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Mary Munson.Courtesy of household
Mary Diane Munson: Spouse. Journalist. Rug hooker. Creator. Born Nov. 11, 1950, in Campbellton, N.B.; died Oct. 12, 2022, in Halifax, of pancreatic most cancers; aged 71.
Mary’s thoughtfulness, particularly for household and pals, by no means left her, even in her remaining days when she comforted those that had come to consolation her. With typical grace, she accepted the tip was coming whereas none of us may fairly consider that her vibrant presence was leaving our lives.
Love, the giving and receiving of it, outlined Mary’s life. First, as a “little one of the Manse,” as she preferred to explain herself, nurtured in a loving house together with her United Church minister father, James, her mom Dora, and older brothers, David and Jim.
Mary had a curious nature and empathy for individuals and their tales: Journalism was a pure match for a profession. After commencement from Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan College) she started what can be a distinguished 37 years on the CBC, working in Toronto, Charlottetown and Halifax on such packages as Noon, The Journal, The Nationwide, in addition to Man Alive and Land and Sea.
Mary’s life was remodeled in two necessary methods when she moved to Halifax to work. She took on a frightening skilled problem when she adopted, for 3 years, a younger mom coping with terminal most cancers. Mary’s highly effective documentary, Angela’s Journey, detailing Angela’s mission to teach individuals about most cancers earlier than her personal loss of life, gained a number of awards, together with an Atlantic Journalism Award and one from the U.S. Basis for Biomedical Analysis.
Mary discovered private fulfilment in Halifax when she met Dave Cameron, a steadying drive in a life that had had its romantic ups and downs. They had been married in 2011. When Mary addressed Dave as “Husband,” you couldn’t mistake the sense of marvel in her voice that, late in life, she’d been so lucky to seek out love and bask within the evident happiness it gave her. Mary welcomed a ready-made household of stepdaughters Danielle and Liana, their husbands Bertram and Cliff, and grandchildren Takara, David, Roughan and Rhys. Rhys helped Mary indulge her one true weak spot: purchasing. Such was their bond that when eight-year-old Rhys was in Venice together with her mom strolling the Grand Canal, she remarked: “I’d reasonably be within the greenback retailer purchasing with Mary.”
A transfer to Dave’s hometown of Sydney, N.S., meant new alternatives for Mary: she took up and excelled on the artwork of rug hooking. Lots of her pals had been recipients of lovely, handcrafted, works. And right here’s one thing else that’s necessary to find out about Mary: She by no means encountered strangers, simply potential pals. One was centenarian Marguerite Caldwell, whom Mary met when she grew to become a reader for the Canadian Nationwide Institute for the Blind. Shortcomings? She was a gifted prepare dinner who apologized for each meal she made. And messy. Very messy. Dave, she joked, was her cleanup crew.
In retirement, Mary continued to analysis a topic that she’d first produced as a tv documentary; the assumption in a fairy tradition in Cape Breton. Her e-book, The Fairies in Cape Breton was printed in 2021.
Visits to Mary and Dave’s house in Howie Centre had been busy occasions with journeys to classic clothes retailers, Ed’s used bookstore, scrumptious dinners and late-night, wine-fuelled video games of Scrabble (that she all the time gained).
Mary’s enduring legacy to her pals is a reminiscence vault full of laughter and speak. Our lives had been enriched by her firm. The world is a chillier place now with out the heat of Mary’s humour, her kindness and her love.
Sally Reardon and Marie Thompson are Mary Munson’s pals.
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