Linda Ann PATCHETT

Linda Ann Patchett passed away peacefully at her Lombardy home on April 5, 2022 from ovarian cancer, at the age of 64. The sun was shining on her through the window, the snow was melting and birds were chirping outside - indicators of the changing seasons. While Linda's passing marks a sad transition for her many friends and family, you can bet there were a few squirrels eyeing her bird feeders with newfound hope. Let us start there.
Linda was always a fierce protector of the birds and what they stood for. If a pesky squirrel dared approach her bird feeder, she would put on her cowboy hat, storm out the back door in her housecoat and put the fear of God in them. To call her A Guardian of the Chickadee - complete with connotations of super-hero proportions - would not be an overstatement. This was but one of many superhero roles that speak to the larger-than-life character of Linda Patchett.
Linda's early days, before she rose to superhero status, were spent in Holland Landing honing her physical and mental prowess through the usual fighting and pranks with her siblings - Catherine (Kevan) Adams, Allan (Lilly), Lee (Christine), and her predeceased brother James. She was sometimes supervised by her parents (William Patchett and the late Marjorie (Bowers)) but had enough free rein to get bumps and bruises and learn how to look after herself.
She quickly demonstrated her potential through excelling at athletics, and working at least two jobs at a time throughout high school to pay for post-secondary education. Immigrants from Scotland and England, no previous generation in her family had gone to university.
At Wilfred Laurier University she was trained in the superpowers of a teacher and would make her mark primarily as a guidance counsellor - assisting generations of students at SFDCI in the greater journeys in life, beyond just one course, or semester, or what one could read in books.
Following her graduation from Laurier, Linda got married (Keith Marble) and had three sons - Kris Marble, Ryan Patchett-Marble (Sayali) and Josh Marble (Boryana). She would later get divorced, but fall in love again (predeceased by Alexander "Wayne" Stevenson). In addition to being a mom and coaching dozens of her sons' sports teams, she volunteered to make her community a better place - coaching high school sports, organising community events, and starting the first Peer Helpers Program at SFDCI. She would run a marathon, travel the world, and write books of poetry. She would build her private paradise in the woods and call this home "3 suns".
She had many worldly achievements, but to understand her greatest superpower we must leave behind labels and knowing and enter into the great mystery. Beyond logic, and impossible to capture with words, this power might be described as a spark, a radiance or a zest. It had to do with how she made people feel - words like special, appreciated, alive and present would all be approximations of this feeling. In Linda's story, this intangible energy is represented by the most unlikely of things - a pair of shiny red shoes. You see, when she was a child, she wasn't allowed to buy a pair of shiny red shoes because they looked so ridiculous to others. But she liked them anyway - for those shiny red shoes represented feeling, spirit, and spontaneity. They represented fun and throwing caution to the wind. They symbolised the spirit that doesn't have to be logical or conforming. They were full of life. Living in an orderly society that sometimes trivialises the spirit of the Shiny Red Shoes, she spent her life finding other ways to cultivate and express this energy.
For example, to honour a retiring fellow teacher (who taught Home Ec), she delivered a speech at a high school assembly while wearing a ridiculous chef hat - spatula waving around in hand. Her three teenage sons were sitting petrified in the audience, hopeful that - different last names and all - the rest of the school might not make the association that she was their mother. At least that's what they liked to say. Secretly they were always proud that their mother could bring out the life in others with her unpredictability, fun, and willingness to look silly.
The chef speech was but an omen of things to come. Let's just say that her speeches at her sons' weddings were more heartfelt and unpredictable, and with many more props than the high school assembly speeches. Her power of the Shiny Red Shoes was so great that she could deliver these epic 20+ minute wedding speeches while everyone was waiting for dinner, and the audience would forget about their empty bellies - so pulled into the moment by her presence and heart. As an ode to her style, this tribute too will be longer than anyone expected, but hopefully full of heart, fun and unpredictability. She would've liked that.
Linda could enjoy just about any activity. She could be the life of the party when spending time with her friends and family, or equally comfortable spending solitary time in nature with the birds. While she enjoyed a wide range of activities, including most notably kayaking and board games, her favourite pastime by far was being a Nana to her five grandchildren (Ronik, Tejas, Reva, Kali and Raina). This would allow her to really express the spirit of those Shiny Red Shoes - returning to a childlike innocence complete with spontaneity and wonder. She could be extra-goofy. She could even justify writing a book called "Topees" (Marathi word for "hats") which featured no less than 172 pictures of her first grandchild wearing different hats. She produced an 88-page rhyming book exclusively about the adventures of her cat Oliver, that her grandkids still enjoy reading today.
Her writing wasn't all about goofy topics for kids though - she produced numerous books of poetry that entered the sacred realms and brought back lessons about love, loss and the mother (among other topics). Her poetry reminds us of an experience in consciousness that is full of paradoxes, and like the power of the Shiny Red Shoes, words can only approximate. This place in consciousness might be described as the sacred container, or the source, or the eternal Now - capable of holding all the seriousness of logic with laughter and playfulness, knowing that logic both originates here, and ends here when it binds itself into paradox. She carried that energy.
Linda finally bought a pair of shiny red shoes, and as her death approached they did not disappoint. She had become physically too weak to be the Guardian of the Chickadee anymore as she could no longer scare away those pesky squirrels, so she laid down her cape and called on her greatest superpower. With the shiny red shoes sitting at the foot of her bed, and its energy blazing in her spirit - she observed from the window with playfulness and equanimity the eternal dance of the birds and the squirrels. She was showing us that it was never about pitting the squirrels against the birds, or death against life. It's a dance. The energy of the Shiny Red Shoes could be taken so deeply as to enter that container of pure witnessing - a place so peaceful that all concepts and dichotomies are transcended, even life and death. Logic and words can never take us there. This was Linda's true gift - it was the spark that drew people in, and the spark people carried with them when they left her presence. While she has left our physical presence, we still feel her spark.
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Linda and her family are grateful to her innumerable friends, neighbours and healthcare workers who helped make her life and death so fulfilling. There are too many to mention but you know who you are. In addition to the family mentioned above, Linda is survived by many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. With sincere gratitude to you all for your presence in her life.
Her family is planning for a small Celebration of Life to take place in the summertime. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society.