Unaffected, kind, her joy was doing the right thing
Jackie Mattson of Kitchener Born: July 30, 1931 Died: July 26, 2017, of cancer
She had a huge heart. She once took in the pets of a homeless man who couldn’t care for them himself, because he was living in his car.
She took in a Chinese university student, who had been charged with manslaughter, so he wouldn’t have to go to jail. He stayed with her for a year.
That was Jackie Mattson of Kitchener, who died last Wednesday after a short struggle with cancer, a few days short of her 86th birthday.
“She loved to open her heart and house to people,” said her daughter, Ingrid Mattson.
Jackie was born Jackie Abbott in Preston, now part of Cambridge. Her parents owned a candy store on King Street near Cameron Street in Kitchener.
She married Joseph Mattson, a Kitchener alderman with a largerthan-life personality. When he died unexpectedly 43 years ago, she was left to raise seven children on her own with little money.
“She looked at the highestpaying job she could find, which was at Schneiders meat processing plant on Courtland Avenue,” Ingrid said.
“She took the 3 to 11 p.m. shift so she could get us off to school.”
Tim Flannery, a Kitchener lawyer who was close friends with the family for many years, described Jackie as “a saint.”
“She just took the bull by the horns” after her husband died, he said. “The family worked together as a team and she co-ordinated it.”
The children grew up to become accomplished adults. Three — Hal, Peggy and Mark — are lawyers. Ingrid is a university professor of Islamic studies. Kristine is a food scientist and Peter is vice-president of a major corporation. Mark is also founder of the environmental advocacy group Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and a close friend to Robert F. Kennedy
Jr.
Jackie’s youngest child, Joey, died in a kayaking accident in 1994.
Compassion was a hallmark of Jackie’s personality. After Hal — now well-known as a colourful, outspoken criminal defence lawyer with a soft spot for the underdog — set up his practice in Kitchener, Jackie started to manage his office.
In 2004, Hal represented Yushan Hu, a 22-year-old student from China, studying math at University of Waterloo, who had been charged with manslaughter in the death of his roommate.
He was considered a flight risk while waiting for his trial, and the government wouldn’t allow his mother to come from China to look after him, so Jackie stepped in.
At the age of 72, she agreed to be Hu’s surety and have him stay with her. They checked in every day at the police station and she became like a surrogate mother for Hu.
“If one of my kids were over in China and were in the same situation, I hope someone would have enough decency or heart or humanity to help him out,” she said. Hu was later acquitted of the charge. When Jackie’s children were growing up, the family home on Roy Street in Kitchener was full of interesting things, “like a museum,” Ingrid said.
“Every time we asked a question, she would say, ‘I don’t know, let’s look it up,’ and we would go to the Encyclopaedia Britannica or the library,” Ingrid said.
Jackie believed in richness of ideas but simplicity of lifestyle.
She loved a good party, but couldn’t abide a “keeping-up-with-the Joneses” mentality. Her children wore second-hand clothes even when Joseph was alive and they could afford to buy new things.
She was thrilled to meet Pope Francis — noted for his compassion for the poor — with Ingrid a few years before her death.
The family cottage at Brophy’s Point on Wolfe Island, near Kingston, never had indoor plumbing installed. The family would spend all summer there.
“We would just fish, swim, go out in the woods, out on the boat,” Ingrid said. “Living the simple, happy life.”
On the weekend, Jackie was buried in the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic cemetery on Wolfe Island.
Donations may be made to the Jackie Mattson Memorial Fund at Conestoga College through the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home at www.erbgood.com.