Lynda Anne Coates

Anne Coates of Cambridge at Grand River Hospital. She is survived by Al, her devoted husband of nearly 40 years,

and their loving son, Mark, of Calgary. Lynda was predeceased by her parents, Frank and Erna Olheiser of Vernon,

B.C.

Lynda will be remembered with love and respect – and her memory forever cherished – by her Coates family "Ma and

Pa," Maura and Norman Coates of Cambridge. She will remain always in the hearts and souls of her immediate

extended family: David and Jane (Peek) Coates and their son Christopher of Toronto; Martyn and Janet (Butts) Coates

and their daughter Amanda of Cambridge; and Barry Coates of Cambridge. Lynda will also be remembered fondly by

the family of Lillian and the late Ralph Schumacher of Cambridge and by the family of the late Douglas and Ruth

McKenna, also of Cambridge, and by Mindy McKen and Charles Hain of Toronto.

Lynda will have a place forever in the hearts of a further extended family of friends, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces

and cousins from across southern Ontario, the United States and Great Britain. She will be remembered with love and

deep affection by her wonderful band of "Lyndy's Angels," her very best friends, who helped her, and visited with

her (and brought her creamed soups!) and loved her so much over the final, difficult years of her life. Our family also

wishes to express heartfelt love and gratitude to John Leclair and Hazel Ross and their families for standing tall with

Lynda and walking with her at every step along the journey of the past few years.

Lynda was a near-lifelong resident of Waterloo Region and spent most of her working life as a reporter and editor

with what is now the Waterloo Region Record. She took genuine pride in her work and felt honoured to have won a

national feature-writing award in the late 1970s. In the latter years of her working life, Lynda became a member of

The Record's customer-service team and took great delight in considering herself as The Record's "official greeter" at

the newspaper's customer reception desk.

Prior to the onset of her health troubles, Lynda was an eager traveller, with Las Vegas, the California coast and Fort

Myers Beach in southwest Florida among her favourite destinations. As her travelling days became increasingly

restricted, Lynda would often joke that the recession in Vegas was due only partly to the 2008 global financial

meltdown; the primary reason for the troubles in Vegas, she would say, was because she could no longer visit there

to make her thrice-yearly contribution to the local economy.

Lynda was also a wonderful cook, hostess and party-giver and always looked forward to having the entire family

together for our frequent celebratory gatherings. Lynda was a crossword wizard and could dash off a New York

Times puzzle and a Globe and Mail cryptic puzzle in no time. And she was an ardent fan of the black-and-white

movies, especially the classic romantic comedies, of decades past.

Lynda was also a pretty decent bridge player, although she and her great friend and playing partner Carol Zettel

never really did master the bidding complexities of the Jacoby Transfer, much to the amusement of their respective

husbands, Al and Jack, who found particular delight and amusement in Carol and Lynda's stunning bidding

misadventures and botched slam contracts.

Lynda was also an accomplished golfer. She took up the game at the persistent, annoying urging of her husband and

quickly became part of a regular foursome with two since-departed wonderful friends, Cameron (Orkie) Krieg and

Jim Oberle. Early on, the boys, sensing an opportunity to fleece a golf novice, insisted on playing for money, but that

ploy worked only until Lynda became rather skilled at the game. She soon turned the tables and, rather

opportunistically, began to see golf as her part-time weekend job, a nice supplement to her writing and editing

income.

But most of all, and most importantly, Lynda was a loving, vibrant, and courageous woman, a devoted life partner, a

devoted mother and a cherished, faithful friend, someone who awoke every day with a smile on her face and joy in

her heart. Lynda always found the best in people; she always, without fail, put the needs of others before her own;

and she maintained her sunny, optimistic outlook even as she was confined to her bed over her final years, battling

the ravages of the prolonged, unrelenting series of illnesses and conditions working to betray her.

