STORIES OF OUR FAMILIES
To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root.
Charles Ronald Straghan MACKENZIE
The MacKenzie brothers, Barbados
l/r Dr. Ron, Doug, Neil, David - around 1987
Charles Ronald Straghan (Ron) MacKenzie was the eldest of five children born in Barbados to Charles Straghan MacKenzie and his wife Ella (nee Cole). His father was the co-founder of Charles McEnearney & Co.Ltd. Barbados - the first Ford dealership in that Caribbean island.
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Ron MacKenzie became my brother-in-law on 30 November 1985 when, as a young widow, I married his brother David MacKenzie. He and his lovely Canadian wife Agnes came to Barbados for the occasion. For most of the 22 years I was married to David, he and Agnes would come to our home at Bartletts and spend a few weeks each winter. Barbadian Ron never got accustomed to the long, freezing Canadian winters. Not only were Ron and Agnes a part of my extended family, we became close friends. Agnes and I exchanged letters and cards over the years, in between visits. Later, even after my divorce from David, we emailed each other. She was so in tune with everything, and shared many things about art, music and current affairs. Agnes was many years my senior, yet she and I connected and appreciated many of the same things. We shared a love for handicraft, and on each visit she would bring with her little treasures that she knew I would love to use when I made cards or other artwork. She gifted me with beautiful items that still grace my home in Holland today. They remind me of her and Ron.
Ron and Agnes lived in St. Catharines, on the Niagra Peninsula in Canada, where Ron was a well-known OB/GYN. Ron loved his warm island home Barbados. He grew up at their family home "Dalney" in Maxwell Coast Road, right on the beach where the Bougainvilla Hotel is now located. On his visits to the island, Ron loved nothing better than the daily sea baths, freshly fried flying fish, salt-fish cakes, and cold rum punch we would serve up. He was a kind, gentle and soft-spoken man, and they both were such a pleasure to host as house-guests. Sadly, after the last occasion they visited us, Ron became seriously ill, though we had no indication of it during his winter visit.
One day I got a phone call from one of his sons asking me to sing “Beautiful Barbados” for Ron, and to send the recording to Canada for him as soon as I could, as Agnes felt it would cheer him up through all his medical treatments. My brother Alan Sheppard kindly agreed to record me and the next day I went his studio “Gray Lizard” in Belleville and we recorded. I sang the harmony myself, son Phil Archer accompanied me on the guitar, Alan did the bass, percussion and mix. Together we made the CD and that same day I sent it off by FedEx to Agnes in Canada. This was 2001, before the days of digital music files, WeTransfer, YouTube and the like.
Sadly, Ron succumbed to cancer very shortly afterwards. It still makes me emotional to know that my family-produced recording was played as the finale at Ron's funeral in St. Catharines, Ontario, 29 July 2001. A true story of "little things mean a lot" and doing what you can, when you can.
When Agnes passed away in June 2023, I was touched that her family requested the same recording.
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The following obituary published by The Globe and Mail from Jul. 27 to Jul. 28, 2001 describes Ron's career and his contribution in the field of medicine and the arts in Canada.
MACKENZIE, Dr. Charles Ronald Straghan
Passed away quietly in the early morning, Tuesday, July 24, 2001 after a short, extremely valiant battle with cancer. Born in Barbados on March 17, 1924 he has been a treasure to us all his life and will be tremendously missed by his family and friends.
He came from the Barbados Lodge School to McGill University in 1942, graduating from medical school in 1949. He was a resident Obstetrician/Gynecologist at the University of Texas before moving to St. Catharines with his wife Agnes, sons Ron and John and daughter Barbara in 1954, to set up a private practice in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is lovingly remembered not only by his family and friends, but by thousands of patients who have been touched by his gentle and caring nature.
Dr. MacKenzie was the Chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Catharines General Hospital from 1964 to 1969 and the Chief of Gynecology at St. Catharines Hotel Dieu Hospital from 1983 to 1988. He is a Past President of both the Lincoln County Academy of Medicine and the Family Planning Association of Niagara. He is a member of the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecologists of Canada, the Lincoln County Academy of Medicine, the Ontario and Canadian Medical Associations and the Willard R. Cooke Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, Texas.
