Catherine Deacon

Catherine Josephine McInaw Deacon departed her earthly form on January 13, 2021 and is resting comfortably after a life well lived. Known as Grammy to most, her greatest joy in this life was her family — wife to Charles Deacon; proud mother to Jim and his wife Vera, Challie, Nancy, Patty and her partner Tony, Patrick and his wife Melissa; grandmother to Annaliese and her husband Brian, Rachel and her partner Sam, Joanne and her husband Mike, Julie and her husband Sean, Chris, Natalie and her fiancé Jack, Tyler and his wife Jordan, Jess and her husband Eric, Allie, Jenny, and Patrick Junior; great grandmother to Avery, Paige, and Deacon. Grammy was the heart and center of every family gathering, and her absence will be deeply felt. Born and raised in Ardsley to Nellie and George McInaw, Grammy also joins her sister Helen, her brother Anthony, and her husband Charles Deacon in eternal rest. Our Grammy will be remembered for her tenderness, her wit, her beauty, her fabulous sunglasses, and her encyclopedic memory. She always had a story to share and a neighbor to catch up with, especially for the few decades she spent at her home on Central Avenue in North Hills. Grammy loved to garden like her father, and was a dog whisperer, beloved by all animals. She was a safe haven and a loving mother to anyone who needed her, and accepted everyone with a hundred thousand welcomes, as they were, with unconditional love. Grammy was delicate but strong, hardheaded but mellow, a great conversationalist and an exceptional listener. She heard us all, held us all, carried us all in her heart. The Deacon clan wishes her slán abhaile, safe travels home, where she is already dancing on the other side. We love you forever, Kate, Kitty, Mom, Grammy. Thank you for being the center of our family. “Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!” -Henry Scott Holland Due to current restrictions, a private family service is planned, and Catherine will be interred with her parents at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.