Ulla Margareta Maynard

This piece is being written by Ulla’s husband, Bruce, and its purpose is to provide insights about Ulla as the person that I got to know so well, and love so much. But before doing so I will provide some basic information about her and her family. Ulla was born in New Delhi, India on November 15, 1935, of missionary parents, Carl Gustav Norden and Ella Norden (nee Carlson), both of whom have predeceased Ulla. Ulla has a daughter Anita and a son Matthew (Rosa). She has a sister Ann, a brother Carl (Barbara), and was predeceased by a sister Britt Marie (Glenn, deceased). She has many nieces, nephews and cousins living in Canada and abroad. She has a grandson, Danis, a granddaughter, Dainy, and great grandchildren living in Canada and abroad. Bruce’s brother, Larry (Doris), is Ulla’s only surviving brother-in-law or sister-in-law.

As noted, Ulla’s parents were missionaries in India, and Ulla and her sister, Britt Marie, were born there. The family returned to Sweden just prior to the commencement of the Second World War. After the war her parents were asked to return to India without their children. They refused to leave their children behind and ceased to be missionaries. Ulla became a hairdresser and worked in Stockholm. In 1956 her parents decided to emigrate to Canada where her father was promised a job in Toronto working for Goodyear, the company for which he worked in Sweden.

Ulla worked for a while as a hairdresser at Eaton’s department store and then decided to open her own hairdressing salon on Lakeshore Boulevard, which was called Ulla’s Salonette. The family lived in an apartment above Ulla’s Salonette. Shortly thereafter her father was laid off and Ulla’s Salonette became the main source of income for the family.

I worked for the Department of Defence Production and had just won a competition for Second Secretary Defence Production at NATO headquarters in Paris, France, and in early February 1962 I was in Toronto finalizing a project in anticipation of my move to Paris. My best friend Don Webster, who lived in Toronto, suggested that I should meet his new girlfriend, Joyce, and she would arrange a date for me. Heading to Paris as a bachelor, I told him I was not interested in a date, but he convinced me by saying that we could go to my favourite jazz venue, the Town Tavern, as a foursome, to listen to live jazz.

Joyce was one of Ulla’s customers and asked Ulla if she would come on a blind date. Ulla said she was not interested, but Ulla’s hairdresser staff convinced her otherwise, saying that she needed a break because she was working six days a week. When we arrived to pick up Ulla I did not even get out of the car, which was unlike me. We hardly spoke on the way to the Town Tavern. It was February 13, the day before Valentine's Day, and the parking lot at the Town Tavern was icy, so I took her hand to make sure that she would not fall. She said later that when she felt my hand hold hers, something started to happen.

We both liked jazz, and as we listened to the group playing some of our favorite Ella Fitzgerald pieces, something started to happen to me. This lady was getting to me and I did not want it. I said to myself I was going to Paris as a bachelor, end of story. So the engineer in me took over, and, searching for a way out of what I was feeling, I started to ask Ulla a lot of dumb questions. After a while Ulla and Joyce went to the washroom together, as ladies do, and Joyce told me later that Ulla asked her what was the matter with this guy, he is asking me all kinds of personal questions. By the end of the evening, we had fallen in love and I gave up on my dumb questions.

I returned to Ottawa and we wrote to each other and spoke on the phone a great deal. Ulla came to Ottawa to visit me and I introduced her to my friends. Once again, the engineer logic in me took over and I said to her, I should go to Paris to my new job and after a while you should join me in Paris. She immediately responded and said, you go to Paris and forget me. This was a tough lady, and I not only liked it, but I was also even more deeply in love. So, three months later, on May 19, 1962, we were married and left for Paris shortly thereafter on the Cunard ship line.

We had a wonderful honeymoon on board ship, and driving in our new Triumph TR 4 through Scotland, Norway, and Sweden to Paris. We spent three years in Paris and travelled throughout Europe. Our daughter Anita was born in Paris and my parents and Ulla’s mother came to visit us to see the new baby. Ulla had told me that she wanted us to have many children, but unfortunately, she had to have an emergency hysterectomy while we were in Paris.

