Karen Potter

Karen Adele Potter Obituary

Karen Adele Potter passed unexpectedly on Tuesday, 14 January 2025, at the age of 73 in Ottawa. She was much loved and will be sorely missed by her family including her husband of 39 years, Glenn, three children and their spouses, Gregory and Andria, Kirsten and Riley, and Aili and Conner, mother-in-law, Ragna, and her grandson and apple of her eye, Oliver. Her beloved dog, Dusty, also misses her terribly.

Karen was born on 30 September 1951 in Toronto to Una Margaret Potter (nee Sievert) and Donald Sherlock Potter. She is survived by her siblings, Margaret, Steven, Jeffrey, and Rena, as well as many nieces and nephews. She is pre-deceased by her brothers Dennis and David.

Karen had a keen intellect and could pick up and learn how to do almost anything. This led to her having a very eclectic and interesting career. Throughout her life she filled many roles, including as a bank teller, as an administrator for the Toronto City Morgue, as a nanny for her nieces and nephew, as a teacher of computer applications such as word processing and spread sheets where she taught most of Canada’s astronauts, as a contract technical writer for several companies, as a newspaper carrier, and most recently working in retail at the Tin Cup Express in Stittsville.

Karen had a tremendous ability to get along with people. This was reflected in her close relationships with her customers, her friends, and especially her children and their friends- a lot of her children’s friends knew her as “Mum”. She had a very strong sense of ethics and empathy and passed those on to her children. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for her children and family. Most recently her new pride and joy was her little, baby blue car that let everyone know where she was.

She had an uncanny knack for getting into strange and funny situations. She is one of the few people “in the world” to get peed on by a grown tiger. That happened at the Toronto Zoo when she didn’t notice that the tiger was getting agitated and then sprayed/scented her. Another time she took her then boyfriend, Glenn, on a moose hunt at midnight in her 67 Plymouth Barracuda, in winter, in Algonquin Park. She knew how to show him a good time.

She had many interests and hobbies and was always starting new projects. Lately she had a renewed interest in knitting and quilting, but she also did gardening, weaving, pottery, painting, and reading.

A memorial will be held for Karen on 25 January, 2025 at the Alan R. Barker Funeral Home in Carleton Place between 12pm – 3pm, with Words of Remembrance beginning at 1pm.

In lieu of flowers she would appreciate a donation to the Alzheimer Society of Canada in honour of her late father.

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