Obituary of Coral Diane Arsenault

Born January 26, 1932 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Died peacefully in Brockville, Ontario October 16, 2018 surrounded by her family and friends.  Wife of Pierre Marcel, deceased May 14, 1994. Beloved mother of Michelle, Diane, Elaine, Sylvia, and Madeleine. Much loved grandmother and great-grandmother. Coral grew up on the west coast of British Columbia. She married at 19 and moved to Montreal in 1952 where her daughters were born over the next ten years. The Arsenault home on Ile Bizard is fondly remembered for family meals, crafts of the 60’s, cross-country skiing and country life. Coral lived in Morocco and the Cameroon with Pierre for three years in the early 80’s where her adventures there resulted in the cornucopia of stories which she would retell to her very last day. In 1985, Coral and Pierre moved to Brockville where she lived an active life up until her eighties. She played golf, shared her love of gardening with her friends and neighbors on Murray and Church streets and never learned to make meals for less than seven people.  Coral was a volunteer in Grade 2 for Mrs. Burns for several years and could still teach cursive writing and explain phonics to her grandchildren; in the pre-computer age of the 90’s, she would type the children’s stories on a large typewriter, her typing course of the late 40’s holding her in good stead. An avid hand-quilter, she has given over 20 quilts to her family and friends since 1999. Her health had been declining slowly for the past several years but she remained independent in her own home with the support of her friends, family and neighbors. She accepted her imminent passing with exceptional grace, saying “We’ve had a great journey.” Her Grandson Darren wrote: “Today I kissed my Nana goodbye for the last time. She looked up at me with a smile and a wink and said.  ‘Don’t be so sentimental.’ She was usually sweet but when she wasn’t it was definitely because she’d been provoked. You get tough raising five daughters, largely by yourself. But you get sweet too, and she was both.”

Donations in memory of Coral can be made to the Canadian Aid for Chernobyl fund or your local Palliative/Hospice Care Foundation.

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/4594

https://www.imakeanonlinedonation.org/bdhfoundation/index.php