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Henriqueta ("Kathy" or "Quety") Duarte
February 1, 1933 - February 8, 2015
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<div itemprop="description">Henriqueta (Kathy) Duarte was born on February 1, 1933, in Barcelona, Spain, to Alicia Diez Rodriquez of Cuba and Ramon Mateu Aguilar of Barcelona. As a young child she witnessed the horrors of the Spanish civil war. In 1945 her family moved to live in Azores, Portugal. There she eventually studied to be a school teacher. Antonio (Tony) Duarte met Kathy while taking English lessons taught by Alicia. Tony and Kathy fell in love and they married in 1956. Kathy gave birth to their daughter, Ana, in 1958, and then to their son, Tony Jr., in 1960. <br /> <br />Tony Sr. moved to Wabush, Labrador, Canada, in 1964 and Kathy following a year later with Tony and Ana. They lived in Wabush until Tony Sr. was hired by Memorial University in St. John&rsquo;s, Newfoundland in 1970. The family moved to St. John&rsquo;s and eventually Kathy, too, was employed by the same University as Secretary of the French and Spanish Department. Kathy was fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French and English. In the university she found the ideal home for her love of languages, teaching, literature, and culture. She was loved by faculty, staff and students. <br />In time, she was hired to teach Spanish courses and could not have been happier for it. <br /> <br />The loss of Tony Sr. in 2000 devastated Kathy but with the help of a caring community of family, friends, neighbours, and co-workers she was able to fashion a life on her own. She embraced the teaching for which she was called. She taught university Spanish courses for some 25 years until her declining health convinced her to move to Ontario in 2010 to be closer to her family. <br /> <br />Kathy loved her family deeply. She welcomed her children&rsquo;s spouses (Gary and Belva) as if they were her own children, and she treasured her four grandchildren (Meghan, Erin, Maria and Jacob) beyond description. She was determined that her family would enjoy the childhood and opportunities that war had taken from her and she herself never lost a child-like wonder of the world and playfulness. She saw love, kindness and beauty everywhere and she expressed it herself in her poetry, cooking, gardening, extraordinary embroidery and other craftwork, teaching and entertaining. While the Alzheimer&rsquo;s she had in more recent years took with it some of her abilities to do the things she so enjoyed, it did not dampen her passion and she remained an extraordinarily happy, loving and generous person who simply enjoyed the good company of a kindred spirit. <br /> <br />PLEASE NOTE: <br /> <br />You are welcome to sign the guestbook to this website or share a photo of Kathy on this website. <br /> <br />Kathy's daughter, Ana, and son, Tony Jr., have organized an open memorial for Kathy in St. John's, Newfoundland. This event will be held at the following time and place: <br /> <br />Memorial University of Newfoundland <br />R. Gushue Hall (Junior Common Room, Formerly the Faculty and Staff Club) <br /> <br />Saturday, April 4, 2015 <br />11:00 a.m. followed by a reception with light refreshments. <br /> <br />All are welcome. No RSVP is necessary but for planning purposes if you know you will attend please let Tony know by e-mail at tduarte@on.aibn.com. <br /> <br />In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the nursing home who looked after Kathy with great care during her illness: <br /> <br />St. Joseph's at Fleming Foundation <br />659 Brealey Dr. <br />Peterborough, ON <br />Canada K9K 2R8 <br /> <br />Attn: Jason Ross <br /> <br />Please put &quot;In Memory of Kathy Duarte&quot; on the memo line. <br /></div>