Obituary of Nora McNeel Hawgood

Nora McNeel Hawgood died peacefully in her sleep on January 8, 2024 in Middleton Connecticut. She was 100 years old.

She was born in St Boniface, Manitoba, Canada, in 1923, the fourth daughter of Ralph and Edna McNeel. She remembered a childhood of closeness with her sisters and cousins. During WWII she was a very active and much appreciated Red Cross volunteer in Ontario, Canada. In 1950, she married Ross Ballantyne. Later, they moved to the United States. Between 1952 and 1956, they had Duncan, Becky, and Lucinda. In the next 10 years, the family moved from Illinois to Connecticut, to West Virginia, to Gates Mills and then Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Nora gave these moves an air of exciting times ahead. She had a genuine sense of adventure. She was also formidable and a no nonsense woman. When she and Ross divorced in 1972, she took on three jobs to support her family. One was in real estate where she met and fell in love with Bill Hawgood. Bill had adult children, Chip, Grant and Lary Hawgood, and Lynn Lust. Nora and Bill hosted huge family gatherings and together they created an atmosphere of love and acceptance in the two families. They were a close couple and shared a deep connection to nature. With three labradors in tow, they hiked and canoed. They travelled to Africa and made hours-long slogs through the marshes of Sandusky OH so that they could reach remote duck blinds by dawn. Bill died in 1990.

In the 34 years since Bill's death, Nora lived between Chagrin Falls and Vero Beach FL. She then moved to Palm City, FL to be near her beloved son, Duncan, who died of MS in 2013. Nora moved to Essex Meadows in Connecticut in 2016 to be near her daughters, Becky and Lucinda.

Throughout her life, Nora drew strength and joy from her faith in God. She was a passionate mother and grandmother, whose love and interest and desire to help was never doubted. She had a creative nature and was a born interior designer, renovating homes through her many moves and sometimes designing evening dresses for her daughters. In the last forty years of her life, she greatly enjoyed painting. She was a person who saw what was funny in life and had a warm, spontaneous laugh. She was curious. At ninety-nine, she found the skulls exhibit in the Peabody Museum's human evolution room "fascinating!"

She is survived by her daughters, Becky Munro of Darien, CT and Becky's husband Dougal and her two children Katrina and Robert, and Lucinda Ballantyne of Cambridge, MA and New York City, NY and Lucinda's sons Paul and Peter LaFreniere, and by Duncan's wife and her daughter-in-law Melody Ballantyne of Stuart FL and their children Crystal and Spencer. Also, she is survived by Grant and Nancy Hawgood with their children, Lisa, Greg, Jason and Clark, and Lary Hawgood with his daughters Kelly and Laurie, and Theresa Hawgood, the wife of Bill's eldest son Chip, and Chip's children Jonathan and Megan, and David Lust and his and Lynn's children Kim, Debbie and Laurie. Nora remained close to her Canadian McNeel sisters Mary Miller and Jean Small and their children, Kit, Leslie, Bruce, Chris, Margaret, Cathy and Trisha.

An Episcopal funeral service for Nora will be held on Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 10.30 am at Wade Memorial Chapel, Lake View Cemetery, 12316 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, followed by interment. Additionally, a service to celebrate Nora's life will be held on Saturday, June 8, 2024 at 11.00 am at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 1864 Post Road, Darien, CT.