Obituary of Maureen Hodgins

Back in the 1950s, just after the war ended, Maureen Hodgins (then Maureen McHale) was putting the final touches on a project for her Kirkland Lake high school art class — a piece that would be entered into the annual Northern Ontario student art competition in Timmins.

Her classmates, she recalled, were a little critical and maybe a little intimidating.

“I looked at my work and said, ‘oh God,’ so I did a dry brush. It looked like a snowstorm. It was a combination of techniques, they said... oh, they (her classmates) were mad when I won first prize.” The adjudicator was Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson.

Maureen — the reluctant artist, the devoted wife, the loving mom, the perfect grandma and new great grandma — passed away Aug. 21 in Sudbury at the age of 91. She will be sorely missed.

The art show win may have surprised her, but it shouldn’t seem out of place to those who have seen her creative side over the years. As a teen, she worked in a photo studio hand-colouring black and white photos. She took classes in pottery and welding. She was a natural seamstress — her dressmaking skills were highly regarded. In the ‘80s, she made Hudson Bay coats for family and friends, relishing the search for hard-to-find materials needed in their construction. She could hang wallpaper like nobody’s business and was quick to help others if a room needed paint or windows needed curtains. In her later years, she made quilts and quilts and more quilts.

Maureen was a teacher by trade. She left Kirkland Lake to attend Teacher’s College in Ottawa and found roles in classrooms all over the province; first near her Ottawa Valley ancestral home of Douglas; in Belleville she learned sign language to teach at Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf; and in the late 1950s she landed a teaching job in Copper Cliff, ON where she would meet her husband, Bill. They were a perfect match. Together, they raised four children in Sudbury, but retirement sent the two of them back to the Ottawa Valley in 1982 where they both had familial roots. They enjoyed their retirement in Douglas. Bill passed in 2013 and Maureen would spend her final few years back in Sudbury, close to her three oldest children.

She is survived by her daughters Kelly Schofield (Dennis) and Maureen Fortier (Dave), and her sons Michael (Lauri), all of Sudbury, and Bill in Peterborough. She was well-loved by her grandchildren Kathleen, Karly, Jesse, Jake, Matthew and Ben. She recently welcomed great-grandson Graham Hodgins. She is also survived by her sister Norma in Memphis, Tenn., and countless nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her parents Frank and Shirley McHale, and her brother Bud. Donations can be made to the Renfrew Victoria Hospital Foundation. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in Douglas on Saturday September 28th at 11:00 am. Interment parish cemetery.