Obituary of Barbara Jane Bain (née Watt)
Barbara Jane Bain passed peacefully on June 8, 2019 at the age of 80 due to complications from Alzheimer’s. She was born in Timmins on Valentine’s Day in 1939 and raised in Oshawa along with her three brothers.
Barb graduated from the Ottawa Civic Hospital School of Nursing (Class of 1960) and the University of Western School of Nursing, and then worked at the Hospital for Sick Children before her long and happy marriage to Dr. Harry Bain.
They retired from Toronto to the south shore of Lake Nipissing and, after Harry died in 2001, Barb moved into North Bay where she found community and support with her Living Fit group. Barb loved gardening, bridge, birding, baking blueberry pies, hosting epic dinner parties, travelling with friends, volunteering and walking fast and far every day.
After her diagnosis, she returned to Toronto to be closer to family and lived independently at Briton House for several years before transferring to their excellent memory care floor. We are grateful for the wonderful care and kindness that Barb received from Briton House, where she died with dignity while surrounded by family.
Barb is the much-loved mother of Jennifer and her husband Rick MacKenzie, and Michael and his wife Jennifer Wells. She is the loving grandmother of Sandy Bain (Britt Ziegler) of Regina — and was close to his mom Jennifer Bain (Ron Mang), also of Regina — as well as Lucy, Kate, Gillian, Archie, Hazel and Charlie, all of Toronto. She is the proud great-grandmother to Calla Katy Bain of Regina. Barbara is dearly loved by her brother Jim Watt and his wife Merridy of Peterborough, and her brother Bill Watt and his wife Susan Murphy, of Vancouver. She had a loving extended family and a wide circle of lifelong friends, including the nursing girls, friends in Sioux Lookout, extended family at Clear Lake/Cache Bay/Balsam Lake, Hamiltons, Christies, Baileys and Latimers. Barb was predeceased by her infant sister Catherine Ann, brother David and parents Dr. William Gordon Watt and Lillian Watt (nee Alkenbrack).
She was able to donate her brain to the Maritime Brain Tissue Bank for research and will be cremated and buried alongside Harry at a rural cemetery near Lake Nipissing, where the Bain family loved catching pickerel.
A celebration of life is planned for October 12, in North Bay. Further information is available under the Services tab located on her homepage.
To share memories or make donations to the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada or the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care, please use the donations tab located on her homepage.
