Passed away peacefully at Hope Street Terrace long-term care home in Port Hope, Ontario on the 30th of September 2026, at the age of 94. She was a cherished mother, grandmother and great grandmother, and her presence will be deeply missed.
Margaret Cecilia Rose Hughes was born in London, England on the 29th of December 1931 to Rose and Stanley Nettle. She and her brother Stan lived through the Blitz in London, and she retained a life-long habit of frugality and dislike of waste from a childhood lived during the privations of wartime rationing.
As an adult, she lived in Ealing, West London. Her passion was for education, and she loved her chosen profession of teaching, first as an elementary classroom teacher, and later as a school principal. She was a voracious reader and passed on a love of language and literature to her daughter Caroline, and to her grandchildren. She also enjoyed crosswords and word games.
In 1993, she and husband Morlais retired to the village of Penrhyncoch in Wales, where they lived many happy years at the heart of the small, close-knit community.
Family was hugely important to them, and they happily shared their home with Morlais’s father Tivey, and were generous in their support of other family members. They loved the frequent visits of their grandchildren, and were always welcoming to everyone. Margaret’s world was complete when her brother Stan and his wife, also called Margaret, moved in next door.
When Morlais died in 2018, Margaret came to Canada to live with her daughter Caroline and son-in-law Stephen in Blackstock, Ontario. This marked a whole new chapter for her, especially as it gave her the opportunity to live in close proximity with her grandchildren, and she embraced it with enthusiasm. She loved the natural beauty of Canada, particularly marvelling at the size and majesty of the trees, and the sharp contrast between the seasons. She also loved the small dogs that lived in her new home. Despite being a lifelong cat person, she adored the chihuahuas, calling them her “little treasures”, and derived great pleasure and comfort from their company. For their part, they were more than happy to sit beside her or in her lap all day.
In her final years, Margaret’s memory began to fail, but she still loved spending time with her family, always delighting in visits. She was kind to everyone she met, always grateful to the people who helped her, and maintained a positive outlook on life throughout.
Margaret was pre-deceased by her beloved husband Morlais, and brother Stan (Margaret), and is loved and missed by daughter Caroline and son-in-law Stephen, grandchildren Rhiannon (Vince), Christopher (Alina), Nicholas (Bianca) and Simon (Samantha), great grandchildren Benjamin and James, and special family friend Annie (Enzo), whom Margaret regarded as a daughter.
