Susie Varughese

Susy Varughese née Zachariah was born March 24, 1935 in what was then Cochin, India. (Now Kochi, the largest city in the southern state of Kerala (Kār-ah-lah) in India.). She was the 2nd of 3 daughters, Kochamma and Leela and a baby brother, Alex, now all pre-deceased. Her father was a well-to-do spice merchant and she grew up as a “rich man’s daughter.” Even less wealthy people than her family had servants, so she never really had to learn how to cook or clean or even shop for food, as all these were servants’ duties. If you knew her, know that all her home making skills, her brilliant cooking and her ability to taste a dish in a restaurant and replicate it without the recipe at home was self-taught after she came to Canada.

At 18, she married George Varughese, a 26 year old MD and moved out of her father’s home for the first time to join him in other parts of India where he was employed. Her first born, Sugith arrived just under 4 years later.

She came to Canada in 1958, where George had preceded her to begin his training in neurosurgery. She traveled with her first born son Sugith a 13 month old babe-in-arms. After an epic and somewhat harrowing first plane trip half-way across the globe, she landed in Ottawa where George was doing his Canadian internship before they traveled to Saskatoon where he began his neurosurgery internship. She set up house at 431 10th Street on the first and basement floors of a rented house. And began to learn all the things she needed to in order to be Canadian—learning to cook, clean and how to shop and in a grocery store which did not exist in India. It was a difficult life given the impoverished wages a foreign neurosurgery intern and then resident received, but she managed. And even thrived. She was known for her infectious laugh as well as her stellar cooking by those who came to dinner back then.

During those formative years on 10th Street, she took swimming lessons and she learned to drive a 1964 VW Beetle with a manual transmission. And then her second daughter, Elizabeth, came along. Needing more room, we took over the top floor of the house on 10th street. Sugith started school, despite being only 5, but she had applied to the Minister of Education to allow him to start early since that was the age Indian children started school. And then the family moved to Montreal as George took advanced training at the Montreal Neurological Institute. The family lived in a modest 2 bedroom apartment in Lasalle, a suburb of Montreal.

A year later we moved to Ottawa where George did his LMCC and achieved a Fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. While in Ottawa, she took a broadcasting course and was so good that she was interviewed by the local TV station about her life as an immigrant. While she dreamt of more TV experience, that was as much as she did and she passed on her natural ability to her children. After 2 years in Ottawa, George was now as qualified as any Canadian doctor to practice neurosurgery, but no province would allow him to as his MD degree was from India. Except Saskatchewan. So we returned to Saskatoon where George would set up his practice. George and Susy bought their first house at 615 Cumberland Avenue. And the third daughter, Tina was born.

George’s success as a practicing surgeon enabled Susy to plan to build her own home which they did in College Park. Susy was very proud of her custom-built architect-designed home and she ruled it for forty years.

She loved her flower garden and her vegetable garden and filled the house with art and lovely things from travels across the continent and to India. It was a sanctuary for the family and enabled her to focus on her real career: her kids.

Growing up now in College Park, the children were never latch key kids. She was always home to greet them after school and make sure they were top of their class. Her dinner parties were legendary and even forty years later, people remember them.

Having been raised in the Mar Thoma Christian tradition in India, (an indigenous Indian Christian faith going back to the time of the apostles as the legend is Thomas, one of the 12 came to India to spread the gospel and converted likely Brahmin Hindus to Christianity) Susy was active in the life of St. Paul’s United Church in Saskatoon.

She saw all her children through their schooling and eventual career-starts and then was very active in their individual wedding plans. But her greatest joy in later life was becoming an Ammy. (Her granddaughter Jasmine couldn’t pronounce Ammachi, or Appachi so she became Ammy and George became Appy to her and her fellow grandkids Alec and Kieran, and her kids spouses, Len, Brendan and Cathy, for that matter.)

Diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in December 2004, she faced the battle bravely, opting to do most of her treatments in White Rock to be away from the Saskatoon winter if she had to fight cancer also. She enjoyed wintering in White Rock so much that she and George bought a 1 bedroom condo where they would spend the winter from then on. They also began traveling to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico every winter for 2-6 weeks and were likely happiest there in later life.

After defeating cancer, they bought a new condo in White Rock where they spent their final years after selling their home in Saskatoon in 2012. Perhaps her hardest challenge was caring for George in his final years as he endured Parkinson’s as his primary caregiver. But her love and support for him never wavered and they celebrated 64 years as a married couple before his death in 2017. Her last years were spent enjoying her life in her condo which she kept immaculate, her balcony flowers, her beloved view of the ocean, her kids and especially her grandkids and visits from many beloved friends.

Predeceased by her husband, George and her siblings, she leaves her children, Sugith (Cathy), Elizabeth (Brendan) and Tina (Len) and her beloved grandchildren, Jasmine, Alec and Kieran, as well as nephews, Tilu, Ajit and Anil, niece Nisha and nephew Nishant and beloved friends who are also family, Nair and Karen, Gopi and Madeleine, Joan Brown and many others. Her laugh will be profoundly missed by them all.