Mary Ann Slattery never met a stranger.
That's how her family is remembering the well-known Newmarket resident who passed away on Sept. 30.
Her husband, Terry Slattery, and their daughters Shannon Ellis and Kelly Slattery, said that means she was always helping people.
Slattery was born on April 24, 1948. She grew up in Toronto and eventually ended up raising her family in Newmarket, where she fell in love with the town. She had a career in real estate until she was diagnosed with MS. She was later diagnosed with cancer. Seven or eight years ago she beat it but it came back about a year ago.
Terry said they were at Southlake's cancer centre regularly for treatments and he recalls one story that exemplifies how Slattery cared for everyone she met, even strangers.
Before going into her appointment they checked in with the receptionist who appeared to be having a bad day and was a little abrupt with Mary Ann. After her appointment, she went and got a coffee and brought it to the receptionist.
"She walked over to the receptionist who had treated her so poorly an hour prior to that, and I said to her after 'why did you do that?' She said, 'Well, the woman's just having a bad day, that doesn't make her a bad person. I thought it would cheer her up.' That's my wife in a nutshell, that's the type of person she was," Terry said.
On a larger scale, Slattery organized the annual MS walk in Newmarket for a number of years and found a space in town for people with MS to come together for exercise or just support.
She was also part of a group called Knit or Knot that made little hats for babies in the hospital, until the COVID-19 pandemic, when they began making masks and ear saver straps with buttons for medical staff to hook the elastics of their masks to to take the pressure off their ears.
Slattery raised money for the Margaret Bahen Hospice, Stronach Regional Cancer Centre at Southlake, volunteered with the food pantry, and even became certified in reiki to help people with their own healing.
"That was typical of Mary Ann. She saw a problem, she saw a way of improving it or correcting it, more often than not she would do the best she could to make it happen,” Terry said.
For all of her efforts, she was named Newmarket's citizen of the year not once but twice.
"She loves Newmarket. She loved her neighbours, she loved the neighbourhood, she loved Main Street," Kelly said. "We went to the farmers market because she loved it down there and it's like walking through with Angelina Jolie because everyone is stopping... everybody knows Mary Ann and they all want to chit chat with her."
Her connection with people is one thing that stood out to her family throughout her life. Even back in high school, Kelly and Shannon said their mom was one of the favourite parents and their friends would turn to her for advice.
"She makes people feel good about themselves. She makes people feel like she's celebrating them just by being who she is. She acknowledges their greatness," Kelly said.
She shared a memory of her mom that has stuck with her. Last April while visiting her parents, Kelly caught a glimpse of her reflection and made some kind of negative comment about it. Slattery immediately stopped her.
"She's like 'Don't do that. You need to look in the mirror and you need to say I'm perfect'," Kelly said, adding that her mom, as one of her dying wishes then challenged her to do it every time she sees her reflection.
"Always acknowledge how perfect you are because you are and eventually you're going to believe it if you don't believe it now," she said her mom told her.
Since then Kelly has carried on that challenge and shared it with other women she sees all over the place, calling it the I'm Perfect Challenge to encourage more women to look at themselves positively.
"She wasn't trying to be a saint, she was just the quintessential person if the world had more Mary Ann, it would be a nicer place to be," Terry said.
One of her longest relationships was with Terry, her husband of 53 years. Terry said it was love at first sight when he met Slattery at an event.
"I went over and introduced myself and I not only introduced myself I said 'you know what? You and I are going to get married and we're going to have five kids and a piano. The first time I met her," he said.
However, there was a roadblock to their romance. Shortly after that meeting Slattery was due to enter a convent. The pair would send letters back in forth, which Terry said he has saved, and after a while Slattery and even the nuns at the convent acknowledged it was not her calling.
The couple got together and were eventually married, however they only had two kids and Terry said he's not sure what happened to the piano.
In the seconds before she passed, Terry said he gave his wife one last kiss and then she peacefully closed her eyes.
Slattery's final days prior to her death were spent at Southlake. Not only did she wait for one last kiss from her husband, but she also made sure to hold on long enough to spend time with Shannon and her husband, Geoffry Ellis, who had to make the trip from South Carolina.
While they were travelling against all odds with the hurricane on the East Coast, Terry said that Slattery was refusing pain medication because she didn't want to sleep and miss seeing all her loved ones.
“We got to spend some great time with my mom and she passed about 24 hours later,” Shannon said.
During her last stay at Southlake, Slattery's family said she was developed such great relationships with the staff and wanted to thank them for all their hard work. Her daughters said Slattery wanted them to name the staff in her obituary but there were too many to include them all.
However, they did acknowledge one staff member, a porter named Peter Campbell who visited their mom every single day and Kelly said she hopes he knows how much their mom appreciated those visits and his kindness.
In her obituary, the family also directed people to donate to the Terry Fox Foundation. The choice not only honours her battle against cancer but is also a cause close to Kelly's heart. Kelly is a movie producer and is working on a project to make a feature film about Terry Fox. The film will raise money for cancer research.
Shortly after her mom's passing, Kelly said she contacted Terry Fox's brother, Darrell, who she has worked with on her film, about setting up a special link through the foundation to honour her mom and collect donations. The next day that page was live and has now raised more than $3,000.
“My mom actually thought she might be able to make it for us to win the Oscar in 2024, which we will with this film and we’ll do amazing things with it and raise a lot of money for cancer so other families don’t have to through this, but she will be there," Kelly said.
Kelly lives in Venice, California with husband Delaney Miller, while Shannon, her husband and their daughter Grace Victoria Ellis are in South Carolina. They said it was tough being away from their mom while she was sick. Terry is still living in Newmarket. Slattery is also missed by her sister, Susan Dickinson.
A visitation is being held at Roadhouse and Rose on Friday, Oct. 14 from 1 to 3 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. The following day a funeral service will be held at Newmarket's St. Elizabeth Seton Parish at 1 p.m.
