KATSUE NAGAMATSU

KATSUE NAGAMATSU May 2, 1916 - June 9, 2015 It is with sorrow and with an abiding sense of loss that we announce the passing of our mother Katsue. In her 100th year, she passed away with grace, at peace and with a spirit undaunted by the cancer which took her life. Mother always believed she lived a full and enriched life. Despite the hardships incurred by the war-time relocation, she and our father Denshin, who has long since passed away, toiled with unbent dignity and optimism to regain a farm lost. Well after the war and not too far from mother's birth home, their last farm was in Mt. Lehman, BC. They grew berries, rhubarb and daffodils amongst other things. Mother ran that farm even after dad had passed away. In her retirement years she enjoyed her independence, learned to drive, travelled and played gaji (hanafuda) regularly with her lady friends. Later, she enjoyed bingo and blackjack with her friends at Yee Hong. However her must-have enjoyments were her outings for quarter chicken dark with fries and especially, her twice weekly game of gaji with Nancy and Henry. It seemed to me that mother was always extraordinarily lucky at cards. Perhaps a result of a life well lived. Mother had four children: Seiko (Seiji Takeuchi); Jean (Masaru Takeuchi); Roy who has passed away (Amy) and Nancy (Henry Sumi). Mother loved her thirteen grandchildren and seventeen great- grandchildren. She delighted in watching the children play at her side. Mother's late parents Jisaburo and Shimae Nakano had seven children, six of whom including mother have passed away: her sisters Shizue Nakano, Fumiye Gyotoku, Kiyo Nagamatsu and Kasumi Okabe and brother Junichi Nakano. We are happy that her youngest sister Asaye Amemori is with us to share her love. Thank you to the caring staff at the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care, Finch, where mother enjoyed her last years. Mother had planned her inurnment and funeral. As she requested, a private family service will be held with Rev. Ryuhei Endo presiding. Mother is to be laid to rest together with her husband's ashes in Highland Memory Gardens.