Obituary of Marie-Christine Godlewski

Marie-Christine, known by many as Soeurette, died peacefully at her home in the early morning of August 23, 2017. She was predeceased by her beloved husband Karol Godlewski and her much-loved brother Jean-Jacques Kean. Greatly mourning her departure, but understanding it was time, are her children Mark, Anne and Paul, their spouses Mary Anne, Joan and Beth, her grandchildren Christina and John, extended family and many life-long friends. Anne, family, and caregivers succeeded in their goal to keep her home and comfortable, despite numerous health challenges. Marie-Christine was born in Guanajuato, Mexico to an English electrical engineer father and a well-educated French mother. The circumstances of her life brought her to live in many other countries including France, England, Canada and the US. She was a witness to enormous technological and societal change. She lived through the Blitz in London, worked for the French Free Press, and watched with great interest the landing on the moon. She saw Toronto transformed from dirt roads, more parking lots than buildings, steak houses and bars unwelcome to women, to a cosmopolitan city. Regardless of place and time, her family was always her primary focus. Despite the turmoil of frequent moves, she always created a secure home for those she loved. She strongly believed that the blessing of a caring family lives on, strengthening subsequent generations, and the larger society. She entertained family and friends with her excellent French cooking and with her somewhat irreverent wit and wry sense of humour. She spoke English and French fluently and also some Spanish, Polish, and Latin. She loved reading: Literary Review, The New Yorker, the daily paper, French and English literature. She wrote long letters to her brother and children. Playful with language, she transformed phrases and words, sometimes through onomatopoeia, sometimes by remixing words such as dishwasher to "wishdasher" and butterfly to "flutterby." She loved travelling, observing birds, needle-work, and creating flower and vegetable gardens. She was a faithful listener to CBC and NPR talk radio, enjoyed classical music and both enjoyed and mocked opera. She had a mainly hate-hate relationship with TV & computers. She was a private, but not secretive, person and may have seemed reserved to those who did not know her. She lived in hope, as do we, that there is an afterlife and that she will be reunited in full health and capacity with those she loved. The mass celebrating her life will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, September 9th at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 392 Palace Rd, Kingston, ON K7L 4T3. There will be a reception after the mass for family, friends and colleagues. In lieu of flowers, please donate either to dementia research via the Canadian Dementia Action Network, or to palliative care in Kingston via University Hospitals of Kingston Foundation, please designate it for "KGH's Community Palliative Care," or for "Palliative care at St. Mary's Providence Centre" (https://give.uhkf.ca/). Arrangements entrusted to CATARAQUI CEMETERY AND FUNERAL SERVICES.