Kowalchuk, Anne (Annie) 1943-2023

Anne (Annie) Kowalchuk, 1943 – 2023

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Anne (nee MacPhee), loving wife of the late Harold Kowalchuk, mother to Michael, Lisa, and Steven, on April 14, 2023, at the age of 79, in St. Catharine’s, Ontario. A Prince Edward Islander to the core, our Annie left the island soon after finishing high-school for the employment horizons of Ontario, but the island never left her. The first of seven siblings to head to Ontario (a few more would later follow the same path), she remained a devoted daughter to her parents Felix and Winnifred. She loved spending time with her siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews, and aunts from back “home” whenever she could. Most summers while her kids were growing up, vacations to her home town of Souris were a joyous adventure for the whole family. Anne grew up in a time and place where post-secondary studies were still out of reach for a fisherman’s daughter. But her razor-sharp mathematical mind and accounting acumen served her well throughout her work life, starting with one of the first Ontario jobs she landed in a Hamilton bank, later in a 2-year stint as owner-manager of The Blyth Inn (“The Boot”) in the 1970s, and finally in her position as book-keeper for a thriving trucking business in Brantford, which she excelled in for over two decades. Anne shared many fond stories of being taught by the kindly nuns at St. Mary’s Convent School in Souris where she completed her primary and middle schooling. She maintained her Catholicism through her life, never missing weekly mass.  An excellent baker who always had a pot of tea going, she was also extremely handy with a sewing machine. She was cool-headed in any crisis, yet she had a dry and irreverent sense of humour which included an appreciation for the bizarre and the silly. Anne’s life and happiness revolved around the company and well-being of her husband of 61 years, Harold, and her three children. She was fiercely protective of all of them, and would go to the ends of the earth for them. We will miss her dearly.

Cremation has taken place. Memorial mass to take place at St. Mary’s Church in Brantford, Ontario, on April 27, at 11:00 am. In lieu of flowers, donations in Anne’s name to the Alzheimer’s Society would be greatly appreciated.