As an avid collector his lifelong interest in the arts lead him to the Rodman Hall Art Centre in St. Catharines, becoming a member of the gallery's Board of Directors in 1960. He was the President of the Rodman Hall Arts Centre from 1964 to 1969 and from 1974 to 1980 a member of the board of the Ontario Arts Council. In addition from 1980 to 1986, he was a Director of the Ontario Lottery Corporation. He leaves his loving wife Agnes to whom he's been married for over 50 years, son Dr. Ronald MacKenzie and his wife Kathy with children Kristine, Hal, Charles and Cole of New York, daughter Barbara Mahler and husband John of Aurora, son John MacKenzie and his wife Andrea with their sons Matthew and Scott of Barbados. Also brothers David MacKenzie and wife Val, Doug MacKenzie and wife Maureen and sister Bonnie Montagu, all of Barbados and brother Neil MacKenzie and wife Laura of South Africa.
The MacKenzie family would like to express their profound thanks to his doctors, Dr. Wayne Gruber and David Henry, both long and much respected colleagues and friends, as well as Dr. Janice Giesbrecht, and the thoughtful and caring staff of the Hotel Dieu Hospital. A service to celebrate Dr. MacKenzie's life will be held in THE HULSE AND ENGLISH FUNERAL HOME & CHAPEL, 75 Church, St. Catharines (905-684-6346), on Sunday, July 29, 2001 at 2 p.m. Interment to follow in Barbados at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Hulse and English Memorial Forest, for the greening of St. Catharines, or to a favourite charity.​
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Agnes MacKenzie
April 10, 1925 – June 5, 2023
OBITUARY
Our wonderful mother passed away in the early morning hours of Monday, June 5, 2023, just over a month past her 98th birthday. She was a remarkable woman and is remembered by many who loved her including son Ron (Kathy Kennard), their daughter Kristine (Andy Sargeantson) and sons Hal (Amy), Chuck and Cole (Maura) of New York and Chicago; son John (Andrea White), their sons Scott and Matthew of Barbados; and daughter Barbara (John Mahler) in Niagara.
Our mother had a great thirst for education and graduated with highest honours from the Montreal School for Girls where she had been awarded a scholarship. She went on to major in Botany at McGill University and ultimately was on the science faculty at Sir George William University, now Concordia University. Through a correspondence with a Girl Guide pen pal in Barbados she was introduced to her future husband Charles Ronald Straghan MacKenzie, a Barbadian who was attending McGill and who would ultimately receive his MD degree. After his residency in Texas, the now family of five moved to St. Catharines where Dad set up his practice in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Ron and Agnes rented a house adjacent to St. Thomas’ church on Ontario Street later moving to their new home on Marsdale Drive. The study of Botany and love for plants was an enduring source of fascination for our mother, her knowledge encyclopedic, this interest was a defining passion for her entire life. She loved gardens of all sorts and sizes and especially the natural gifts of a woodland setting, lichens, moss, barks, natural spring flowers hidden in the small forest behind her Marsdale Drive home. She gathered stray bird feathers of all colours and kept them in a little pottery piece in a pine chest downstairs. Likewise seeds and tiny bird nests that had been left after the eggs had hatched made up her collection. As an extension of her botanical interests there was the sister discipline, Zoology, and we as her children recall our science lessons gazing under the microscope learning of the single cell wonders in the samples of creek water from our back yard.
Agnes was an active member of St. Catharines’ Rodman Hall Art Gallery for many years running their yearly flower shows and events, setting up and buying for the gift shop and getting the art rental project off the ground. Her botanical lean translated to fabrics, textures, and all things twiggy or woven.
Amongst her talents she was an expert seamstress mastering the arts of smocking and fine tatting. She studied French hand sewing and lace making.
She also had a great passion for Canadian potters and ceramicists in particular the works of Tessa Kiddick and Kayo O’Young. Agnes and Ron also were great supporters of Canadian painters and gradually built a collection of their own which gave them great satisfaction. Further their passion for Canadian antiques was a hallmark of their Marsdale home with many pine pieces and timeless tableware.
Our mother was so many things to us. She tirelessly took us to years and years of music lessons and gently encouraged each of us to keep it up. Music has been a precious gift we all hold to this day.
She was a huge part of our lives, always present and interested in our lives. She had a long, active, and fulfilling life and she will remain in our hearts forever. There will be a private family ceremony in Barbados this summer where she will be buried next to our father.
Many thanks to the tireless, excellent 5th floor staff at the St. Catharines Hospital and to Dr. Scher and the palliative care team at Douglas Memorial in Fort Erie for their extraordinary care over the past month. Also we extend our gratitude to Dr. Wayne Gruber whose care for her over the years is here acknowledged with gratitude. Thanks also to the Hulse and English Funeral Home in St. Catharines for their warm attention and guidance.
And a very special thank you to Reverend Roderick McDowell, Deacon, St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Fort Erie, and St. John’s at Ridgemount, whose kind prayers helped ease her final journey.
Barbara Mahler, Ron and John MacKenzie, her children.