Catherine Loutitt: For Charity Never Faileth

Catherine Kathleen (Kay) Loutitt, fondly known as Kay or Cookie, was born on February 18, 1932. She grew up on the trapline at Embarras Portage and later moved to Fort McMurray. Cooking was Cookie’s passion, and she nurtured the community with it.

Catherine Loutitt, also known as Kay or Cookie in 2014.

In 1972, Kay took a job cooking for children under a Government-sponsored program. Kay went to work pulling grandchildren on a sleigh or pushing them in a stroller.

Many little kids in Uranium called Kay, ‘Grannie.’ Kay was also part of Métis Local in Uranium and Fort McMurray.

Elle Mayer-Johnson spoke of Cookie’s acts of nutritional kindness during a community celebration in 2016.

“There was no hot lunch program for five schools in Fort McMurray. So, Cookie made bannock and homemade soup. We sent envelopes to the school, which went home with the children,” she said.

“The parents that could afford the $20 a month put the money in the envelope. It would come to us sealed with the child’s name on the front. If it came back with no money in the envelope, we knew what families couldn’t afford it. Tickets went into all of the envelopes and back to the schools. So, the schools didn’t know who got free lunches.”

Kay is shown surrounded by her children and grandchildren at the Nistawoyou Friendship Centre in Fort McMurray, 2016.

Family and friends said Cookie taught the Seven Sacred Teachings best by how she lived and committed to quiet acts of charity that impacted many lives. Cookie’s benevolence is the substance of her legacy to her posterity: A life full of genuine examples.

A proverb says: “Children follow what they see more than what they hear.”

Doing ordinary things can make extraordinary differences even in the quiet corners of the kitchen. Cookie spent her entire life making a difference with one act of kindness at a time.

She peacefully passed away with her family at her side on February 28, 2018, at the age of 86 years.