Wendy Helen Isaac
June 30, 1960 - February 17, 2026
Our dear Wendy took her last breath in the loving presence of her husband Mark, her siblings and in-laws, at home in Winnipeg on Tuesday February 17, 2026
The fact that Wendy was able to spend the last 7 weeks at home was very much due to the attention to detail provided by the Palliative Care team on the 8th floor at St B during the month of December. There they fine tuned her medication and installed upgraded hardware to help her eat normally despite her esophageal cancer. After that, the highly capable nurses that came by the house regularly made a huge difference in our quality of life.
Wendy’s mother Lyn left us just over a year ago, and her father Phil, in June of 2021. They were cared for in their own home by Wendy’s oldest sister Jane, a retired ER nurse, who came to play an important role around our household as Wendy’s health deteriorated more recently.
Wendy leaves her spouse and musical partner of 38 years, Mark H. Block, and her devoted feline Lucy to imagine life without her. Lucy was a bit of magic that happened in a way referred to by cats (when they’re discussing us humans) as a “rescue”, wherein Lucy rescued Wendy when she needed it most. In August of 2023 we’d just lost our 15-year-old Maine Coon named Zelig, and his best cat pal and daily visitor Lucy simply took over, moving into our house from the neighbours 6 doors up the street and spending her time sticking close to Wendy. The owners admitted Lucy had not been happy at their home, as Lucy and her sister were continually battling, so they offered to let us keep her, and we’re so glad we did. She is currently rescuing Mark from a loneliness that would otherwise be just plain unbearable.
For the record (regardless of whether mentioned above or below) here are the family connections, including departures, in a single hopefully concise string:
Wendy was predeceased by her parents, Phil and Lyn Isaac; by Elaine Courchene, the mother of Dawn and Jaimie-Lyn; by her mother-in-law, Dolores Block; and by her great-nephew, Hunter Mackie (son of Chris Mackie).
She is survived and deeply missed by her husband, Mark Block, and her father-in-law, Bill Block.
The Isaac Family:
Jane and Craig Mackie: children Chris, Robin (Tamara) with Mairin and Magnus, and Mike (fiancée Deb) with Lachlyn (mother Nicki).
Peter Isaac and Natalie: Peter’s daughters Dawn (Chris) Isaac/Penner with Sasha and Nikolai, and Jaimie-Lyn (Chris) Isaac/Fehr with James.
Sarah and Cary Chapnick: children Simon (Nikki) Chapnick with Linden and Levi, and Gillian (Kevin) Modzden with Adelaide and Olive.
The Block Family:
Merle Block: children Reece, and Lane (Paola) with their son Camilo.
Denise Block and TJ Evens.
Chris Block and partner Ron Lee: and her children Olivia and Artemis.
Wendy was a passionate and inquisitive student of songwriting and performance. After her BA in Geography from U of W, she attended Universite de Laval for graduate work and spent an increasing amount of time getting to know Quebec City, improving her French and playing guitar. It was during this period she began to understand that her muse — the songwriting and singing she’d been drawn to — was now becoming more of a focal point. And it’s not like this was a recent thing: at age 7 or 8 her piano teacher suggested she get a better class of musical instruction and referred Wendy to the highly accomplished Victor Davies, who promptly put Wendy on a regimen of one original piano composition a week. That lasted about 2 weeks, with Wendy later in life acknowledging it had been a little too much pressure, given her age.
The rest of her pursuits, which included gardening, watercolours, weather, metalwork, cryptic crosswords, sailing and politics, were always taken to with a degree of devotion that seemed to guarantee she would outperform the average amateur, which was all she ever claimed to be.
On the singer/songwriter font, CBC paid Wendy and her band members Union scale in 1995 to record her stellar album ‘Garden’. She and Mark opened for Sarah McLachlan at the Pyramid (aka Spectrum) in the 90s and had earlier done the same with Wendy’s ‘Budding Messiahs’ for the Parachute Club.
Where metalwork is concerned, if you see any stainless-steel envelope shaped mailboxes around Canada and the USA (especially those that made their way to Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Calgary and Toronto), there’s a good chance the parts for these were de-burred and then riveted together by Wendy herself.
As a young sailor, she became the first teen female to compete at the national level at a certain regatta held in British Columbia. During 8 years while spending 6 months a year on Florida’s Gulf coast, she taught Mark more about sailing than he could learn in an average lifetime in Manitoba. After he graduated sailing school (for which Wendy was an occasional volunteer) Mark found a 22 year old Cal27 for a bargain and they fixed her up so she could pass the insurance inspections and provide them with endless hours of day sailing in and around Boca Ciega Bay at their club on the waterfront of Gulfport FL (where John Prine, one of Wendy’s songwriting idols, lived just down the street), Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
As an all-round research consultant and occasional facilitator, Wendy partnered with her recently departed sister-in-law Elaine Courchene Isaac numerous times in the last 3 decades on workshops and papers pertaining to the First Nations and Indigenous topics Elaine and her mother Mary Courchene were often called upon to provide.
Where politics was concerned, Wendy was an ardent and faithful Canadian, a promoter of pluralism and equity, a campaigner for fairness and the kind of progressive values that puts Canada head and shoulders above so many places that don’t bother trying. In late 2014 she started first one and then switched to another anonymous Twitter account where she applied herself to understanding and commenting on burgeoning fascism, reading everything she could get her hands on by Timothy Snyder (now at U of T), Nancy MacLean, Carol Cadwallader and a legion of other folks paying attention to the same topics. In what seemed like no time she’d accumulated several thousand followers, focusing increasingly on Manitoba and Alberta (faux) conservatism and then the anti-vax movement, culminating with the ‘convoy’ that Heather Stefanson welcomed in front of the legislature; then somewhat suddenly, Wendy abandoned Twitter when Elon took over the helm.
Thanks so much to the wonderful staff at Cancer Care, Palliative Care and much love to the skilled health teams on 6E and 8A at St Boniface Hospital. Donations may be made to either of the two Care organizations listed above.
Music and Video:
Wendy Isaac Link: https://nimb.ws/XQyHit4]
To leave your condolences and
memories please go to:
https://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/passage-details/id-335476/ISAAC_WENDY%20HELEN
Branch & Pyre Cremation Care