Carol Patricia McLaughlin
March 1, 1951 — January 30, 2025
Carol Patricia McLaughlin of Toronto, beloved wife of Dan Diamond, passed away peacefully at Toronto General Hospital on January 30, 2025.
Carol was born on March 1, 1951 and was proud of the fact that she was raised on a farm. She loved being a cog in the wheel of a big family on a small farm near the village of Plumas, Manitoba. Growing up as a farm-kid on the prairies meant hours of working hard and playing hard, working indoors and outdoors, in the garden, in the fields or in the barn, along with lots of time and freedom for creativity and games with your siblings & cousins. Money was always tight, winters were long and cold and summers were full of adventures. Carol’s precious spare time in teenage years included working Saturday nights in the local cafe to earn spending money, playing baseball with the “Plumas Blue Jays” and hanging with friends.
Carol’s love of animals probably started on the farm, with an assortment of pets that included dogs, cats, horses, crows and a magpie.
After high school graduation, Carol was ready to take on the world and made the move to the big city of Winnipeg. She gained employment with a bank in Winnipeg with the hopes of being able to be witness to a bank robbery. That didn't happen and she took her nurse’s training at Misericordia Hospital and built a life in Winnipeg, but often returned home on weekends to her hometown. Her younger siblings adored their beautiful, worldly sister and loved it when she came home.
Carol graduated as an RN from Misericordia General Hospital in Winnipeg in 1971 and earned the honour of Rose Ball Queen in the annual Misericordia Rose Ball. Following graduation, she worked as a Nurse Therapist at Youth Psychiatric Services at the Health Sciences Centre macde some life-long friends. Carol’s love of baseball meant that she continued to play while living in Winnipeg, and it was on the baseball diamond in a fun mixed league where she first met Dan.
When Carol left Winnipeg, she moved to Montreal and attended McGill University, before moving to Toronto to join Dan. Initially Carol worked at Toronto Hospital for Sick Kids, and later started a successful soup stock business (The Stock Pot) with her friend Judy Hume with whom she eventually worked as a real estate agent in Toronto.
After being together for 12 years, Carol proposed to Dan and they got married in a lovely backyard ceremony at Dan’s parents’ home in Winnipeg in June 1990. They would go on to enjoy just shy of 30 happy years together in Wychwood Park, Toronto’s first Heritage Conservation District.
Carol was active in community and was recognized for her hard work in support of the adaptive re-use of a century-old streetcar repair facility that is now a community cultural hub known as the Artscape Wychwood Barns.
A love of adventure and travel was important to Carol who travelled extensively in Europe, Asia, South America, Egypt and across Canada. In later years Carol loved to return to the seaside Mexican town of Puerto Morelos. The family “Loch Clan” cottage at Twin Lakes Beach on Lake Manitoba was a treasured destination every summer, and was the perfect place to reconnect with family and friends.
How can we best describe Carol? Confident, direct, honest, principled, fun-loving, mischievous, quirky, open-minded, outgoing, intelligent, creative and classy for a start! People underestimated her not at their peril but by doing so, deprived themselves of friendship with someone who was smart, loyal and tough to fool. She was a legend to siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. She loved playing with and “tormenting” her nieces, nephew and young cousins with scary stories, games and wild experiences, while they screamed and laughed and came running back for more! She created unforgettable memories with so many people and her stories and stories of her will carry on forever.
Carol is survived and remembered by her loving husband and life-partner, Dan Diamond, sisters Sharon Kunzelman, Kathryn McLaughlin (Larry Harder) and Janice McLaughlin (John Caister), brothers Robert McLaughlin and Hugh (Valdine) McLaughlin, brother-in-law Bernie Wright and her adored pet parrot Kasuku and crow Joker. She is also lovingly remembered by her nieces and nephews and many treasured friends.
Carol was predeceased by her parents Wilfred McLaughlin and Susan (Rempel) McLaughlin, parents-in-law Harold and Estelle (Tiny) (Smith) Diamond, sister Alison McLaughlin, brother-in-law Robert Kunzelman, nephew Vincent McLaughlin and treasured pets.
Cremation has taken place and a Celebration of Life will be held at 11 am on Saturday, March 22 at Hillcrest Christian Church at 2 Vaughan Road in Toronto. In lieu of flowers, it would honour Carol’s memory if, instead, you donated to the Hillcrest Community Food Bank using this Canada Helps link: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/51557
This takes you to a donation form for the church. Toward the bottom of the form you have the option of specifying “IN HONOR OF.” Please enter “FOOD BANK for Carol” in this location and your generosity will find its way to this vital community resource.
Messages and condolences may be left at www.cremationalternatives.com. Please visit Carol’s obituary notice on Facebook.