Ana Maria (Sanchez y Carrillo) Thompson was born in Havana Cuba on May 8th 1935. Her childhood home shared a common courtyard with the homes of numerous uncles and aunts and cousins. Her grandfather, Don Pedro, was at centre of it all. She adored him, frequently conspired with him to ignore the horn of the early morning school bus, and learned to share his love of grand opera.
She cycled and swam with her cousins, learned the basics of ballet and became a student of Greek mythology. Hers was a world of the Cuban upper middle-class: servants in the home, a governess, private school, the Havana Yacht Club, and education in French and English as well as her native Spanish.
When Ana was eleven her parents divorced and her world changed. School was now, for Ana & her older sister Tété, St.Anne’s, an Episcopalian boarding school in Charlottesville Virginia. She loved learning, and was named to the high-school All-Virginia field hockey team.
From St. Anne’s Ana went to Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts where, in her first month, she met John, a Canadian at nearby Amherst College. This was the start of her seventy-year odyssey with John. She married him in Amherst, and went with him back to London Ontario. She took a job as a medical secretary to help pay for medical school, followed him for his further studies in Durham North Carolina and London England, and then, finally, settled for good back in London Ontario, where John began his medical practice. Along the way she and John became the parents of Nana, Andrew, and Ian. For all those many years – ten in all – she was effectively a single parent, making their growing household and their marriage work.
In the years that followed, Ana was the centre of it all. She learned how to run a home, to cook and sew and shuttle the kids and their classmates to school in a VW van. She made countless dolls and embroidered hangings. She translated her children’s drawings into latch-hooked rugs and transformed the yard into a flower garden for three seasons. Ana read voraciously – especially the classic English mysteries of Dorothy Sayers and Josephine Tey. And she loved all things medieval – unicorns in particular.
Ana radiated love to all who knew her. Home was a centre of warmth and refuge for her children’s friends – the cookie box was replenished daily. She welcomed two nephews, Robby and Pat, when their mother died. Nana brought Sergio into the family and, later, the first grandchildren, Nadia and Stefan. Ian brought Wendy and they added Cole and Riley. Andrew and his daughter Shaelyn, completed the picture.
Later she went back to school, worked as a library assistant, and then managed John’s office. All the while, Ana and John learned to play together – sailing a dinghy, running each morning, cross-country skiing in the years when there was snow. Once the kids were old enough, Ana and John explored England and Europe, on bike and on foot. They cycled across Canada and returned several times to follow the paths to Santiago de Compostela. To live, play, and love together was the goal.
Most importantly, Ana loved unconditionally and forgave lavishly. When she found that dementia was slowly robbing her of the ability to engage with her world, she had the courage to leave it on her own terms. She died, quietly and at peace, at home and, as always, surrounded by her family, on June 20th2024.
A memorial service will be conducted at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church, 280 St. James St. at Wellington, on Monday, September 16 at 10 am. Reception to follow in the Parish Hall.
To view the service online, click the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81293120661?pwd=Tkk5MFpxYWs3aWIrQUxWM0E4TGdzQT09
Donations to support the free food pantry of St. John the Evangelist Church in London would be welcomed.