MARY PRUDENCE ELIZABETH MACNUTT

MARY PRUDENCE ELIZABETH MACNUTT (B.A., Hons. History, M.J.) May 29, 1957 -January 7, 2024. Career political, social, and environmental activist, journalist, wonderful friend. Peacefully at St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, due to complications from the catastrophic spinal cord injury sustained when she was struck by a mammoth rogue wave while she was swimming near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on December 9th. Mary's life was driven by compassion, curiosity, and courage. She was fiercely independent, deeply intelligent, and delightfully scatty. She had a profound respect for history and the written word. She had a gift for friendship, a talent for fun, and took much joy in living. It began in Fredericton. Her father, William Stewart MacNutt was the pre-eminent historian and Dean of Arts at The University of New Brunswick, while her mother Mary Bernice (née Gunn) stepped away from teaching to support her husband and nurture Mary, their only child. Mary recalled a perfect childhood-Sunday roast beef suppers and playing in the woods behind their home with real and imaginary friends, and her cat Puff. She spent the summers with kin in rural New Brunswick, and especially loved her many maiden aunts on her mother's side, whose great-grandparents emigrated from Scotland during the Highland Clearances. 'At night, we'd sit by the wood stove in the kitchen; I felt so 'safe'. Her father's side was in Prince Edward Island; there was a farm near Sussex where they'd all gather in the summer, including her Uncle Walter (Bunny), who would come back east from Toronto. Mary would smack her lips thinking about the lobster suppers with those relatives, descendants of the first Loyalists to arrive in The Maritimes. Mary was never interested in typical teenage preoccupations. Instead, she was consumed by the tides of change. 'I was always aware of a bigger world,' she said. She understood and believed in the messages of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and Trudeaumania. She and her friend Malliha Wilson would skip classes to watch the Watergate hearings. Inspired by Woodward and Bernstein (and later by Mary Tyler Moore's Mary Richards character), she dreamed of being a journalist. In 1972 Mary and her family sailed across the Atlantic for her father to spend the year researching in England. When they returned a year later, tragedy struck: Mary's mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died a year and a half later. The next February, while at school in Neuchatel, Switzerland, Mary received a letter from her father saying he was recovering from surgery. She got home in July-he was sick, also of cancer. He died in February 1976. Mary was already studying for her BA in History at UNB. With no immediate family, she sold the house and took an apartment downtown. She grew even closer to her friend Beth Bishop, whose family opened their doors and hearts to comfort her. She earned her Master of Journalism at Carleton University and then took a reporting job at the Saint John Telegraph-Journal. She lasted a year. She craved adventure and wanted to cover history as it was unfolding. Her friend Malliha was back in New Brunswick after completing law school, and one winter's day, they packed up Mary's car and drove through storms to start their new lives in Toronto. Mary soon landed a job at CTV News, where she stacked the line-up at the morning show with items on geo-politics, Liberation Theology, and the struggles in Africa. There she made her next lifelong friend, Daniel Gelfant, another budding and ambitious producer. He, barely out of the closet and estranged from his family in Vancouver; she, an orphan and new to Toronto-their profound bond was instant; they promised to take care of each other forever. She moved over to CBC but chafed under the confines of objective journalism. For Mary, there was often no 'other side' to a story, especially when it came to social justice and refugees. She did volunteer work for the liberation of southern Africa and to preserve our fragile planet. She, and then decided it was time to become a full-time activist. She held important positions at Greenpeace Canada and in Washington D.C. Then in 2001, she too was diagnosed with cancer. She turned to history to battle and triumph over it. She read Churchill's biographies, finding strength in his wartime speech in which he implored Britons: 'we must gird our loins'. Mary returned to full-time work at numerous smaller Canadian NGOs, focusing on health care in Ontario. The-late Charles Pascal respected Mary's intellect and commitment and hired her at the prestigious Atkinson Foundation. Mary also took contracts to help build civil societies in dangerous places, including The Republic of Congo. Always, Mary was reluctant to talk about her specific roles and accomplishments. For example, in some of Greenpeace's biggest 'actions' in California, she claimed she was only a part of a greater effort, when in fact she played a key part in organizing and executing them. At The Association of Ontario Heath Centres, Mary was the consummate mentor but insisted she was privileged to learn from new recruits. Mary's downtown Toronto home was a gathering point for her widening chosen clan, which included the gifted Eugene Mazzei who, bit by bit, created an homage to Mary's family and roots within the four walls of her narrow Victorian. She provided a secure and warm life for her beloved companions: a series of cats with Brontë-esque names: Patience, Prudence, Walter, Elliot, Tilly, William, and Victor. At her annual bacchanalian fireside Christmas party, new and old friends feasted, while her activist buddies plotted their next moves. Everyone basked in Mary's generosity and was better for it. She was intrepid. She loved to travel with friends but was content to do so on her own. She drove in the death-defying traffic of Sri Lanka, slept under the stars and heard the lions roar in Zimbabwe; she criss-crossed rural Japan. With Eugene, she explored India, where she returned many times, once with Tassie (Anastasia) Notar whom she met at the CBC. With Daniel (and later his husband Allan), she indulged in the pleasures of Italy, France, and Greece, and accompanied him to trace his Jewish roots in Eastern Europe. She loved the bohemian snowbird colony in Yelapa, Mexico where she would join Eugene, Shannon McConnell, and Shannon's husband Andrij Molodecky, among others. When she retired, Eugene transformed her third floor into a painting studio, where together, she and Tassie let their artistic talents blossom. They travelled for painting workshops, and enjoyed yoga retreats with Pam Bertrand, another friend from her CBC days. She was a voracious reader, a fabulous cook and loved watching a good TV series. She adored swimming in the ocean and exclaimed to Tassie: 'this is glorious' just moments before disaster struck. Weeks later in the hospital, when Mary knew that her end was near, she admitted: 'The wave won.' Mary had many, many more plans for herself and for her friends, none of whom can imagine life without her: she has left an immense, unfillable void. From her hospital bed, Mary worried about every one of them, no matter how far away they were, nor how long since they'd last been together. She meticulously controlled what people were told about her condition, to whom it was said, and when. She didn't want to upset them too much. Her friends thank Dr. Tavis Apramian and the team at St. Mike's Palliative Care for giving her back control of her life and providing comfort in her final days. Mary leaves her cousins, Stewart and Rita MacCrae, Ann and Janet Cameron, and Elizabeth Eayrs. She was pre-deceased by her aunt Gertrude Gunn and Walter (Bunny) MacNutt, as well as chosen family members Alix Hall and Candice Head. A private ceremony cremation was held before cremation; Details of a memorial will be announced and held in the spring. Mary's ashes will be interred next to her parents, in Fredericton. Donations in Mary's memory to the Fund for Indigenous Scholarship, Faculty of Arts, University of New Brunswick, or Stand.earth