Mayor Al McDonald led a moment of silence at Monday's City Council meeting, in memory of Eva Wardlaw, who passed away Monday morning.
The flag at City Hall has been lowered to half-mast, as the citizens of North Bay mourn the passing of a beloved community leader.
Click here for more coverage of Mrs. Wardlaw.
Cindy McGuinty O'Hare, Mrs. Wardlaw's daughter, was in good spirits Monday evening despite an emotional day. Separating the woman from the educator, politician and administrator, McGuinty O'Hare said that Mrs. Wardlaw's life revolved around her grandchildren and family.
"We have a group of orphaned children, kids who live in North Bay whose parents are no longer with them, there's five of them, they've had Christmas dinner, Easter dinner, Thanksgiving dinner with us for the last five years.
"All of them call her Yiayia, which is Greek for 'grandmother,' so the five (orphaned children), plus her three grandchildren and their girlfriends were up at the hospital Sunday night. There were twelve of them, and my mother was holding court, and they were enjoying the stories she was telling them," McGuinty O'Hare said.
"They got a real kick out of one story she was telling about dating Tim Horton. She went on two dates with Tim Horton, and when she got home from the second date, he had given her a hickey on the neck. Eva looked at him and said 'I'm a good girl, and I'm having none of that,' and she broke up with him."
Mrs. Wardlaw was a teacher, and later, the principal at Paul Davoud school on the base. The ex-students have a Facebook page to keep in touch, and McGuinty O'Hare posted an update about Mrs. Wardlaw on Saturday, and within an hour had received 70 responses. "It blows me away that after 40 years they all still remember her so well."
Mrs. Wardlaw's legacy was rooted in the community with the naming of a Lakeshore area park in her honour, in 1997. She had been a long-time board member of the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority.
Mayor Al McDonald, who had a close relationship with Mrs. Wardlaw, shared that "Eva would always say to me, 'You are my favourite mayor, but I like your wife Wendy more, she is such a sweetheart.'"
"Mayor McDonald tried to see my mother Monday morning. Patti Fedeli has dropped off so much food that I might need to buy another fridge. Everybody in the community has been just amazing." My mother would have been honoured by the tributes she's been getting, offered McGuinty O'Hare.
Mrs. Wardlaw, twice widowed, is survived by her two daughters, Cindy and AnnaMary, and three grandchildren Alex, Callum and Averie.
Coun. George Maroosis, whose father was first cousins with Mrs. Wardlaw, indicated that she "was always positive. She disliked negativism. She always believed in being positive and putting your best foot forward (at Council). She was very professional, very persistent."
"The thing that I admired the most about her was her fantastic people skills...You had to be careful if you crossed her (though), she was an eloquent speaker" Maroosis added in memoriam.
