Agnes MacKenzie

Our wonderful mother passed away in the early morning hours of Monday, June 5, 2023, just over a month past her 98th birthday. She was a remarkable woman and is remembered by many who loved her including son Ron (Kathy Kennard), their daughter Kristine (Andy Sargeantson) and sons Hal (Amy), Chuck and Cole (Maura) of New York and Chicago; son John (Andrea White), their sons Scott and Matthew of Barbados; and daughter Barbara (John Mahler) in Niagara.

Our mother had a great thirst for education and graduated with highest honours from the Montreal School for Girls where she had been awarded a scholarship. She went on to major in Botany at McGill University and ultimately was on the science faculty at Sir George William University, now Concordia University. Through a correspondence with a Girl Guide pen pal in Barbados she was introduced to her future husband Charles Ronald Straghan MacKenzie, a Barbadian who was attending McGill and who would ultimately receive his MD degree. After his residency in Texas, the now family of five moved to St. Catharines where Dad set up his practice in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Ron and Agnes rented a house adjacent to St. Thomas’ church on Ontario Street later moving to their new home on Marsdale Drive. The study of Botany and love for plants was an enduring source of fascination for our mother, her knowledge encyclopedic, this interest was a defining passion for her entire life. She loved gardens of all sorts and sizes and especially the natural gifts of a woodland setting, lichens, moss, barks, natural spring flowers hidden in the small forest behind her Marsdale Drive home. She gathered stray bird feathers of all colours and kept them in a little pottery piece in a pine chest downstairs. Likewise seeds and tiny bird nests that had been left after the eggs had hatched made up her collection. As an extension of her botanical interests there was the sister discipline, Zoology, and we as her children recall our science lessons gazing under the microscope learning of the single cell wonders in the samples of creek water from our back yard.

Agnes was an active member of St. Catharines’ Rodman Hall Art Gallery for many years running their yearly flower shows and events, setting up and buying for the gift shop and getting the art rental project off the ground. Her botanical lean translated to fabrics, textures, and all things twiggy or woven.

Amongst her talents she was an expert seamstress mastering the arts of smocking and fine tatting. She studied French hand sewing and lace making.

She also had a great passion for Canadian potters and ceramicists in particular the works of Tessa Kiddick and Kayo O’Young. Agnes and Ron also were great supporters of Canadian painters and gradually built a collection of their own which gave them great satisfaction. Further their passion for Canadian antiques was a hallmark of their Marsdale home with many pine pieces and timeless tableware.

Our mother was so many things to us. She tirelessly took us to years and years of music lessons and gently encouraged each of us to keep it up. Music has been a precious gift we all hold to this day.

She was a huge part of our lives, always present and interested in our lives. She had a long, active, and fulfilling life and she will remain in our hearts forever. There will be a private family ceremony in Barbados this summer where she will be buried next to our father.

Many thanks to the tireless, excellent 5th floor staff at the St. Catharines Hospital and to Dr. Scher and the palliative care team at Douglas Memorial in Fort Erie for their extraordinary care over the past month. Also we extend our gratitude to Dr. Wayne Gruber whose care for her over the years is here acknowledged with gratitude. Thanks also to the Hulse and English Funeral Home in St. Catharines for their warm attention and guidance.

And a very special thank you to Reverend Roderick McDowell, Deacon, St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Fort Erie, and St. John’s at Ridgemount, whose kind prayers helped ease her final journey.

Barbara Mahler, Ron and John MacKenzie, her children.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.HulseandEnglish.com for the MacKenzie family.