On December 10 th , 2023 our loving mother, Ann Gloria Maillet (Gillis), 78, was received into the loving arms of our Saviour. Ann was born on April 1, 1945 in Southwest Margaree in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to Peter and Catherine Ann Gillis.

Ann left her beloved island at the age of 18 and emigrated to the United States, landing in Waltham, MA and started work in various factories, including the Waltham Watch Factory. Ann quickly found her calling as a Nurse’s Aide for the majority of her life, immeasurably touching the lives of her many patients with her endless kindness and generosity.

Ann also had great wit and a wicked sense of humor, as evidenced by the stories she would share about growing up in a small rural community in Canada, attending a one-room schoolhouse as a child. It is there that she so often found herself sent to the corner after instigating mischief.

To know Ann was to love her and we hope that her spirit of kindness, love and joy of life will inspire those she knew to find the beauty in the benign and to never be too shy to tell someone you love them.

Ann is survived by her first-born, Karen Saisa, son Shawn Maillet (Gina), daughter Cheryl MacMillan (Craig), grandchildren Olivia (David), Ben, Athena, Natalie, Shania, Jack and great-grandson Leo. Also survived by siblings Donald Gillis (Florence), Lorraine Jones, Jimmy Gillis and Margaret Maillet, as well as many cherished nieces and nephews. In eternal life she joins her loving parents, sisters Mary, Caroline and Sandra, brother-in-law Lawrence and nephews Stephen and Roger, and niece Corrina.

All family and friends are invited to join in a Celebration of Life for Ann on Saturday, December 16 th from 3pm-8pm at the Canadian American Club, 202 Arlington St Watertown, MA 02472. A funeral mass and burial will take place in the summer of 2024 in her hometown of SouthWest Margaree.