It is with great sadness in my family that I announce the passing of our matriarch, Leda McLeod-Shabogesic (nee Couchie). She passed yesterday afternoon, January 17, 2007. Grandma leaves behind an proud and amazing legacy, her family. Dwyla, Fred (Kay), Eleanor (Albert), Linda (Henry), Leda, Joan, Barbara, Theresa, Lori-anne, Jacqueline (Glen), Jeanette, Phyllis (John), Angus, Larry (Darlene), Darlene, Deborah (Derrick), Nancy (Peter), Tammy (Conrad), and many more grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We will miss her greatly, in the community of Nipissing First Nation and in her church, the Holy Spirit Parish on Garden Village. She was an elder in the church and travelled to the Holy Land and seen Pope John Paul II in Midland, Ontario back in 1984. Before Christmas, I visited her in the hospital and gave her a floral arrangement with a beautiful, copper church-spire. If she couldn’t go to church, I would bring the church to her. On my last visit with her, last Saturday, it was really moving. She was in palliative care during her last days. She had been almost 30 days without food and very little water. She wasn’t responsive, expect for responding to pain. However, during my visit, she attempted to wake. She tried to speak and asked for water. My aunt Nancy and Lee spoke to her. When Nancy said “and Bobby’s here”… she responded and tried hard to open here eyes. As Lee and Nancy held her and whispered to her, she was responsive and was aware that she was being cared for and wasn’t alone. She passed peacefully among many of her children after a afternoon prayer vigil in her hospital room.
