Sascha ARMOUR

SASCHA ARMOUR
Sarah Jane Orford Mavor Armour / Sascha Mavor / Mrs. JK Armour / Sascha Armour. She had many names. Family lore has it that Sarah Jane became Sascha thanks to a cat of the same name who lived in the Russian embassy beside her childhood Ottawa home. Or, perhaps she was named after a daughter of Leo Tolstoy, a close friend of her grandfather, Prof. James Mavor.

Her children, grandchildren, and nieces and nephew, friends and family knew her as Mum, Nana, Aunt Sascha, and simply Sascha, to whom death came quietly in Port Hope on July 29, 2017 in her 87th year.

Sascha was predeceased by the love of her life, her husband John Kay Armour, by her sister Catherine 'Bunty' Mavor, and parents Brig. Gen. Wilfrid 'Smoot' Mavor and Winifred "Winnie" Neville O'Connor. Sascha leaves in unrelenting sadness Kathleen (Jim Veale, deceased), Douglas (Mary Li), Robert (Rowena Hou), Norman (Lorna Brown), Eric (Elizabeth King), and Judith (Ray Westcott); grandchildren Darby, Darel, and Mara, Nic, Jessie, Sascha, Emma, and Douglas; and great-grandchildren Olivia, Madelyn, Audrey, and Isaac, and nieces Kate and Stephanie, Jenny, and Deborah, and nephew Malcolm. Born in Ottawa on October 20, 1930, Sascha had an adventurous and fulfilled life, which took her from Canada to Great Britain, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and parts in between. Sascha spent much of her youth traveling with her military family. She was a founding member of the Ottawa Range Road Gang and was known to throw a mean snowball, weather permitting; she carried a gas mask with her school lunch during the London blitz; successfully escaped from a Catholic girls' school in Switzerland; learned to shoulder a canoe at Camp Tanamakoon; lived among diplomats in Washington and London; and was briefly a translator at the League of Nations.

Sascha met her husband-to-be on a blind date at a 48th Highlanders dance. Newly-wed, Sascha and John left Canada in 1951 for Kilembe, Uganda where John helped build a copper mine and Sascha helped build their life among expats and nationals. Five years later, alarmed by the regional unrest of the Mau-Mau uprising, they returned with their growing family to Canada. They settled briefly in the wilds of northern Ontario before establishing themselves in an old Toronto home that would become a Canadian pied-á-terre to friends and relatives from around the world. Sascha lived and loved at the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon; was a volunteer emeritus at the Art Gallery of Ontario; and received awards for her tireless contributions to community heritage. She was a friend from away to Scottish, Irish, and English relatives, and was variously a chauffeur / doctor / nurse / accountant / truant officer / banker / French teacher / cheerleader / psychiatrist and legal counsel to her tribe of six children and the occasional dog. Her thematic birthday cakes, composed of sugar-coated tanks, licorice cowboy wagons, and plastic farm animals, and her curated birthday outings to fire stations and maple syrup farms were legend. She gave her children an internationalist outlook, teaching them to respect all creeds and colours, and to curse in German so few would know. Her fridge was always full; her Mayfair Day Parade preparations unparalleled; her household an oasis for neighbourhood children.

Embarking on what would be their final adventure, Sascha and John moved to Port Hope, where they found a strong sense of community and kinship through their involvement in preserving and promoting local heritage and where, while preparing sit-down Christmas dinners often of 20 or more, many a turkey caught fire in their home much to the delight of grandchildren and the unease of guests.

Sascha lived with grace, a keen interest in others, a strong adherence to liberal humanitarian values, and with a sense of adventure and a belief in the wonder and potential of life, an enthusiasm she inspired in her children and shared with friends and relatives and countless others she met, if only briefly, along the way. 'There are no rewards for pessimism,' she would say. She came quietly, lived conscientiously, and left surrounded by loved ones. Already, she is dearly missed.

Her children send their gratitude to Dr. Lino Durante, Alisha Henry, Linda Zerf, Wendy Giroux, Lori Sturzenegger, the angels of Saint Elizabeth (Nurse Ashley, Rowena, Denise, Linda, Laurie, and Valerie), local staff of the Community Care Access Centre, ICU and nursing staff and doctors of the Northumberland Hospital, and to countless friends and family for their kindness and their compassion. At Sascha's request, there will be neither a funeral service nor flowers to mark her passing. Her parting wish was simple: 'Give someone you love an extra hug and a kiss.' A family wake will be held at a future date.