Kathryn Jill RIGBY

KATHYRN JILL RIGBY Jill passed away peacefully with family around her on August 23, 2023. Jill was born in St. Catharines, Ontario on March 7, 1954 - the year Hurricane Hazel famously came to town. Like Hazel, Jill was a force of nature. The eldest of four children, the family moved to Toronto when her father T. Alec Rigby, bought Ripley's Believe It or Not! Growing up, she developed a love of nature and everything outdoors, was an excellent skier and sailor. Not a fan of school, at a young age Jill was sent off to a strict Anglican girl's school in Southern Quebec. There she wore a black armband for the soldiers in Vietnam and, as a result, endured "solitary confinement." She returned to Toronto after two years and promptly ran away from home. She ended up at Rochdale College and later a house on Howland Avenue, living with people who believed they were from the lost city of Atlantis. Jill eventually went on to complete high school and study liberal arts at the University of Toronto. She landed her first real job in 1978 at the Toronto Star which inspired her ambition to be a journalist, and to this end she moved to New York to study at Columbia University. The lure of the city was great, and she was known to visit Studio 54. Her thesis adviser once asked her: "Miss Rigby, are you here to do a masters in journalism or New York City nightlife?" After finishing her M.A. she worked for CBC TV, CFTO TV in Canada and ABC TV in Paris. She lived in Costa Rica and Egypt and spoke three languages. Her love of writing and photography, combined with her free spirit, came together perfectly when she became a columnist and Travel Editor of the Toronto Sun in 1986. Sending dispatches from the top of the world (Mount Everest) to the most remote places (the Galapagos Islands), Jill's words and pictures filled the paper's pages for 15 years. At the age of 40, she met the love of her life, Richard Meech. An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, Richard shared Jill's passion for travel, culture, and nature. The next 25 years were an adventure for both - travelling, writing, filming. Jill's creativity even took a new turn when in 2013 at the age of 59 she decided to do a fine arts degree at OCAD to combine her talents at photography and painting - though initially she had no portfolio to speak of. No matter, she was accepted. Jill and Richard then decided to spend the next chapter of their lives on an island in the Salish Sea. They packed up and moved to a beautiful home on Salt Spring Island, surrounded by seals in the water and eagles in the sky. They had three blissful years. In 2018 tragedy struck and Richard died of sepsis, 48 hours after undergoing a routine biopsy. The inadequate care he received and subsequent death could have broken Jill; instead, she worked tirelessly for more than three years in pursuit of investigations into how the BC health system and medical professionals failed to protect Richard. Important changes made as a direct result of these investigations have undoubtedly already saved lives and spared other families the pain of unnecessary and preventable death of a loved one. Not long after, Jill began her own battle when she was diagnosed with very rare metastatic histiocytic lobular triple negative breast cancer. She returned to Toronto to undergo surgery and treatment, too many to count. Throughout, she impressed her doctors with her ability to understand the intricacies of her cancer and treatments. Her sharp intelligence during that time enabled her to established the K. Jill Rigby and Richard G. Meech Foundation to support research into rare forms of breast cancer and, to a lesser extent, to provide funding for the protection of our environment (focusing on the preservation of certain animal species). Her philanthropic giving began with a contribution to the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care at Mount Sinai Hospital to support the Centre's leadership in palliative medicine research and clinical innovation. In her last days she embraced "the possibility of becoming energy," of being again with Richard "together in a way which has no words, has no form, is pure and undefined." A force of nature. Jill was predeceased by her husband Richard Meech (2018), her father Thomas Alexander Rigby (2013), her mother Joan Elizabeth Clarke (2021) and her stepfather Larry Denman Clarke (2015). Jill is survived by her siblings: Thomas (Wendy), Kenzie, Olivia, and Keegan Rigby; Penny (Peter Lydon) Tom and Anna Lydon; Sally Rigby and Katie and Stephanie Donaldson; her half -siblings, Romain and Emma Rigby; their mother, Arlette Ravet Rigby; and her step-siblings, Ian, Sarah, Colley, Alex, Adrienne, and Andrew Clarke. The Rigby family would like to thank the following people for the support and care they gave Jill; the family of Richard Meech, Medical Oncologists Dr. Jerzak at Sunnybrook Odette Centre, Toronto and Dr. Simmons at BC Cancer, Vancouver; as well as Sarah Sample at BC Cancer and Dr. Russell Goldman at Temmy Latner, Emily from St. Elizabeth and all her caregivers, especially Nadia. Should you wish to remember Jill, please consider a charitable donation to her foundation, the K. Jill Rigby and Richard G. Meech Foundation. Donations may be made by cheque payable to: "Charitable Gift Funds Canada Foundation, c/o the K. Jill Rigby and Richard G. Meech Foundation", and should be sent to the Estate of K. Jill Rigby, c/o Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP, 100 King Street West, Suite 1600, Toronto, ON M5X 1G5, Attention: Christine Perry. Donations may also be made online by accessing www.easydonate.com/rigby. Condolences may be forwarded through www.humphreymiles.com.