It is with sadness that we announce the death of Deborah Edwards. Deb was the beloved mother of Alyssa and Meghan (John), and devoted grandmother of Norah.
Deb loved fiercely and widely, most notably her found family in Loas (Thong), her nieces (the sisters), nephews and great niblings, honorary grandchild Maxwell, and her circle of close friends. She also leaves behind her pup, Matilda, who brought her great joy in the last few years of her life.
Deb worked with devotion and great conviction in the not-for-profit housing sector in Ottawa for more than 40 years. She was incredibly passionate about her work, and instilled her sense of justice and deep care for community in her children, who carry on her legacy in their own work in art and policy.
Deb loved to travel, and lived overseas in her younger years. She took her kids, and later grandkid, to the sea, and taught them to love the ocean as much as she did, recently returning to Cape Cod with her daughter Meghan (a place Deb visited with her parents as a child, and where she took her young children as well). She also traveled this fall with her daughter Alyssa to Paris (her favorite city in the world), where she finally saw Monet's waterlilies at L'Orangerie and ate a croissant every day. Deb Although was well known for tales of her travels, we know she drew particular strength from these two trips in her final days, and from her summer spent at the cottage with her loved ones.
We know we will find her in the sand and the sea, in art and in stories, in returning to the places she loved, and in one another.
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to Minwaashin Lodge or The Ottawa Food Bank. Whether or not a donation is within your means, please remember Deb by loving hard and wide.
A celebration of Deb's life will be held on Thursday, February 29 from 4-7 pm at the Funeral Co-operative of Ottawa at 419 St. Laurent Boulevard, with service and speeches beginning at 4:30