With great sadness, we announce the passing of Helen Carol Kosokowsky. Our wife, mother, and grandmother was a passionate caretaker of those she loved, her manicured gardens, her countless furry friends, and local bird populations. We will miss her unique sense of humour coupled with her infectious laugh, which would almost always catch you off guard.

Helen was born in Winnipeg in 1938 and raised in Kitchener, where she excelled as a student at St. Mary's High School. Her older brother Wally was her ticket to weekends in Grand Bend with her "gang" of girlfriends, where they spent summer days on the beach and the evenings dancing and laughing the night away.

After high school, the embers of a lifelong love of travel were lit when she ventured around the booming Great Lakes' region. She settled in Detroit, where she began work and met her future husband. Norm was soon enveloped by her elegance, beauty, and youthful enthusiasm, and they married in1961 in Windsor.

Shortly after the birth of their first child in 1962, they moved to Oakville, where they would raise their three children. Her life was soon happily filled with hockey games, music lessons, tutoring her children, and of course, numerous pets. Every year involved either a family trip to Florida "with the kids" or somewhere further south with Norm once the school year started. Jamaica, Barbados, Hawaii, and Curaçao were definitely highlight destinations.

Later, Helen worked at Woodside Library, where she enjoyed interacting with anyone who shared her lifelong love of books and reading. She continued looking out for animals in need, whether they were rescues, the 50+ ducks who came to be fed during winter months, or the critters who would eat the spoils of her garden. She believed every animal had to be fed, and she readily supplied as much as they wanted.

Helen favoured live entertainment, often attending theatre performances in Stratford, Niagara-On-The-Lake, and Toronto. Her love of live music started in her late teens after seeing Elvis at Maple Leaf Gardens, after which she never hesitated to catch her favourite performers (even a few of her children's too!) when they "came through town." Baseball was her favourite live sport, and she was an avid supporter of the Blue Jays. You could always count on an unvarnished review of her travels or anything she attended. As everyone who knew her would know - she would always politely (sometimes not!) but firmly speak her mind.

Helen is already sorely missed by her husband Norm, her children Gary, Gordon (Kerry), Gayle (Sam), and her three beloved grandchildren.

We would like to thank the attentive and talented physicians and health care teams at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital and the palliative care unit for their kindness.

Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to Oakville and Milton Humane Society, Covenant House Toronto, and The Arthritis Society.

Visitation will be held at Kopriva Taylor Community Funeral Home in Oakville on Monday, December 27, 2021, from 3-6 pm.