Obituary for Mary Krucker (MacLennan)
Mary Krucker
The evening of March 24th, in her 90th year, Mary Krucker passed from breathing body to pure spirit. This months long passage was witnessed intimately by the members of her family who were able to be with her throughout this past half year thanks to the generosity of her son, Chris, and his wife Denise, who invited Mary to live at the farm after a summer in and out of hospital.
Mary was born to the Reverend Donald MacLennan and his wife, Margaret. She had three older brothers (Donald, Douglas and David) and enjoyed the special position of youngest sibling, and first daughter, for six years before her younger brother John’s arrival. Her family was warm, evangelical and outgoing, and enjoyed large gatherings, a strong connection to Pioneer Camp, and all forms of humour from puns, to shaggy dog stories, to practical jokes. In her last few years Mary loved to repeat to her descendants stories about growing up in Fergus (lots of snow and a public swimming pool), camping and fishing on Manitoulin Island with her mum, dad and Auntie (Mrs. Brown), driving across the country with her parents and younger brother, and short-sheeting the teachers’ beds at Branksome Hall — the private school she was invited to attend in Toronto to be a positive Christian influence.
Mary went to Normal School in Ontario and Michigan and received a First Class Teaching Certificate as well as a Bachelor of Science. She taught primary school and loved helping the kids who were struggling most. Mary moved to Montreal in the late 50s to work with high school students for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Her love of teaching reached beyond the classroom to include members of her husband’s Swiss family who came to Canada to learn English. She was known as a good listener: patient, encouraging and warm.
Mary met her soon-to-be-husband, Ed Krucker, at Ojibway, a summer resort in the Muskokas. He was the Swiss pastry chef and she was the home grown salad girl. They were married by her father in 1958 and bought a home in St. Bruno on the South Shore of the St. Lawrence where they had their three children — Fides, Andrew and Christopher. For the next few decades there were many moves that she facilitated with grace and precision — from Montreal to Quebec, back to Montreal, to Burlington, to North Bay, to Seattle (where she got her Masters in Family Therapy), back to Burlington and finally to Dundas. Through all these moves Mary preserved a strong sense of family for her children and husband and, besides substitute teaching in whatever city she had landed in, led Sunday school, volunteered for Telecare Burlington manning the phones, for Unicef at the card booth, on Autumn Leaf Performance’s board, and for Parkinson Canada. Mary gathered extended family around the Burlington pool, gardened a huge vegetable patch, took the whole family on ski trips, regularly attended the symphony and held Bible Studies in her Dundas home. In her teens she played basketball and canoed, and, just for herself, swam laps into her early 80s. She read her Revised Standard Version bible daily and had a prayer schedule that included not only family but friends and current events.
Mary is survived by nine grandchildren and their partners. She had strong relationships with each of them and took a keen interest in their post secondary education. She loved to cut out comics from The Spec and mail them to her G-kids as a way to keep in touch. Mary had two great grandchildren who proved to be of great comfort in her final months. She took a keen interest in the wellbeing of her nieces and nephews, and great nieces and and nephews, in both North America and Europe.
Mary’s faith in God was one of her defining features. It tempered and held her, formed her core. In the end it was hard for her to let go of life, not because she was afraid to meet God through the intercession of her Lord and Saviour Jesus, but because she had always been so very alive — kind, curious, engaged and strong. She never wanted a visit to end.
In lieu of flowers please send donations to: “St. George’s Church” Please mail cheques to 134 Emerson Street, Hamilton ON L8S 2X8. Call 905-540-1240 or email revpaulluth@gmail.com if you have questions about this process.
Due to pandemic restrictions there will be an invitation only service at St. George’s in the late spring once Hamilton is out of the grey zone.
The evening of March 24th, in her 90th year, Mary Krucker passed from breathing body to pure spirit. This months long passage was witnessed intimately by the members of her family who were able to be with her throughout this past half year thanks to the generosity of her son, Chris, and his wife Denise, who invited Mary to live at the farm after a summer in and out of hospital.
Mary was born to the Reverend Donald MacLennan and his wife, Margaret. She had three older brothers (Donald, Douglas and David) and enjoyed the special position of youngest sibling, and first daughter, for six years before her younger brother John’s arrival. Her family was warm, evangelical and outgoing, and enjoyed large gatherings, a strong connection to Pioneer Camp, and all forms of humour from puns, to shaggy dog stories, to practical jokes. In her last few years Mary loved to repeat to her descendants stories about growing up in Fergus (lots of snow and a public swimming pool), camping and fishing on Manitoulin Island with her mum, dad and Auntie (Mrs. Brown), driving across the country with her parents and younger brother, and short-sheeting the teachers’ beds at Branksome Hall — the private school she was invited to attend in Toronto to be a positive Christian influence.
Mary went to Normal School in Ontario and Michigan and received a First Class Teaching Certificate as well as a Bachelor of Science. She taught primary school and loved helping the kids who were struggling most. Mary moved to Montreal in the late 50s to work with high school students for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Her love of teaching reached beyond the classroom to include members of her husband’s Swiss family who came to Canada to learn English. She was known as a good listener: patient, encouraging and warm.
Mary met her soon-to-be-husband, Ed Krucker, at Ojibway, a summer resort in the Muskokas. He was the Swiss pastry chef and she was the home grown salad girl. They were married by her father in 1958 and bought a home in St. Bruno on the South Shore of the St. Lawrence where they had their three children — Fides, Andrew and Christopher. For the next few decades there were many moves that she facilitated with grace and precision — from Montreal to Quebec, back to Montreal, to Burlington, to North Bay, to Seattle (where she got her Masters in Family Therapy), back to Burlington and finally to Dundas. Through all these moves Mary preserved a strong sense of family for her children and husband and, besides substitute teaching in whatever city she had landed in, led Sunday school, volunteered for Telecare Burlington manning the phones, for Unicef at the card booth, on Autumn Leaf Performance’s board, and for Parkinson Canada. Mary gathered extended family around the Burlington pool, gardened a huge vegetable patch, took the whole family on ski trips, regularly attended the symphony and held Bible Studies in her Dundas home. In her teens she played basketball and canoed, and, just for herself, swam laps into her early 80s. She read her Revised Standard Version bible daily and had a prayer schedule that included not only family but friends and current events.
Mary is survived by nine grandchildren and their partners. She had strong relationships with each of them and took a keen interest in their post secondary education. She loved to cut out comics from The Spec and mail them to her G-kids as a way to keep in touch. Mary had two great grandchildren who proved to be of great comfort in her final months. She took a keen interest in the wellbeing of her nieces and nephews, and great nieces and and nephews, in both North America and Europe.
Mary’s faith in God was one of her defining features. It tempered and held her, formed her core. In the end it was hard for her to let go of life, not because she was afraid to meet God through the intercession of her Lord and Saviour Jesus, but because she had always been so very alive — kind, curious, engaged and strong. She never wanted a visit to end.
In lieu of flowers please send donations to: “St. George’s Church” Please mail cheques to 134 Emerson Street, Hamilton ON L8S 2X8. Call 905-540-1240 or email revpaulluth@gmail.com if you have questions about this process.
Due to pandemic restrictions there will be an invitation only service at St. George’s in the late spring once Hamilton is out of the grey zone.