When Marilyn Blight was born, she was not a healthy baby. After her birth on June 11, 1946, her parents took her home to Simcoe, where she struggled to keep food down for the first year of her life.
But her will to live was strong.
The eldest of three sisters, Marilyn was especially close to Gerrie, born 13 months later. The two did a lot together, even sometimes dressing the same. Patti, who came along nine years later, recalls Gerrie being the driving force behind their activities and that Marilyn would happily follow her.
Marilyn passed all her high school exams with flying colours, even Grade 13 Latin. She went on to do a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work at McMaster University before shifting gears. She started Hamilton Teachers' College in 1968 and lived in residence for her first year. After that, her family moved to Rockcliffe survey in Waterdown, allowing Marilyn to commute to her classes from home. The carpool to teacher’s college was where she met her soon-to-be best friend, Gwen Kirkpatrick.
While at university, Marilyn developed the arthritis that she coped with for the rest of her life. Having to handwrite the comments on pupils’ report cards could be challenging and she even had a finger ligament snap once while she was writing, as the arthritis progressed into her hands. She was determined not to let it stop her; she wanted to keep walking and doing things, insisting that “other people have it worse” than she did.
Marilyn never complained about her pain and disliked the word “disabled”.
“Miss Blight” spent over 30 years teaching pupils at Flamborough Centre, Millgrove, Balaclava and Dundana schools. Marilyn was very passionate about her teaching.
“Her pupils were really, really important to her and she was very involved in everything that was going on at the school,” said Gwen, noting her friend is remembered as a caring, dedicated teacher. Former students would approach her on the street and say, “Miss Blight, I still remember you.”
While teaching a unit on “Transportation” at Balaclava school in the 1970s, Marilyn contacted CHML Radio to see if their traffic helicopter could land at the school so her pupils could take a look at it. CHML agreed, and even went one better and took Marilyn up for a spin.
Outside of teaching, family was of the highest importance to Marilyn, closely followed by her friends. For many years, she had Hamilton Tiger-Cats season tickets with her father and Marilyn travelled widely in Europe with her mother.
Marilyn was also an active, enthustiastic community volunteer. She helped with local political campaigns and volunteered at Animal Adoptions of Flamborough. She and Gwen worked at the front desk for blood donor clinics for over 40 years. Marilyn was also very involved at St. James United Church.
She was an avid reader and had a whole collection of Agatha Christies. Her brother-in-law, Peter Laycock, would give her paperback mystery novels and carefully rip out the last few pages so that she was not tempted to read the ending before the beginning.
A lifelong Mickey Mouse fan, Marilyn was thrilled when Patti bought her a five-foot tall stuffed Mickey Mouse for Christmas. Similarly, Marilyn’s dream trip of a lifetime was going to Disney World in Florida for her 60th birthday. Even an unfortunate fall at the airport didn't derail her trip: when paramedics wanted her to get checked out in hospital Marilyn refused firmly, insisting that she was going to go to Disney World.
Marilyn had a "thing" for purses, and no trip to The Bay was complete without browsing through the handbags on display. Chocolate was another favourite. One year, after announcing that she was going to give up the treat for Lent, Gwen found her eating a box of chocolates. Marilyn’s indignant response: “I said I was giving up chocolate, not chocolates!”
After the death of her father, Marilyn and her mother moved into McGregor Village in Waterdown, where she served on the condo board for 12 years. At Christmas, she would make sure any neighbours with nowhere else to go were at the Blight dinner table.
She loved decorating the house and dining table for special occasions, but Christmas was the most important. She loved giving people gifts, going shopping and seeing the holiday lights. The house would be adorned with items from the 30 boxes of decorations stored in the basement and brought out each November.
Marilyn took early retirement in 2000 and kept very busy with her volunteering. She continued her existing commitments and also started driving for the
Red Cross. She and Gwen also became very active with Retired Teachers of Ontario; in 2014, they were recognized for their years of dedication and hard work with RTO.
Once Gwen retired, they went on some fantastic trips together: Paris/Rome, Egypt, and an Alaska cruise. In Egypt, Marilyn was very keen to go for a camel ride but, because of her worsening arthritis, it was decided that it would be safer for her to just sit on a camel instead. The camel started to stand up while she was on its back. Everyone else was panicking, but nothing dimmed Marilyn’s big grin. In Alaska, Marilyn tried salmon for the first time and discovered that she loved it; she also enjoyed visiting a sled dog farm where she got to cuddle the husky puppies.
With support from caregivers Suleeka Nuh and Farrah Mursal, Peter and Patti, Marilyn continued living in McGregor Village, even as her arthritis progressed and
increasingly restricted her mobility. She gathered around her a group of neighbours who would meet weekly for coffee and a chat. For next-door neighbour Connie Rusynyk, these gatherings spoke to Marilyn’s “caring, kindness and sense of humour.”
Marilyn passed away at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington on September 25, 2024, leaving a multitude of memories of a strong, tiny woman with a big heart for others.
