Obituary of Ann McConnell

Ann Grindley McConnell (nee Taylor) 1939-2014 Ann died peacefully at home, on Monday, August 18, 2014, after a lengthy battle with cancer and its side effects. She was the ever loving wife and partner of William (Bill) Mc Connell, for over forty-one years. Dearly loved sister of Susan Howarth (David), of Denver, CO, and John (Judith), of Kent, England: loving aunt to Kate (Parag), of Vienna, VA, Lindsay (Kurt), of Windsor, CT, and Charles (Melissa) of Denver, CO., and loving sister-in-law to Pat (Rita), Joseph and John McConnell, each of Dublin, Ireland. Born to Arthur and Bettina Taylor on January 30, 1939 in the Wirral, Cheshire, England, Ann enjoyed a very happy upbringing in a tennis-loving family and represented the County of Cheshire at junior level. She enjoyed a blissful early schooling at Blackwell, her preparatory boarding school in the beautiful Lake District of England, and then progressed to Huyton College, Liverpool. After graduation and early work with a law firm in Liverpool, she moved to London and joined the public relations group of Southern Television, then a major TV channel in the UK, meeting many of the major TV and other personalities of the time in the course of her work. Like many outward-looking young British people of the time, she decided to explore Canada and the US for a period, with the view to returning to England after a few years. Landing in Montreal in 1967, the year of Expo., she soon joined the world headquarters of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) there, the representative group for all the world's major airlines. She was appointed to work with the executive group of that organization, giving her the opportunity to travel the world attending and supporting executive committee meetings of the airline CEO's and annual general meetings. During that time she met Bill, then based in Montreal, on a weekend skiing visit to a private ski lodge in Vermont. Later in Montreal she rejected his follow-up phone call invitation to dinner, but fortuitously for both, they met again some months later, on a blind date organized by a friend, which helped set the stage for a more positive outcome: they subsequently married in Heswall, England, in March, 1973. They enjoyed a long, happy marriage and travelled widely. In 1982, Bill and Ann moved to Toronto and Ann joined Royal Trust, in pensions administration. On her retirement from Royal Trust, she decided to seriously follow her love for art by enrolling with the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), to pursue mixed media studies, with emphasis on photography. Following her graduation, with an honours degree, she continued post-graduate work at the Toronto School of Art. She often referred to this period as some of the happiest years of her life and she produced some outstanding and talented works of art from that period, many of which she exhibited and some now adorn her house. Despite an active life, always enjoying the outdoors, tennis and travelling, Ann was dogged with cancer problems and their side effects over her latter years, but she handled them all with calm, patience and a determined and disciplined will to deal with them, accept her treatment and move on: she never complained. She received tremendous support and skilful treatment from Dr. Leslie Levin and the staff of Dr. Oza's Clinic at Princess Margaret Hospital and from Dr. Katzberg at the Toronto General Hospital, as well as from the nursing staff of both hospitals, to whom our heartfelt thanks are expressed. We are also very grateful for the support given by Dr. Hannon and Dr. Fitzgerald at Princess Margaret Hospital. Ann greatly loved her friends and was so grateful for their support through her recent years of battling with cancer; they were always there for her when she needed. A huge thank you to everyone. No flowers, please, but donations may be made to the Princess Margaret Hospital, or to your preferred charity. Cremation has taken place, followed by a private service A celebration of Ann's life will be held at a later date.