Mary Catherine Downey

It’s with great sadness that we announce the peaceful passing of my mother Mary Catherine Downey on Sunday, July 2nd 2023 at the Cardinal Ambrozic House of Providence. She was in her 92nd year. Loving Mother to her daughter Jennifer and Nana to Kirsten. Wife of her first husband the late Peter Allen (1957) and wife to her ex-husband Charles Jones (2012). Treasured Aunt and Great Auntie to the all the Downey’s nieces and nephews and to the Cuda’s.

Born in the village of Leitrim, County Galway, Ireland in 1931, where she was the eldest daughter of John and Ellen and dear sister to Evelyn, Padden and Christine. She grew up surrounded by music, dancing and working hard on the family farm. In 1949, at the age of 18 Mary successfully completed her nursing exam in Ireland. This gave her the opportunity to move and train as a nurse at the St. Stephen’s Chelsea Training School for Nurses in London, England. She graduated in 1952 and was immediately employed at The Royal Marsden Hospital. That same year she met and married Peter Allen. The young couple decided to immigrate to Canada. Tragedy would strike the young couple when in 1957 her beloved Peter was killed in a car accident. Choosing to take a break from nursing she had various careers including owning a catering food truck, feeding the workers in around the various Hamilton constructions sites. After a while she knew that if she wanted any stability in her life she would need to go back to nursing. So, in 1959 she was registered as a nurse in Ontario. This led to a very fulfilled career in medicine. In 1991 she attended the Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates training. This gave her the opportunity to assist in establishing the first Endoscopy/Colonoscopy Unit at Wellesley Hospital in Toronto. After several years of living in Canada she became a citizen in 1985. There is so much more to tell of her journey in life, unfortunately, space does not permit. If you knew my Mum, you knew the story of her life, usually within the first 20 minutes of meeting her. That’s just how she was.

Mary was a spirted and compassionate person and very resourceful. She could “MacGyver” anything that was broken or wasn’t working properly with everyday items found around the house. In her spare time, she enjoyed baking birthday cakes for the people she worked with, ballroom dancing for which she received a bronze medal award at the Arthur Murry International school of Ballroom Dancing, she was an outstanding seamstress and made a lot of outfits for herself, and her daughter when she was a child. Mary had a love of all types of music and enjoyed traveling to the States to see her brother play in his band, the Mystery Folk.

Special thanks to all the “Lollipops” at the Cardinal Ambrozic House of Providence, Spruce house for their compassionate, excellent and overwhelming care of Mary over the last 5 years. My mother would refer to all the people that took care of her as “Her Lolli’s or Lollipops”, this was usually followed by her singing the song, until towards the end when all she could remember of the song was the word Lollipop.

At Mary’s request, there will be no wake, no mass and no funeral. Instead, she asks this of you;

Miss Me – But Let Me Go

When I come to the end of the road and the sun has set for me

I want not rites in a gloom filled room,

Why cry for a soul set free.

Miss me a little – but not too long, and not with your head bowed low.

Remember the love that we once shared,

Miss me – but let me go.

For this is a journey that we all must take, and each must go alone.

Its all a part of the Master’s plan,

A step on the road to home

When you are lonely and sick of heart,

Go to the friends we know. And bury your sorrows in doing good deed,

Miss me – but let me go

Slainte

She will be interned in the Catholic Cemetery in Strathroy, Ontario once we have her ashes.