Catherine Finn recently died in her sleep in Toronto at 72-years-old. She is survived by three siblings, three sons, six grandchildren, and one awesome obituary.
Finn's obit ran in papers including The Globe And Mail and The Peterborough Examiner. It described her as a woman of "sharp wit and steely backbone," as well as a voracious reader "and a fearless defender of the world of ideas."
One of her ideas related to her love of writing, according to the obit.
"A connoisseur of words, she would want you to know that she always believed Margaret Atwood was vastly overrated and Margaret Laurence equally underrated," it said.
Whoa, backbone indeed.
"Mom wanted an interesting obit and we tried to honour that," her son, Patrick Finn, told BuzzFeed Canada. "She always talked about the Atwood / Laurence thing - though to be clear, she still liked Atwood and had read all her books."
Finn said he drafted some of the obituary the night she died. Then he and his two brothers finalized it together.
"We were trying to channel her voice and not impose our own," he said.
Catherine's strong views extended beyond the legendary Margarets of Canadian literature. She apparently really loved the CBC and really hated our current Prime Minister.
"In lieu of donations," the obituary said, "Catherine would want you to do everything you can to drive Stephen Harper from office, right out of the country, and into the deep blue sea if possible. Also, she would like you to fix the CBC."
Finn said his late parents were both politically engaged.
"She voted issues, not party, but was profoundly disturbed by the Harper Government’s impact on Canada," he said. She was also not a fan of Justin Trudeau, who she felt was unelectable, according to Finn.
As for the CBC, "She was a big believer in an informed public and saw the CBC’s degraded condition as a problem."
Finn said the obit has been getting a lot of positive reaction from friends and family. One person who signed an online guestbook said the obit "made me laugh out loud and I wanted you to know how much I admired it."
