Dear Helen and Bryce, we are so sorry for your loss. Please accept our condolences.
Bryce:
It is with extreme sadness that I read of the passing of Katherine. My thoughts are with you and your family. Although I did not know Katherine as well as your other children, my heart goes out to everyone in your family affected by this news. My sincerest condolences.
Although Gord and I never knew Katherine personally, we are lucky to know her thorough Jenn. She sounded like a beautifully talented person.
A poem that helped me through a loss:
"When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night. "
Katherine was a sparking spirit, an old soul, a profound inspiration to me and so many others. I knew her as a kind, brave teenager in Ottawa and then in Montreal, where she was a leader as well as an artist, a guiding light, and she will remain that for every one of us. I am so sorry for the family's loss and wish I could be present at the memorial in July.
i knew katherine slightly more than peripherally from the montreal music scene, through our mutual friend, mike wray. i saw her play in so many shapes and sizes of groups, from solo to her massive opera. i admired her immensely. she was beautiful and constantly disarmingly honest as person and performer. when i was last in montreal, we played a show together at mike's house. it was a magical night of reconnection with my old friends. we both played solo sets. katherine played after me. her set was shattering, brutal, colossal and beautiful. i sat at the back of the room, on a piano bench, and cried. later katherine and i stood in the garden and i said that her soft songs would sound really good loud, and she, almost smiling, defended the softness and the fragility of them. she told me plainly that she had been so sad and could not shake it. she left abruptly, the conversation and the party. that was katherine to me, true to the marrow of her bones, sad, brilliant, and gone to soon. peace & love to her family and her musical family. xo/pj