Ellen Marie "Molly" Couse

ELLEN MARIE “MOLLY” COUSE It is with great sadness that Michael and Scott Couse and their families announce her peaceful passing on 01 April 2021 after a short hospitalization in Barrie’s Royal Victoria Hospital.  Seldom called Ellen Marie, Molly was 95 years old and would have celebrated her 96th birthday on June 30, 2021.  She was the last-surviving and second youngest of the Greatest Generation of a family of 4 girls and 1 boy from Cookstown Ontario. She was predeceased by her husband and our father Austin Keith Couse in 2008. Molly was born on the family farm just southeast of Cookstown Ontario to Arthur and Josena Kidd. Not long after her youngest sister’s birth the family moved the ½ mile into Cookstown from the farm. She grew up in Cookstown and graduated in 1943 from the combined Cookstown Public and Continuation School. She was a faithful attendee with her family at the Cookstown United Church. Molly had very fond memories of going on trips to Toronto with her Dad who was, among his many occupations, a drover. She enjoyed assisted him when he turned on the streetlights in Cookstown every evening. She also worked at her Dad’s Shell Station on Main Street in Cookstown pumping gas and performing the bookkeeping duties.  In 1943 she moved to Barrie and worked as a secretary and proofreader at the Barrie Examiner and later performed secretarial and accounting duties at Clarke and Clarke Limited’s Barrie Tannery.  As she grew up in Cookstown she always knew our father as one of the “Couse Boys” in town.  After Keith returned from his WW 2 RCAF Service their life-long romance began. She stood by him and with him while he spent 5 long years in hospital being successfully treated for tuberculosis. She knew he was “the one for life” for her.  After they married in 1952, they settled in Toronto. Molly worked at the Coleman Lamp & Stove Company as the Secretary to the Chief Accountant and then had her sons Michael and Scott. In 1957 they moved way out to suburban Scarborough. Molly was active as a full-time mother in the growing community and an alto in the choir at St. Mark’s United Church. In 1963 she began volunteering in the Admitting Department at Scarborough General Hospital. Her volunteering led her to being a Board Member for the Victor Home for Unwed Mothers, a Director of Volunteers and Chair of the Scarborough Mental Health Council, a member of the Board of Governors at Scarborough Centenary Hospital, Chair of the East Region for the Family Service Association of Metro Toronto and a Board Member of the Ontario College of Optometrists.  She accomplished these things but still managed to be home in time to make our family dinners. In 1978 she moved with Keith to Saskatoon and then Regina Saskatchewan where she volunteered in many areas and departments of the University of Saskatchewan Hospital and then Regina General Hospital before they returned in 1990 to retirement and their new home in Egbert Ontario. She then joined the volunteer program at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie and spent most of her time working in the Emergency Department, as a convenor for Emergency Liaison and serving on the Auxiliary Executive as Membership Chair.  She had a full Rolodex!  In the RVH Emergency Department she was known as the “Candy Lady” to the staff, emergency personnel, paramedics and patient family members who came into the department when she was on duty. She loved wrapped candy and always had a supply available for others (and herself) that she willingly distributed.  In 2014 when she retired from volunteering at the RVH she received a Certificate of Provincial Life Membership in the Hospital Auxiliaries Association of Ontario during a special ceremony at the Awards Dinner in Toronto.  Molly was a great and loving spouse, mother, mother-in-law to Diane Linstead (Michael) and Linda Lee Couse (Scott), Gram and Grandma to granddaughters Alison, Andrea and grandson Seth, aunt and great aunt, cousin, friend, and confidant. Immediate and extended family and friends were always first.  She loved big band music, show tunes, listening to live music, singing in the choir and other places, attending theatres, shopping, travelling, reading novels, working on the Kidd Clan’s history, and listening to the CBC were she always current on the news of the world.  Her spirituality carried her forward, and she was always modest about her many lifetime accomplishments. Her onset of dementia and some medical issues over the past few years slowed her down but did not deter her spirit and good nature. She always wanted the best for everyone, was a friend to all, and tried to be her own best as well. We were lucky to have her and will love her forever. Our family would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Doctor J. Lai and all the nursing team members from the RVH Cancer and Palliative Care Unit who provided her with such exceptional care, dignity, and compassion over her nine-day end of life journey. Cremation has taken place and Molly will be interred next to her husband Keith on Saturday May 8, 2021 at 11:00 in the Couse family plot located in the Alliston Union Cemetery. Due to Covid-9 restrictions this will a private grave-side ceremony with limited attendees but will be available for live stream viewing through a link on Paul F. Kent’s Funeral Home’s Website:  https://www.paulfkentfuneralhome.ca/.  When international and national travel restrictions are lifted, we plan to hold a Celebration of Molly’s Life in the Barrie/Cookstown area. If you wish to honour her memory, please send a donation in her name to the RVH Foundation:  https://foundation.rvh.on.ca/supporting-rvh/memorial-giving, or a charity of your choice.  No flowers or plants, please.

If you wish to view the Graveside Service for Ellen “Molly” Couse. Please go onto our Facebook page Paul F Kent Funeral Home. The Livestream will begin at 10:45am. 

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