***

There is no single condition or cause that led to Lynda's passing; her frail body no longer had the strength to keep

fighting after a three-year struggle against a progression of conditions – notably primary amyloidosis, a rare, bonemarrow-

based disease – that ultimately left her bed-bound, immobile, profoundly anemic, and unable to fend for

herself or even breathe on her own behalf. Those conditions followed on the heels of earlier diagnoses, and

simultaneous medical treatment, of congestive heart failure, late-stage emphysema and late-stage chronic kidney

disease, in addition to recurrent battles with cancer.

Because of the breadth of Lynda's health difficulties, and the enormous challenge of reaching a full and

complete diagnosis, our family has a large number of health practitioners to thank for their care, their support and

their skills.

First of all, we wish to thank the entire staff at the Preston Medical Clinic, especially our caring family doctors

David Renner and Jill Hollowell, who worked tirelessly to serve as Lynda's "medical quarterbacks" to ensure that

Lynda received the best treatment possible. We offer our sincere thanks also to the secretarial, laboratory and

pharmacy staff at the clinic for their kind and considerate efforts over the past few years. We are grateful also for

the skills and dedication of the doctors and nursing staff in the emergency department and on the fourth and fifth

floors of Cambridge Memorial Hospital and on the fifth and sixth floors and in the Intensive Care Unit at Grand River

Hospital in Kitchener. We particularly want to acknowledge the remarkable, dedicated medical team of doctors,

nurses and technicians within Grand River's Intensive Care Unit. Thank you for being so gracious, kind and generous

with your time - and thank you again for giving Lynda such dedicated care and comfort over the final days of her

life. A special note of appreciation to Drs. Bill Plaxton and Paul Hosek who fought so hard on Lynda's behalf.

We wish also to thank Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, neuro-muscular specialist at McMaster Hospital in Hamilton; oncology

specialist Dr. Jim Gowing of Cambridge; the oncology radiation staff at the Juravinski Centre in Hamilton and the

Balsillie Centre at Grand River Hospital; neurologist Dr. Dwight Stewart of Kitchener; and neurologists Dr. James

Sharpe, head of the neuro-opthamology clinic at Toronto Western Hospital, and Dr. Amir Dolatabadi, also of Toronto

Western. We are grateful also for the care and treatment offered by Dr. Hans Katzberg, of Toronto General Hospital;

endocrinologist Dr. Usman Chaudhry of Kitchener; respiratory specialist Dr. Christine Macie of Cambridge; gastroenterology

specialists Dr. Donna Kolyn of Cambridge and Dr. Lyle Bissonnette of Kitchener; Dr. Paul Strauss of

Cambridge; kidney specialists Dr. Shivinder Jolly and Dr. Tom Tsu Tung Liu of Kitchener; and cardiac specialists

Dr. Hugh Sullivan of Hamilton and Dr. Shekhar Pandey of Cambridge.

The therapists and case workers at the Kitchener and Cambridge offices of the Community Care Access Centre,

Paramed, Community Rehab and Care Partners were of enormous help, allowing Lynda to remain in the family

home throughout her difficulties and beyond the point where it might otherwise have been possible. We wish to

offer a particular note of gratitude to Marci Worrall and Tara Green of Paramed, who formed a special bond of love

and friendship with Lynda and who cared for her with such tenderness and devotion. We wish also to thank Karen

Kotanen, who managed Lynda's care under the auspices of the CCAC, for her kindness, understanding and

compassion in helping guide our family through the home-health-care process. We are grateful also to the U.S.

National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke, based in Bethesda, Maryland, for the organization's support

and guidance.

***

In accord with Lynda's wishes, cremation has taken place and there will be no public visitation. A memorial mass

to honour and celebrate Lynda's life will be held Tuesday, August 2nd at 10 a.m. at St. Clement's Roman Catholic

Church on Duke Street in Cambridge (Preston). A reception will follow. In lieu of flowers or other considerations, our

family would ask that friends might wish to consider a donation to either Cambridge Memorial Hospital or Grand

River Hospital to assist those facilities as they strive to serve our communities with continuing quality care.

***

Goodbye, my darling Lyndy – and may God hold you lovingly and mercifully in the palm of His hand. Forever and a

day. Your Allie.