Sherry Catherine MacEachern

April 25, 1927 – January 1, 2026

As morning broke on the first day of the new year, Sherry left us, reluctant until the very end.

Sherry was born in Depression-era Saskatoon, the eldest of three children born to Stephen and Anne MacEachern. She was predeceased by her sister, Marcelin Rutherford, and by her brother, Donald MacEachern, who passed away on December 22, 2025—just one week before her.

From a young age, Sherry was a social butterfly and fashionista. She breezed through Nutana Collegiate and the University of Saskatchewan, graduating with a BA and BEd in 1952. She went on to teach high school in Sturgis, Saskatchewan, and Pincher Creek, Alberta, fending off local admirers who offered her a future as a prairie farm wife.

Sherry had always dreamed of a life filled with adventure and travel, and one rainy day she found both—quite literally—on her doorstep. The school caretaker had spread newspapers across the front entrance, and Sherry spotted an advertisement for a teaching position with the Department of National Defence. She applied, and within weeks arrived to begin work at RCAF headquarters in Metz, France. It was August 1955.

Sherry reveled in her two years in Europe, drinking wine and flirting with former soldiers amid the gritty glamour of postwar France. She attended countless receptions and parties in Metz, including representing Canada at a NATO meeting. A friend who met Sherry for the first time later described it this way:

“The day I first met her… a radiant smile, red hair, tall and oh so slim… a 20-inch waistline, dressed in heavenly blue, a bouffant skirt worn over a huge crinoline.”

When her contract ended, Sherry traded climates, continents, and wardrobes, and began teaching in the Canadian Arctic. As always, she adapted with ease. She loved her Inuit students and happily organized square dances for the village on Saturday evenings, complete with local fiddlers. The community was fly-in only, and Sherry charmed the pilots into bringing two of her favourite items—fashion magazines and turnips—during their monthly supply runs.

She often laughed while recounting her mishap as the person responsible for ordering supplies. Over a static-filled call, she was asked, “Are you sure you want a 9 cm calibre?” Two weeks later, someone shouted down the hall, “Who ordered the cannonballs?” Sherry was never very good at math—or the metric system.

After several years in the Arctic, Sherry was ready for warmer shores. She sailed to Ghana, West Africa, and began teaching at Aburi Girls’ School in the lush hills above Accra. On her first day, she was amused to see students eyeing her with curiosity; few, if any, had ever seen a 5’11” redheaded teacher before. Sherry felt a deep kinship with the Ghanaian people and was adopted into the family of Paramount Chief Adu. Until his death a few years ago, she regularly corresponded with her Ghanaian brother, William Djan. Her most recent novel, Nyumbani, was inspired by the many people she met during her time in Ghana—a place where a piece of her heart always remained.

Knowing she would one day return to Canada, Sherry came home in 1966 and began the final chapter of her career at Brockton High School in Toronto’s Brockton Village. As the school librarian, she nurtured generations of students, many from challenging home environments. Her library was a refuge, where she shared her love of creative writing and her appreciation for the world’s cultures with students she truly cherished.

Anyone who knew Sherry knew of her love of writing. Her beloved apartment overflowed with notepads and scraps of paper filled with stories. Seated in her green velvet chair, Sherry could happily write for hours. She tried many forms: Harlequin-like romances (one featuring a Mountie in the Far North), three thinly veiled autobiographical novels, a screenplay, and countless short stories. Her most cherished accomplishment was her children’s book, Bedtime Stories for Grandma, Grandpa and Grandchildren.

If writing stories was a passion, telling them was another. Sherry was never short on words. She was a delight at dinner parties, keeping conversation lively—and sometimes controversial. While never one to lie, her colourful recollections often sounded exaggerated, drawing skeptical responses. When challenged, she would calmly stand her ground, sometimes producing a written account to prove her point. Among those she claimed to have crossed paths with were Princess Margaret, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, Sir Edmund Hillary, Tennessee Williams, John Diefenbaker, and Pope John Paul II (before he was Pope).

Above all else, Sherry will be remembered as a keen observer and lover of people. Her unique generosity of spirit will be deeply missed by her many nieces and nephews, her twenty-three godchildren, her former colleagues, her church community, the staff and residents of 55 Cambridge Avenue, and her chosen family of friends around the globe.

Please join us to share wonderful memories and your favourite story about Sherry. The funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, January 10, at 11:00 a.m. at Holy Name Parish, 71 Gough Avenue, Toronto, with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, and in honour of Sherry’s generous spirit, the family asks that donations be made to a charity of your choosing, or to one of Sherry’s favourites: Indspire, Covenant House, Sleeping Children Around the World, Doctors Without Borders, or Yonge Street Mission.