A celebration of life is tentatively set for Jan. 7 at Port Moody city hall to honour a Freedom of the City recipient who died yesterday.
Ann Kitching passed away at Crossroads' Inlet Hospice Centre Tuesday night — two days before her 85th birthday — leaving behind a daughter, Rosemary, son-in-law, Regan, granddaughter, Anna, and sister, Jennifer, in her native England.
Mayor Mike Clay asked for the flags at city hall to be lowered after he received news of her death, before last night's city council meeting started.
"It's a sad day for Port Moody," said former city councillor and longtime friend Gerry Nuttall, who noted Kitching will be remembered for her community activism especially in the field of the arts.
Last month, the Port Moody Arts Centre — of which she was its past president — honoured Kitching with a gallery in her name; recently, it also introduced the Ann Kitching Bursary for young artists. And before the Christmas break, PMAC also plans to hang a portrait of Kitching (painted by friend Adrienne Peacock) in its atrium — a facility Kitching helped to fundraise that links the arts hub with a heritage home.
PMAC society president Valerie Simons said Kitching "lived every day. She will forever be part of the society."
Nuttall, who had tea with Kitching nearly every morning, said Kitching was also proud of the embroidery project she created with some 400 volunteers as part of the city's 100th celebrations; that work is on display at city hall.
As well, she was pleased with the gathering space she and Nuttall had opened this fall with the Port Moody Seniors Friendship Society. "That was dear to her heart," he said, adding, "Ann was always working. Even though she knew she was not going to be around, she always had a project on the go."
Kitching was known for bringing people together, Nuttall said, and "was always the first to put up her hand."
Fellow artist Rose Kapp, who worked on the stitching project and on the PMAC board with Kitching, said her friend had the ability to get people motivated.
Friend David Bassett, who was also on the PMAC board with Kitching, concurred.
"She was a very persuasive woman and was regarded very fondly in the community," he said. "She had the same energy as someone 20 years younger."
Her feistiness — and good-natured humour — came out during a city council meeting in September when she waved her key to the city before Clay, who had bestowed her with the city's highest honour in 2013.
During her delegation, Kitching gave council an earful about the state of the City of the Arts, a term she and Elizabeth Keurvorst coined 15 years ago to spur the arts and tourism.
In an interview with The Tri-City News a week later, Kitching said she was checking off her bucket list and had no regrets.
According to city records, Kitching moved to Port Moody from Montreal in 1978 and, until her retirement in 1997, was a senior college administrator. She had a bachelor of science degree in math from Concordia University and an M.A. from McGill University. She had also worked in the United Arab Emirates.
Kitching told The Tri-City News her biggest accomplishment — besides her family — was gathering an "unbelievable collection of friends. I think I am the luckiest person in the world."
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
