The family would like to thank the personnel at Delta View and Sunny Creek care homes, for the wonderful way they looked after Catherine for the last three years of her life.

Catherine had a deep connection with her mom, her father, and her brother, all now deceased, and who now welcome Catherine back into their afterlives, as a great and very dear old friend.