Bruce Raymond Vachon

Bruce Raymond Vachon was born in Worcester, MA on 21 December 1943 to Dorothy Stedt and Raymond L. Vachon. He died at home supported, cared for and cherished by his loving family, Mary, Wolfgang and Alexa. When asked his end- of- life goal in these recent weeks it was to come home and die in the live edge bed he had dreamed of making for decades. The wonderful Kerry Boileau, an important part of our family, finished it just before he was discharged. He managed to sleep in it for one night and died in his bed on 13 December 2023 with his family present.

Bruce’s major commitment was to his family. Early in life he made career decisions based on wanting to be available and involved with his family. He cared so well for us in multiple ways, especially with his gourmet cooking with wonderful wine pairings and completely reconstructing our century old home and garden. A lifelong learner he spent some of the last few weeks listening to podcasts on quantum physics and teaching us what he felt we needed to know when he was not here. There was a lot to learn.

Bruce grew up in Cape Cod next to the ocean, enjoying walking to the docks to get fresh fish, and helping in his parents B & B, learning a love of home and gardening. Mourning him will be his dearly loved “Bride, Bride”, Mary L.S. Vachon, RN, PhD, RP, his cherished children, Wolfgang Adeodatus Vachon, PhD and Alexa Amadeus Vachon, PhD (Cand.), his wonderful grandchildren Cléo and Ruben Collins and their mums, Joanna Reynolds and Shannon Collins. Bruce also leaves his sisters, Sally Magnuson (Ken, deceased 2022) and her children Bruce Magnuson and Kristen Rasor and their families and Annemarie Hinton (Dennis, Jordan and the late Jamieson). As well, he was deeply loved by Mary’s huge family of siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews.

Bruce was introduced to Mary by her uncle Fr. Neil Harrington, who was Bruce’s high school physics teacher. Mary says, “ours was a marriage made in heaven”. Bruce decided to leave the Trappist Monastery, where he had been for several months. Fr Neil saw him sitting in the hallway waiting to speak to his high school guidance counsellor. He said “you need to get married and have 5 or 6 kids. I’ll introduce you to my niece. “ Fr. Neil called Mary who was answering the phones in a nurses’ residence at Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing and said, “I have a problem. I’m bringing him over. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.” He introduced the two of them, eventually Mary broke her other engagement. They celebrated 56 years of marriage with their family in July.

Bruce graduated from Northeastern University in Electrical Engineering. He felt the Vietnam War, which was happening at the time, was an unjust war and, given his belief system, he could not fight in it. We left the United States, expecting we would never be able to return. He accepted entrance into the University of Toronto Department of Biomedical Engineering where he made life-long friends, including Dr. Rick (Kathy) Frecker. Bruce had a successful career in health care. He was pleased to have worked in the hospital, government, and private sectors. It gave him great pleasure to reconnect with Biomedical colleagues, especially Dr. Russ Brown, in recent years.

With Mary, Bruce travelled the world as she lectured on cancer, palliative care, occupational stress, bereavement, spirituality, and compassion. The family is deeply grateful for the compassionate care we received over the years from Dr. Michael George Fehlings and his team at Toronto Western Hospital; the prostate cancer group at Princess Margaret Hospital, and recently the staff at Toronto General Hospital on 5 A and 6 South. The nursing, PSW, OT, PT, laboratory technicians, radiology technologists, and porters were all caring and compassionate. Our deep appreciation to the many medical specialists we met, and those we knew were working behind the scenes, to help to understand what severe COVID was doing to Bruce’s body.

As well, the family deeply appreciates the competence, commitment, and compassion shown by all those involved in the latter stages of Bruce’s care. We are very grateful to those who made it possible for him to come home to die as he wanted; those who worked the system to get the necessary resources; and those who were present and cared so well for us in ways that were respectful of our wants and needs. We are particularly grateful to the Temmy Latner Palliative Care team, especially Dr Ciara Whelan, Mosaic Healthcare and Spectrum Healthcare for the excellent and compassionate care provided to Bruce and the family during the last few weeks of his life.

We deeply appreciate the love and compassion shown to us by friends and family and the flexibility and compassion shown by Mary’s clients during this challenging time.

Arrangements entrusted to Rosar Morrison Funeral Home. Messages to the family can be left at rosar-morrison.com

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Wellspring, Westerkirk House, 105 Wellness Way, Toronto, Ontario M4N 0B1, https://give.wellspring.ca/brucevachon. Mary is a co-founder of Wellspring, and the organization has always been dear to our hearts. There will be an invitational celebration of Bruce’s life in the spring.