Obituary of Moyra Elizabeth Nicholson

Moyra Elizabeth Neale Seeger Nicholson 

July 24, 1931 - March 13, 2024

It's with great sadness and surprise that Moyra's family announces her death on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at the age of 92.

The sadness you can understand; the surprise because if anyone was tough enough to live much longer, it was our Mum.  

Moyra is survived by her four children Derek (Constance McCrea), Sarah (Mark Wolynice), Abby (Dale Thom), and Michael (Katrin Hasenjäger) and her grandchildren Mitchell, Emma, Amanda, Haley, Erica, Talia Joy, Callie, Jessica, Naomi, Elsa and great-grandchild Theodore.  She is pre-deceased by her brother Cecil (Monty) Mountcastle Seeger and her ex-husband David Edward Nicholson.

Moyra was born in Richmond Hill, Ontario but spent her childhood in Bournemouth and London, England with her brother Monty, mother Leticia Lillian (Neale) and father Norman Mountcastle Schofield Seeger - the commander of a British naval vessel during World War II.   

Moyra lived through part of the Blitz until she, her brother and mother left for the safety of Canada in 1940 on a passenger vessel that was followed the entire way by a German U-boat.  They slept every night on the deck wearing life-jackets.

After living with family friends and going to school in Toronto for a few years, her family relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia after the war where her father took charge of British naval forces in Canada. 

Moyra excelled academically and went to the University of Dalhousie's law school, where she met David.  She had her son Derek while completing her degree, graduating in 1952 at the age of 20.  She remains the youngest law school graduate in Canadian history.

Moyra was a working mom before working moms were the societal norm, but while still doing everything you could ever hope a mom would do for her kids.  After becoming a single mother in her mid 40s, she not only fed and clothed her children on a single income, but also sponsored needy families at Christmas time and supported multiple charities.  She hosted every holiday dinner for her extended family until her late 80s.  She was a voracious reader, wrote and read poetry, and could whip anyone at Scrabble with ease. 

Moyra loved her career as a lawyer for the federal government and worked full-time until the age of  82.    

As Senior Counsel in the Department of Justice at the Department of Agriculture and later the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, she prepared legislation and worked on priority files including those related to Mad Cow disease (many years before and after that issue hit the news).   She never called in sick, never took a vacation and went to work voluntarily every Saturday morning until her 70s.   

Moyra only started taking trips later in life when each of her kids started insisting she join their family vacations.   The highlight had to be when Michael and his wife sent her back to England in 2001, for the first time since leaving as a little girl, on board the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship, on the way to their wedding in Katrin's hometown in Germany.   The irony - you may note - was poetic.  She left England because of Germany, and only returned because of it too.  

Moyra was fiercely independent and lived on her own for decades.  To say she was tough is an extreme understatement.  Family members recall her stamping out a fire in her front yard with her bare feet...with no pain or injury evident or mentioned.  She broke fingers in a biking accident once and couldn't be bothered to get them set.   When she broke her first hip skating on the canal alone, she refused all help offered by strangers and got herself back to the Dow's Lake pavilion, up the stairs on and to a payphone to call her son Michael - all on her own!  He had to force her to go to the hospital!  When she broke her second hip, she walked on it at home for a week before getting a diagnosis.  She contracted COVID twice in her 90s and beat it down both times. 

In her final years, in a walker and then a wheelchair due to severe osteoarthritis and spinal fractures, Moyra would force herself to do exercises and take a few steps around her house - despite severe pain.  

She would never give up, no matter what.  

Through the incredible kindness and patience of her caregivers, she was able to stay in her own home until almost the end.  Our family will be forever indebted to Trish Gaston, Justina Gaston, Charmaine Archer, Theckla Silvera and several other wonderful women. 

If you're ever thinking of quitting something, please take a page from our Mum's book...and just keep trying. 

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Services in Moyra's honour will be held at the Pinecrest Visitation Centre, 2500 Baseline Rd, Ottawa.

Visitation:  11 am - 1 pm, Wednesday, March 20th.

Funeral service: 1 pm - 2 pm, Wednesday, March 20^th with interment and reception 2 pm - 4 pm.

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In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to one of the charities below that Moyra supported:

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Canada   https://action.msf.ca/  

Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind     https://www.guidedogs.ca/ 

Samaritan's Purse, Operation Christmas Child  https://www.samaritanspurse.ca/pack-a-shoebox/ 

The Ottawa Mission    https://ottawamission.com/