{"id":82963,"date":"2026-04-30T20:37:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=82963"},"modified":"2026-04-30T20:37:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:37:43","slug":"balash-kathleen-mary-kay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/30\/balash-kathleen-mary-kay\/","title":{"rendered":"BALASH, Kathleen Mary \u201cKay\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>She left us peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, April 23, 2026, at the age of 88.<\/p>\n

Born to Wallace and Annette Verner in the Saguenay region of Quebec, Kay grew up with her sisters Frances and Muriel, and the \u201cThree Sisters\u201d remained very close throughout their lives. She moved to Toronto as a young woman and raised her sons; Dan, Garry, and Michael. A pillar of strength, courage, and resilience, she saw them through some difficult times. Always, her boys were her first priority. In Toronto, she met her true love, Bill Balash, and with him came a step-son, Rob, and two step-daughters, Judy and Marilyn. Kay enjoyed a long career at Bell Canada, but caring for her family was her true calling and passion. She loved gardening, crafting, cooking, and celebrating with her family and friends.<\/p>\n

Following early retirement, she travelled the world with Bill and volunteered for several causes. After Bill passed away, she moved to Wawa to live with her son Garry and daughter-in-law Maria in a beautiful home on the shore of Lake Superior. In 2024, she moved to Sault Ste Marie, where she joined the Collegiate Heights Community. She made friendships that impacted her in such a positive way, especially her tablemates, Audry and Verna.<\/p>\n

Kay is lovingly remembered by her sons Dan (Maggie), Garry (Maria), Michael (late Anne) and step-son Rob (Sue); step-daughters, Judy (late Dugald) and Marilyn; granddaughters Dana (George), Meghan (Josh), Hannah, Emma, and Daphne; step-grandsons James (Kirstin), William (Adrianna), and Cameron; and step-granddaughters Rachel (Luc), Krystal, Melissa, Holly, Coral, and Kayla. Great grandma of Mikayla, Sarah, Kalle, Lily, Hudson, Ava, and Aiden. She will be deeply missed by many nieces, nephews and friends, especially Enza and Mario Presta, and Ann Fenlon.<\/p>\n

A Celebration of Life will take place at a later date. Memorial contributions (payable by cheque or online) to Women in Crisis Algoma (https:\/\/womenincrisis.ca\/) in honour of \u201cKay\u2019s Kitchen” will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks to the wonderful staff at Chartwell Collegiate Heights and the Sault Area Hospital Unit 3B for their care and compassion. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be made at www.arthurfuneralhome.com<\/p>\n

\u201cQuand le soleil dit bonjour aux montagnes<\/em>
\nEt que la nuit rencontre le jour<\/em>
\nJe suis seule avec mes reves sur la montagne<\/em>
\nUne voix me rappelle toujours\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She left us peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, April 23, 2026, at the age of 88. Born to Wallace and Annette Verner in the Saguenay region of Quebec, Kay grew up with her sisters Frances and Muriel, and the \u201cThree Sisters\u201d remained very close throughout their lives. She moved to Toronto as a young …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":82964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,2663],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-obits"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 20:39:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82965,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82963\/revisions\/82965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}