Grannie Wonderful, Our North Star
Grannie Wonderful, or Diane Weldon Pitfield McAvoy, is our North Star.
She left us on September 1st, 2018. She passed away in Ottawa while part of her family, including a bunch of our founding members, were enjoying themselves on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She wouldn’t have held it against us for not being by her side: after all, the Labour Day tradition on the Cape was something she herself had started.
Grannie Wonderful was born into the best circumstances imaginable. She learned good manners, along with the ins and outs of the society she lived in. She was a keen observer of the world around her, with the intelligence to understand it, the curiosity to explore it, and the kindness to want to help it.
She was resourceful and courageous, and never just for her own sake! A unifier, you said? Or maybe deeply reassuring? That’s exactly what she was.
Born in Montreal, having spent time in Toronto (and of course, on Cape Cod), she eventually made Ottawa her home base. She roamed, as they say, and her children did the same. One of her daughters even crossed the Atlantic again to settle there. After all, an ocean is just another distance, easily crossed when bonds are so strong.
Grannie Wonderful was the kind of woman who breathed courage into you with just a whisper, her brightest smile lighting the way:
“Go on! Fly! You can do this! I’m so proud of you! You don’t need me! You’ll come back to warm yourself here whenever you like, you’ll always be welcome in my home. Off you go! Yes, yes, yes, I love you too! Now run along! Kisses!”
That was her art: the art of loving without trying to mold others in her own image. The art of letting them discover, on their own, the paths of their hearts.
Visiting Grannie Wonderful meant knowing with certainty that no state of mind of ours would ever be turned away, she welcomed all with intelligence and tenderness. She had seen plenty in her lifetime, and she judged none of it. It was comforting, but more than that, it made you want to open up. And, as if that weren’t enough, when our stories risked causing a diplomatic incident, Grannie was there to warn us and guide us.
She had mastered all the codes, but she never kept them to herself! She shared them generously with anyone fortunate enough to ask for her wisdom. To say she was loving is almost redundant. For us, saying we love is the same as saying we are Grannie. That’s how much she embodied it.
Everyone wanted to talk to her. Her living room overflowed with visitors, and the door to her study was always open. Grannie Wonderful took as much joy in sharing her own stories, entertaining us and helping us put things in perspective, as she did in listening to our worries, our fears, and our regrets.
Diane Weldon Pitfield McEvoy founded several charities and university programs, often from scratch, but always in good company. She became, among other things, Director of Practicum at Saint Paul University: group therapy was her calling. She was made for it, her guidance and her presence were so precious that when her attention was on us alone, it almost felt like we were stealing a little bit of her from the rest of the world. Better to share, then! And besides, in a group, things are always brighter.
At least, that’s what we believe, and so we keep our eyes fixed on our North Star: Grannie Wonderful.