We returned to Ottawa during the summer of 1965, and in 1966 we adopted our son Matthew. As a family we snowmobiled, snow-skied, water-skied and played tennis together as the kids grew up. In the early 1970’s we purchased property on Black Donald Lake and had a cottage built. As was typical of Ulla, whatever she had to do, she did, without hesitation, and we cleared the land together and decided where to build the cottage. We had many enjoyable years at the cottage and Ulla and I made many new friends. Matthew and Anita learned to water-ski, and Anita became a very good fisherwoman, routinely catching pickerel for our dinner. In addition to our summer vacations, we spent many Christmas seasons at the cottage, during which we cross-country skied around the lake and downhill skied at Calabogie Peaks. We sold our cottage in the summer of 2021, having decided that as we got older, it was just too much work for us.

Ulla loved dogs. When I met her, she had her own dog Cognac, a miniature poodle and as a family, we had Fawn, a Cocker Spaniel, and Baron and Colonel, both Golden Retrievers.

Ulla was very good at whatever she chose to do. Being Swedish, it did not surprise me that she was a natural cross-country skier. I introduced her to downhill skiing, which I had been doing since I was a child, and she quickly became a better skier than me. She was a fabulous cook, which showed up on me as I gained far more weight than I should have. She took some basic lessons in watercolour painting and quickly became a very good painter. Early on in our marriage she sewed many of her own clothes and made a robe for me which I still have. When she saw her sister, Britt Marie, knitting, she decided to try it. She then knit many Norwegian style sweaters, one of which I still have.

We lived in five different locations in Ottawa, and wherever we lived, Ulla always made new friends. When we moved to our Metropole condominium in August 2005. Ulla joined the condominium aquafit group called The Mermaids, and she made many new friends through that membership, as well as through the various social activities at the condominium. One of her Mermaid friends said that Ulla always had a smile and made other people laugh. Another one said that the world needed more Ullas.

Ulla was diagnosed with lung cancer In January 2022 and underwent radiation treatment during the spring of that year. The oncologist said that they had managed to destroy the cancer in her right lung but that they would continue to monitor her left lung which showed some abnormalities. The doctor said that it did not appear that the cancer had metastasized. However, in the spring of 2023 she began to have discomfort in her abdomen, which turned out to be the result of the cancer having spread. The doctors advised that they could not treat the cancer due to the degree and areas to which it had spread, and Ulla’s age, which was 87.

She received palliative care at home for about a month which included excellent pain management, and then as a result of a low blood count she had a blood transfusion at the General Hospital, and she remained in the hospital for several weeks. She was in a hospital room with three other patients and notwithstanding her own situation, she made it a point to ensure that the other patients were being looked after properly. She received excellent care in the hospital, and they ensured that any pain or anxiety that she encountered was dealt with quickly, but the cancer continued to take its toll and she soon found it difficult to walk, even with the help of a walker and nurses beside her.

She was transferred to the Saint Vincent Hospital on Friday, August 11, 2023, and although bedridden, she was feeling quite well. Anita, Matthew and I and Matthew’s wife, Rosa, individually and together were with Ulla most of each day, as was the case when she was in the General Hospital. We had long talks with her and she had visitors and spoke on the phone with friends on Saturday and Sunday. However, on Monday she started to have difficulty keeping her eyes open and staying awake. She lost consciousness on Tuesday, August 15, 2023, and remained unconscious until she died on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. I was by her bedside when she passed away peacefully.

Ulla received excellent palliative care at home, at the General Hospital and at Saint Vincent Hospital. The doctors and nurses worked hard to prolong her life and ensure that she did not suffer from pain or anxiety, including when she was not conscious.

 Visitation will be held at Beechwood Cemetery on Wednesday September 6, 2023 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. followed by a memorial service and reception.

In lieu of flowers donations to the General Hospital, Civic Hospital, Queensway Carleton Hospital or Saint Vincent Hospital would be appreciated.