T’is the winter of our discontent (Part A)…

Don’s wife Kathy passed away yesterday afternoon. I didn’t know her well. I’ve known Don since the first day I stepped into the UofA Radio rooms in the old SUB in September of 1964. I didn’t need to know her well to know she was a rock and a lantern.

I say this because of my knowledge of Don. He is one of the top litigators in Canada. He was a brilliant Managing Partner of the law firm he was a member of for eons (before the mandatory retirement/buyout). He has donated copious amounts of time to legal causes of people who just didn’t seem to be listened to within the justice system. He helped groups of Veterans, he championed individual cases. At an early stage in his career he mediated an end to a major prison uprising. He made sure I always had good legal council. In off hours he was a kids’ coach, a fan of minor pro baseball and still is a season’s ticket holder of the B.C. Lions CFL football team. He wouldn’t have been able to do half this had he not had a strong and focused wife. She was his support, she was his counter-balance, she helped him see ways forward. One small example: she wasn’t a football fan but she made sure he had time to be one as a way to get beyond the legal mindset. Whenever Don talked about her it was with reverence and gratitude and deep love.

She succumbed to a very aggressive form of pancreatic cancer that also attacked her liver and bones. She had had breast cancer but as recently as November was again given the all-clear from the medical team. In the new year she went to the ER because of extreme dehydration and the visit surprised everyone when the discovery of this new cancer was made! I grieve for my good friend; but, I also grieve for myself because I never got to know Kathy Sorochan really well. She will be missed, if for no other reason, than she was such a strong support and companion to my good friend Don.

As always,
g.w.