Marta (Hrdlickova) Korecky passed away peacefully on July 22, 2024, surrounded by family. Up until the end, Marta maintained her kindness, grace, compassion, appreciation of travel and music, love of family and friends, and expressed gratitude for her long life, full of wonderful and varied experiences.
Marta is predeceased by her husband, Borivoj (Borek) Korecky and survived by her son Martin, grandchildren Marla (Jack) and Mike, and great-granddaughter Maxwell, as well as by her daughter Judy (Doug) and grandchildren Cate, Alex and Ella.
Marta led a full life that began in Decin (then Czechoslovakia) and then Prague until her early 30s, when she and her small family fled the Communists and moved to Ottawa and a better life. Marta began work as a pediatric and orthopedic surgeon in Prague and switched to pediatrics when she re-licensed in Canada, working both at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and at her own private practice. She was a caring and dedicated doctor who was much loved by her patients and their families and became on many occasions the pediatrician of her former patients' children.
Marta loved to travel, visiting over 50 different countries on all continents except for Antarctica, mostly with Borivoj. Travel highlights include Ayers Rock and Sydney Opera House in Australia, Iguazu Falls in South America, Taj Mahal in India, the Great Wall of China, the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg (later a long-standing member of the Canadian Friends of the Hermitage), Carnival in Trinidad, and not least her trip to Africa and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with close friends from her dear and long-standing Czech community in Ottawa who became like an extended family to her. One of her favourite stories to tell was that this group of mid-50s Czech-Canadians made it the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, while other younger travellers who had previously questioned the older group's abilities were not successful themselves.
Marta also loved the performing arts and was a long-time subscriber to the National Arts Centre and Metropolitan Opera Live and enjoyed going with family, friends and even by herself to concerts, ballets and operas. Among her favourite performances were Louis Armstrong at the Capital Theatre in Ottawa and the Barber of Seville at the Sydney Opera House. Marta also loved to read, in particular Agatha Christie and other detective novels, transitioning to TV detective shows in her later years, and in the same vein loved to solve her Sudukos. She loved playing cards, and played to win.
Marta (Babi, as she was known to her grandchildren) was devoted to her family above all else and her favourite memories were times spent among family, including at the family cottage at Blue Sea Lake, cooking for family and hosting sleepovers with the grandchildren and picking them up from daycare and school regularly to have as much time with them as possible. Marta also stayed close with her nieces and their families in the Czech Republic, visiting them often and always looked forward to those visits and trips.
Marta was a trailblazer in many respects and lived her whole life on her own terms. She has touched many people in Ottawa, the Czech Republic and countries around the world and is fondly remembered as a lovely, wonderful, generous dynamo of a woman. We will miss you with all our hearts.
Marta will be memorialized privately by her family at this time. The family asks that friends, acquaintances and colleagues take a moment to reflect on their favourite memories of Marta.